A JetBlue passenger jet (Embraer 190) taxis at LaGuardia Airport in New York, New York.
Robert Alexander | Archive Photos | Getty Images
A major airline union mentioned Friday that it has sufficient help amongst JetBlue Airways’ roughly 3,000 fleet service workers to seek a unionization vote, within the newest transfer to prepare workers.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers mentioned it’ll file an utility for a union vote with the National Mediation Board. The work group consists of baggage handlers and different ground operations staff.
A vote in favor may create the third-largest unionized work group on the New York-based airline. JetBlue’s pilots and flight attendants are already unionized. It would come throughout a wave of union votes throughout firms from Amazon to Starbucks.
A vote may additionally happen whereas JetBlue is within the means of attempting to accumulate funds airline Spirit Airlines, the place greater than 80% of staff are represented by unions, in contrast with JetBlue’s 46%, in line with annual firm filings.
“The IAM has sufficient interest among JetBlue Fleet Service workers to conduct a union representation election,” the union mentioned in a press release.
JetBlue did not instantly touch upon the IAM’s assertion.
Most major airline workers are already largely represented by unions, although some carriers like JetBlue are much less so than some opponents.
Delta Air Lines is the most important US provider whose workers aren’t principally unionized. However, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the nation’s largest flight attendant union, is in the midst of a union drive there, which it launched in 2019. Flight attendants had beforehand rejected unionization.