TIRED OF USING YOUR VACATION TIME WHEN YOU'RE SICK?JetBlue management has imposed a “Personal Time Off” (PTO) system. We use PTO for everything: when we are sick, on vacation, when our kids are sick, emergencies or any other day off. Unionized GO workers across the airline industry have a sick bank AND annual vacation. If they’re sick, they use sick time. They don’t have to deplete their vacation time and get penalized because they get sick. We deserve nothing less!  WHY DON'T WE SHARE IN THE PROFITS WE HELP TO CREATE?Did you know we are the only major airline workers who do not receive profit sharing? If you think that needs to change, we are 100% with you! When we join the IAM UNION we will have the ability to negotiate a profit sharing plan that will recognize our key contributions to the success of our airline. The below is a comparison of the different profit sharing plans among the major airlines.  Because we don’t have a contract and the ability to protect our benefits, JetBlue management can take anything it wants away from us and never have to give us anything if they don’t want to. It’s happened before with many benefits we had in the past—including profit sharing, premiums, our automatic 5% 401k contribution, among others—and it will likely happen again. The only way to protect the things we don’t want taken away from us is with a CONTRACT!
WHAT IS JETBLUE MANAGEMENT SO AFRAID OF?Over the next few weeks and months, IAM UNION airline workers have committed to fan out across the United States and Puerto Rico to talk with JetBlue GO Crewmembers about unionizing.
A couple of the methods that will be used to connect with GO CMs will be phone calls and, in some locations, home visits. JetBlue management will claim Union representatives are harassing and invading our privacy to get us to join the Union for the Union’s own self-serving reasons. Nothing could be further from the truth. Airline workers who are IAM members only seek to help us and give us information. JetBlue management will not allow IAM members to visit with us in the workplace because they DO NOT want us to hear anything other than what management wants us to hear. They don’t want us to unionize and will do everything they can to prevent us from hearing the good things that union representation can bring. They call the police on IAM member organizers when they are at the airport to intimidate them and keep us from engaging with them. At the airport, Jetblue management can control the situation and that’s how they want it. Conversations over the phone and face to face, away from the airport, are situations that JetBlue management cannot control. When JetBlue management cannot control the situation, that’s when they get nervous. THEY GET NERVOUS BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT US TO HEAR ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF A UNION CONTRACT FROM OUR FELLOW AIRLINE WORKERS THEMSELVES! Ask yourself these two questions: Do you really believe that JetBlue management doesn’t want us to unionize because we will be worse off with a union contract? Or, do you think they are against us unionizing because they will lose the total control over us they enjoy now and that JetBlue’s labor costs will rise because we will have the ability to negotiate for better pay, benefits and working conditions? If you think the latter, then it’s a good idea to get all the info on the Union as you can. The best way to do that is not under the watchful eye of management, but in a safe environment free from management influence and surveillance. The IAM UNION and its members are not the enemy. They are our industry colleagues who care about us. JETBLUE MANAGEMENT TO CREWMEMBERS: WE HAVE JOB SECURITY BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE JOB SECURITY. WHAT?JetBlue management is up to its old tricks once again. They are back telling GO Crewmembers in smaller locations that if we unionize that the smaller JetBlue GO locations could be outsourced. Here’s the truth: JetBlue management is prohibited under federal law from retaliating against us for supporting or joining a union. IT IS UNLAWFUL FOR JETBLUE MANAGEMENT TO OUTSOURCE, OR EVEN THREATEN TO OUTSOURCE OUR WORK, BECAUSE WE SUPPORT OR JOIN A UNION. If JetBlue management took any adverse actions in retaliation against JetBlue GO Crewmembers because we are seeking to unionize, the IAM UNION would take action, which could include filing a lawsuit in federal court. The fact is, currently, we have absolutely no protection against outsourcing. JetBlue management could outsource every JetBlue location right now for any reason. However, to outsource our work BECAUSE we desire to unionize, or in fact do unionize, is illegal under the Railway Labor Act (RLA). While every airline outsources ground operations, union contracts provide protections against outsourcing. For example, every IAM airline contract protects the work and jobs of IAM UNION members. JetBlue GO Crewmembers, once unionized, will have the same opportunity to negotiate work and job protections into our contract. If anyone has threatened to outsource our work and jobs because of our desire to unionize, please click the following link to file an anonymous interference report: ONLINE INTERFERENCE FORM. Click the link for more info on our right to form a union free from interference: OUR RIGHTS.  JetBlue management standing proudly with Swissport workers who perform GO at SFO. VALUES COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR WHINES, DEFENDS JETBLUE MANAGEMENT AND SUB-STANDARD PAY, BENEFITS AND WORKING CONDITIONS The Values Committee co-chair, who is paid by JetBlue management not to work ground operations and paid to travel the system to discourage GO Crewmembers from getting their fair share in pay, benefits and working conditions by unionizing, whined yesterday about the fact the IAM UNION correctly pointed out that JetBlue GO Crewmembers’ base wage rates are below the industry average for airlines with approximately 1,000 daily flights and approximately $10 billion in annual revenues. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding the ways GO Crewmembers are undervalued by JetBlue management and the VC co-chair.
