Alaska
Alaska Airlines flight attendants to vote on second sellout contract deal
Alaska flight attendants: Tell us how you’re voting on this tentative agreement and why by filling out the form below. All submissions will be kept anonymous.
More than two years after contract negotiations began, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) has announced a vote on the latest tentative agreement (TA) reached by the union leadership and Alaska Airlines.
Rank-and-file workers soundly rejected the previous TA in August by a vote of 68 percent, with a high turnout of 94 percent of the 6,900 flight attendants in the bargaining unit. Flight attendants cited “poverty-level wages,” building up unsustainable debt and scrambling to make rent as reasons to vote down the agreement that did not address their concerns.
The AFA bureaucracy hailed the August TA as a “record” deal, with AFA President and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Sara Nelson telling Forbes that the agreement was “leading the industry.” At the time, voting was opened on the TA before the contract language was even finalized, angering workers who called for a postponement of the vote until they could see the final details.
At the time, the company was offering a 15 percent wage increase with 2 percent raises each year over four years. Accounting for 20 percent inflation since 2019, however, the offer equated to only a 1 percent raise above pre-pandemic wages.
The latest TA is essentially unchanged, with base pay seeing only minimal increases for flight attendants with over 13 years of seniority. Flight attendants currently receive no boarding pay, meaning they work for free while performing critical safety and preparatory tasks during passenger boarding. The new TA provides a marginal amount of boarding pay which would slightly benefit only more junior flight attendants, who tend to work shorter routes and thus have more boardings.
Voting will begin on February 11 and close on February 18, giving workers a week to decide whether to ratify the contract. The AFA fully backs the new TA and expects the membership to vote to approve it, despite the agreement being nearly the same as before with only a new coat of paint.
Flight attendant workers should once again rally for the rejection of the tentative agreement at Alaska Airlines. The fact that the AFA is presenting an agreement that is for all purposes the same as the one workers voted down in August is a slap in the face and a betrayal to the rank and file who desperately need significant raises.
With this proposal, the AFA is siding with the company on the issue of maximizing profits and minimizing wages. To achieve their necessary demands, flight attendant workers will need to override their own union and insist on a contract with adequate pay and working conditions.
Flight attendants must carry their struggle forward in rebellion against the corporate flunkeys in the AFA apparatus. This means forming rank-and-file committees to enforce democratic decision-making, countermanding actions which violate their will and providing workers with a platform to discuss and plan actions they deem necessary.
The union bureaucrats anticipate the rebellious rank and file to fold from the pressure of this being the last chance to vote on a proposal before fresh bargaining begins in April, for a combined contract covering both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants following a merger between the two entities.
The Alaska contract, if approved, would provide a baseline for negotiating an agreement covering 6,900 Alaska Airlines and 2,200 Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants. The union bureaucracy sees the ratification of this TA as a way to grease the wheels to ram the next contract through without significant worker resistance in April.
Taylor Garland, spokesperson for the AFA, puffed up the new agreement when he said it “addresses issues identified by members, puts in place significant economic gains, and provides the foundation we need for a second bite of the apple in this merger.”
Christina Frees, a Seattle-based flight attendant who has worked for Alaska for 13 years said she expects the agreement to pass this time under the pressure even though it is “not an overall improvement at all.”
“They put us in between a rock and a hard place. I do believe it’s likely to be ratified because the cost of living is high and the pay is so bad,” Frees said. “We have to get the increase in pay, otherwise we sit for another two to three years waiting for a merger contract.”
Thresia Raynor, a flight attendant based in Anchorage, Alaska with over 17 years of experience said that rank-and-file union members “are all fully aware of the consequences of turning it down this time.” She repeated the coercive hope dangled in front of members by the union bureaucracy when she said, “It’s the only deal we are going to get, with the hope of more gains later in the joint collective bargaining agreement” with the Hawaiian flight attendants.
The AFA union is using this “ticking clock” pressure against their own membership in order to ram through the same sellout agreement as before with only token changes. The union bureaucracy is only interested in securing their own positions and cozy relationships with the company management and politicians who have a vested stake in securing a subpar agreement.
The Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines merger will also trigger a union election for new leadership. The president, vice president and secretary-treasurer will be selected using a highly undemocratic process. Eight voting members will be responsible for choosing the slate, six local presidents from Alaska bases and two from Hawaiian bases. Two out of eight of these individuals will be candidates seeking election, which is a huge conflict of interest. Rank-and-file union members will be allowed to vote for candidates who essentially chose themselves for the bureaucratic leadership roles.
The AFA stands by its undemocratic farce of an election process, claiming it provides equal representation for smaller bases such as San Diego. In practice, the system allows a small clique to maintain control over the union bureaucracy.
A proposal was made during the AFA board of directors convention in Atlanta last May to amend the bylaws to allow a democratic full membership vote for leadership positions, but the same small clique used their exclusive voting rights to swiftly kill the proposal.
Despite the costly impending merger with Hawaiian Airlines and a rough start to 2024, Alaska Airlines raked in record profits this last year. Passenger levels rose even higher than pre-pandemic counts in 2024 and Alaska rode the air traffic boom along with the rest of the major US airlines.
Alaska Air Group reported a net 2024 profit of $395 million compared to $235 million in 2023. Alaska ended the year with a positive cash flow of $949 million, despite spending $659 million on the merger with Hawaiian Airlines and $1.3 billion on aircraft and equipment. Alaska projects the Hawaiian merger will increase their pretax profits by $1 billion over the next three years. Delta Airlines similarly reported $3.5 billion in net profits and United Airlines $3.1 billion in 2024.
In a recent earnings call, Alaska Air Group CEO Ben Minicucci said he “couldn’t be happier that we reached an agreement in concept” with the AFA. Boasting about the airline’s “outstanding financial performance,” he said he looks forward to the April joint negotiations after the merger.
By way of contrast with the thriving corporate profits, in 2023, Alaska flight attendants set up a private Facebook page called “Alaska Airlines FAs experiencing hunger and homelessness.” In this group, workers share their stories of poverty and are able to receive financial help through Venmo and tips about where to find free food in the cities where the airline operates.
Rebecca Owens is one of the group’s founders along with fellow Anchorage-based flight attendant Thresia Raynor. “When you go to work, you see all these bright shining faces. We’re known for that, right?” Owens said. “You don’t see the difficulty that people are facing. Oftentimes it’s actually hidden because people feel so ashamed.”
“We needed somewhere that people can finally talk about it so that nobody is struggling alone anymore,” she said.
The “last chance” pressure tactics used by the union bureaucracy should be seen for what they are, a collusion with the company to ram through an insulting contract against the wishes of the membership. To prepare a struggle against both Alaska Airlines and the AFA bureaucracy, flight attendants should organize rank-and-file committees which will provide the means to link up with workers in other airline companies and separate industries to receive and provide support in the fight for workers’ common interests.
The state agency leading some of Alaska’s most polarizing development projects has approved a new communications budget, saying it needs to do a better job telling its own story amid attacks from critics.
The state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is run by a former chief of staff to Gov. Mike Dunleavy and is charged with promoting economic growth and expanding natural resource extraction and exports.
It is leading work to develop state-owned oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and also hopes to build two controversial new roads to access mining prospects in Northwest Alaska and outside of Anchorage.
Those projects have drawn sharp opposition from conservation organizations and other critics, including lawsuits, critical op-eds and campaigns that have labeled the agency “Bad AIDEA” and caricatured its leaders.
At a meeting in Ketchikan this month, board members, with no public discussion, authorized AIDEA’s staff to spend up to $700,000 a year on a new communications budget — formalizing a plan that the agency says was previously budgeted inconsistently through spending on individual projects.
The new communications plan, the agency said in its formal resolution authorizing the spending, will “ensure proper public engagement, transparency, and stewardship of the authority’s mission.” The money could go toward trade shows and conferences, responding to media inquiries and “other communications-related needs,” according to the resolution.
The agency’s executive director, Randy Ruaro, referred questions about the plan to Dave Stieren, an AIDEA employee who ran an advertising agency and hosted a conservative talk radio show before joining the Dunleavy administration.
Stieren said he could not provide exact figures on AIDEA’s past communications spending, but he acknowledged that the new plan should allow the agency to meaningfully boost its public profile.
