Sun Country flight attendants authorize strike; airline doesn’t foresee service impacts

Flight attendants at Sun Country Airlines are a step closer to walking off the job after they overwhelmingly authorized a strike amid ongoing contract negotiations.

Teamsters Local 120, which represents 558 Sun Country flight attendants, announced on Thursday that 99% of eligible voting members authorized the strike.

Union members say their pay scale hasn’t changed in eight years and Sun Country employees’ pay is lagging behind competitors.

“We voted to strike for one simple reason — Sun Country is dragging out the negotiation process and we are fed up. We are fighting for the contract we deserve,” said Tanya DeVito, a flight attendant and bargaining committee member.

A Sun Country spokesperson cautioned that the strike authorization “does not mean that a strike is imminent or will happen at all” and that there won’t be any service interruptions in the immediate future.

“We appreciate our flight attendants and everything they do for Sun Country’s customers and our airline. We respect their right to express themselves through this vote,” the air carrier said in a statement.

Sun Country and Teamsters members are set to hold a mediation session in September with the involvement of the National Mediation Board.

As an airline union whose collective bargaining activities are subject to the Railway Labor Act, the flight attendants’ union must go through several steps before they are cleared to go on strike.

If initial contract negotiations are not fruitful, the two sides must meet for mediation and consider a proffer of arbitration. If either the employer or the bargaining unit opts not to resolve the labor dispute through arbitration, they go to a 30-day cooling-off period, at which point the union can strike or the employer can lock employees out.