The $700,000 a year, he added, is a limit, and the agency will set a final budget through a request for proposals process.
“Mothership AIDEA has done, frankly, little to nothing on a consistent basis to tell our story,” Stieren said in an email — particularly when it comes to its loan programs that have helped finance tourism and hospitality businesses, like the Alaska Club fitness chain and Anchorage’s Bear Tooth pizza restaurant and theater.
“We’re far more than roads,” Stieren said. “But since we’ve really not promoted or showcased our efforts in traditional finance areas, I understand the narrative or lack thereof that folks may have.”
Stieren has also personally defended AIDEA on social media, including over the weekend — when he posted a conservative news website’s positive story about an agency-owned shipyard and said that “when commie libs attack AIDEA, they attack projects like this.”
AIDEA’s board chair, Bill Kendig, declined to answer questions about approval of the new communications budget when reached by phone.
At the Ketchikan meeting, one AIDEA critic, Melis Coady, credited the agency with formalizing communications spending as a “step toward accountability.” But she said that the plan doesn’t “deliver the transparency it describes” because it gives Ruaro, the executive director, authority to approve communications spending, and only requires that he report it to the board if asked.
“The authorization is broad, the dollar amount is undefined, and expenditures are approved solely by the executive director,” said Coady, who leads a conservation group called the Susitna River Coalition.
Ruaro, in an email, said AIDEA will issue reports on communications to board members “whether requested or not.”
Nathaniel Herz is an Anchorage-based reporter. Subscribe to his newsletter, Northern Journal, at northernjournal.com.
In exchange for living in what is perhaps the country’s most beautiful state, Alaskans sometimes have to do without: professional sports teams, Trader Joe’s and, well, sunlight for half the year. But we make up for it with the Iditarod, reindeer sausages and chasing the aurora borealis. In other words, we often have to make our own fun. And by “fun” I mean “beer.” Those words are interchangeable, right?
Beer is a big part of life for Alaskans. We hike with it, camp with it, boat with it, cook with it and pair it with foods like the stuffiest of sommeliers. We throw it monthly birthday parties like the First Tap events at Broken Tooth Brewing Co. (otherwise known as Bear Tooth Theatrepub and Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria), complete with national musical acts like Modest Mouse, Clinton Fearon, and Norah Jones. We even occasionally do yoga with it (at downtown’s Williwaw Social). In other words, we take it everywhere and we take it seriously.
Beers from the state’s biggest brewery, Alaskan Brewing Co. based in Juneau, might already be in your refrigerator if you live in one of the 25 states where it’s available. Established in 1986 by Marcy and Geoff Larson, it was the 67th independent brewery to open in the country. With a steady line of signature brews, including their most recent “Wildness” beer, it’s the most well-established of all the state’s breweries. Expect seasonal specialties that incorporate ingredients like cranberries, raspberries, locally roasted coffee, locally grown white wheat from the Matanuska-Susitna area and even Alaska spruce tips. Ubiquitous around Alaska, this is our Papa Beer, if you will (I’ll show myself out).
But Alaskan Brewing is just one out of the more-than 50 breweries, distilleries, meaderies and cideries in the state (for an excellent list visit brewersguildofalaska.org). And while almost half of them are in Anchorage or within a short drive of our state’s largest city (including the relatively populous communities of Girdwood, Eagle River, Palmer and Wasilla), some of our most remote ports of call and tiniest towns are also in on the brewing action (I’m looking at you, Cooper Landing Brewing Company in Cooper Landing, population 231).
The ever-expanding Denali Brewing Co. in Talkeetna (population 997) may be a small-town hero, but it’s anything but small. Their four signature beers — Mother Ale, Chuli Stout, Single Engine Red and the ever-popular Twister Creek IPA, as well seasonal brews like Slow Down Brown and Flag Stop Milepost #3 — are year-round mainstays of summer barbecues and winter bonfires around the state.
This brewery is also home to the more recently established Alaska Cider Works, Alaska Meadery (featuring “Razzery,” a mead made with raspberries, sour cherries and apples) and Denali Spirits (featuring vodka, gin, whiskey, and “smoke” whiskey), because when you’ve fermented one, why not ferment them all?
(Denali Spirits’ canned cocktails, especially their blueberry mojito, have been so popular in Anchorage that at one time there was a Facebook page largely dedicated to tracking them down. Luckily, supply has since caught up with demand.)
Some breweries are even more remote. Ports of call and island hopping here can be one way to get your fill of hops. Breweries can be found in Ketchikan (Bawden Street Brewing Co.), Kodiak (Kodiak Island Brewing & Still, Double Shovel Kodiak Cidery, and Olds River Inn), Homer (Homer Brewing Co. and Grace Ridge Brewing Co. for beer, and you can also check out Sweetgale Meadworks & Cider House for hard cider and locally sourced meads featuring ingredients like nagoonberry), Sitka (Harbor Mountain Brewing), Seward (Seward Brewing Co. and Stoney Creek Brewhouse), Valdez (Valdez Brewing and Growler Bay Brewing), and Skagway (Klondike Brewing Co. and Skagway Brewing Co.).
Of course, many trips to Alaska begin and end in Anchorage. And if, during your travels, you’ve foolishly left some beers untasted, you can make up for lost time in our state’s biggest city which boasts — let’s face it — a ridiculous number of exceptional craft breweries.
Downtown’s Glacier Brewhouse specializes in oak-aged English and American West Coast-style beers, 13 of them, from blondes to stouts. Beneath the floor of the Brewhouse is a “Wall of Wood” comprised of casks of special release beers that are conditioned in oak barrels once used to age wine and bourbon. The history of the oak imparts “mother tongue” flavor characteristics, like vanilla and coconut, into these limited edition brews. Opt for one of these unique beers or choose from their flagship choices like raspberry wheat, oatmeal stout, imperial blonde, Bavarian hefeweizen or a flight that includes them all.
Down the street is 49th State Brewing Co., which expanded into Anchorage from its original location in Healy, at the edge of Denali National Park and Preserve. If you are unable to visit their flagship location, where you can sip beer while playing bocce or horseshoes on the lawn, you can catch up with them here. There’s a unique selection that includes beers like Smok, a smoked lager, as well as seasonal offerings like the Tiger’s Blood Sour, an homage to shave ice described as ”ferociously fruity.” Or there’s “Apple Fritter Ale,” with hints of cinnamon, icing, caramel, and vanilla. This location also boasts some of the best views in Anchorage and an expansive outdoor rooftop patio.
Just about all of the full-service restaurants in downtown Anchorage proudly feature some variety of Alaskan beers. In the heart of downtown, Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse prides itself on a huge selection of beers, both international and local. Tent City Taphouse offers a diverse and carefully curated list of 24 rotating local brews, including their house beer, Tent City Tangerine IPA brewed by Glacier Brewhouse. Tent City regularly hosts “Taste of the North” beer dinners featuring Alaskan brewers. One, in collaboration with Grace Ridge Brewing Company, featured smoked salmon canapes with Black Pepper IPA, classic beef Wellington with an Oystercatcher stout and roasted honey lamb chops with a Winter Cranberry Ale.
If you have transportation around the city, treat yourself to a brewery tasting-room tour. Found in unassuming little side streets in the more industrial areas of Anchorage, some of our best beers can be sipped and savored at the source. Finding these funky little spots can feel like being invited to a secret party. And it’s a glimpse into Anchorage’s most authentic beer culture.
In midtown, Onsite Brewing Co. has unique, small-batch brews in a funky relaxed environment. Further south, King Street Brewing Co., Turnagain Brewing, Cynosure Brewing, Magnetic North Brewing Company, Brewerks, and one of our newest, Ship Creek Brewing Company are all within a stone’s throw of one another. If you’re lucky, you might run into one of Anchorage’s popular food trucks parked outside, so you’ll have something to wash down with your flights. Depending on the day, you might find reindeer sausages, pad Thai, cheesesteaks or pupusas. On the weekends, Anchorage Brewing Company features a top-notch in-house pop-up restaurant, called Familia, with a rotating menu featuring local Alaskan ingredients.
One of the newest and furthest south breweries, while still in the Anchorage bowl, is Raven’s Ring Brewing Company, which is a brewery/winery and meadery. From a traditional IPA to a Concorde grape wine called Grape Juice to a rotating Vintner’s pour like Sweet Peach Jalapeno mead, this ambitious operation is challenging the notion that you can’t please everyone.
Other Anchorage points of interest for non-hoppy but still home-grown adult beverages include Anchorage Distillery, Zip Kombucha, Double Shovel Cidery and Hive Mind Meadery.
If your travels are over and you still haven’t had your fill, check out the Silver Gulch Brewing & Bottling Co. inside Terminal C at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on your way out of town. An offshoot of the flagship Silver Gulch brewery in Fox, Alaska (about 10 miles north of Fairbanks), this location has a bar and restaurant, and a retail shop carrying growlers of their own brews as well as those of other Alaskan brewers and distillers. Last-minute souvenir shopping never tasted so good.
Before you start your great Northern beer safari, bear in mind that tasting rooms often have limited and varying hours, so always double-check before planning a visit.
Whether your travels take you to fine-dining restaurants, low-key alehouses or even rustic cabins in the woods, make like an Alaskan and fuel your adventures with one of our beloved, home-grown brews. When in Alaska, drink as the Alaskans do.
Mara Severin is a food writer who writes about restaurants in Southcentral Alaska for the Anchorage Daily News.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday that the first two Arctic Security Cutters will be homeported in the State of Alaska. Anticipating delivery of the first Arctic Security Cutters by the end of 2028, the Coast Guard has begun planning to ensure necessary infrastructure and support are in place to receive two icebreakers. Ensuring these vessels are supported by trained and ready crews, and ready homeport facilities including housing, will be essential to delivering full, enduring operational capability required to meet emerging Arctic security challenges.
“Homeporting these two Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska is a decisive step forward in securing America’s Arctic frontier,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin. “I want to thank President Trump for his bold leadership and vision in directing this critical investment, as well as Senator Sullivan and the entire Alaskan Congressional delegation for championing the funding that made these icebreakers possible. These vessels will deliver the enduring operational presence our nation needs to protect sovereignty, deter foreign adversaries, and safeguard vital resources for the American people..”
The homeporting of the first two Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska builds on the historic expansion of the Coast Guard’s icebreaker fleet and underscores an unprecedented investment in the Arctic. This announcement marks a national milestone in U.S. Arctic capability, following contract awards for up to 11 Arctic Security Cutters. Fueled by $3.5 billion in funding in the Fiscal Year 2025 Reconciliation Bill and facilitated by a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States and Finland in October 2025, the acquisition of Arctic Security Cutters will fulfill President Trump’s directive to rapidly deliver America’s newest icebreaker fleet.
“Homeporting Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska underscores the United States’ leadership as a maritime power in the Arctic,” said Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard. “By strategically positioning these state-of-the-art icebreakers in Alaska, the Coast Guard will maximize our ability to defend our northern border and approaches, while reinforcing America’s maritime dominance in a crucial region of strategic importance.”
Through contract awards to Rauma Marine Constructions Oy of Rauma, Finland, Bollinger Shipyards Lockport, L.L.C., and Davie Defense, Inc. of Vienna, VA, the U.S. will immediately benefit from our Finnish partners’ icebreaker expertise while coordinating the onshoring of that expertise and shipbuilding to the United States. Under the MOU, Finland will construct up to four ASCs for the U.S Coast Guard. U.S. shipyards will build and deliver up to seven additional ASCs. Delivery of the first Arctic Security Cutters is expected by the end of 2028.
Arctic Security Cutters will form the backbone of a revitalized U.S. icebreaker fleet, strengthening American maritime dominance in the Arctic. Fielding specialized capabilities, these icebreakers will defend U.S. sovereignty, secure critical shipping lanes, protect energy and mineral resources, and counter foreign malign influence in the Arctic region. A robust icebreaker fleet will enable the Coast Guard to control, secure and defend U.S. Alaskan borders and Arctic maritime approaches, facilitate maritime commerce vital to economic prosperity and strategic mobility, and respond to crises and contingencies in the region.
Acquisition of Arctic Security Cutters supports the Coast Guard’s ongoing modernization, through which the Service is transforming into a more agile, capable and responsive fighting force.
Memorandum on ASC Homeporting
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