What the VC co-chair left out on his “Happy Acat Day” email was the 5% automatic 401k contribution that was stripped away from GO Crewmembers to pay for the “raises” that GO Crewmembers received. What has JetBlue management and the VC co-chair done about mandatory shift extensions (MSE) and the over-working of Crewmembers caused by short staffing? Has the VC co-chair been MSE'd lately or told to work extremely heavy flights with insufficient staffing? That would be a big NO because JetBlue management pays him a lot of money to sit in an office and misinform his GO Crewmember colleagues about the benefits of union representation. What’s JetBlue management the VC co-chair’s plan to stop or lessen the “critical coverage” BS and taking away Crewmembers’ ability to cross-train? What is the plan to improve the quality and lessen the cost of medical insurance? What is the plan to improve the worst retirement security in the airline industry for GO workers? To increase the number of holidays and the pay when we work a holiday? What about when we have to reschedule our lunch, or if we don’t get one? What about the OPS premium that used to be $2.50 per hour but now is $1.00 per hour? Is the VC co-chair kidding? What about the GO Crewmember who was issued a LOC with no questions asked because management said he was “speaking in a loud tone.” These are the type of things that happen when there is no union and no representation. Where’s the profit sharing? Why are GO Crewmembers the only GO workers in the airline industry who don’t receive profit sharing/incentive payments? Why are LGA and EWR GO Crewmembers with 11 years seniority disrespected by earning $1 less per hour—over $2,000 per year for full-time GO Crewmembers at the top of the pay scale—compared to their co-workers who work less than 10 miles away at JFK Airport? Why the disparity? The bottom line is, WE, GO Crewmembers DO NOT HAVE A VOICE OR ANY POWER in the decisions that JetBlue management and the VC co-chair are making for us, which affect our lives and the lives of our family members. The VC co-chair is being used by CEO Geraghty, just as former CEO Robin Hayes used him. During the 2023 union election we were told changes would be made to improve our jobs at JetBlue. All those who were telling us to “give them a year” and “it will be better” are gone now. The VC co-chair is still around and continues his job of parroting management’s anti-union talking points. Finally, the VC co-chair refused to address the lies he told at the last JFK pocket session that we pointed out and correct the record. We call on CEO Geraghty to do this when she visits for another pocket session at JFK on April 10th. We ask all GO Crewmembers demand truth and transparency from CEO Geraghty and direct the VC co-chair to cease his unlawful union busting. IAM AIR TRANSPORT GENERAL VICE PRESIDENT CALLS ON JETBLUE CEO TO CEASE ILLEGAL UNION BUSTING BY VALUES COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR Air Transport Territory
Via email: [email protected] Joanna Geraghty Chief Executive Officer JetBlue Airways Ms. Geraghty, I am writing to advise you of some concerning things that are happening at JetBlue regarding JetBlue Ground Operations (GO) Crewmembers’ efforts to form a union. As you are likely aware, in the lead up to the 2023 union vote, JetBlue management dispatched “Values Committee” members around the JetBlue system to discourage GO Crewmembers from voting to form a union. The “Values Committee” members were paid by JetBlue to conduct these meetings, flew on JetBlue Airways aircraft to get to these meetings and were given hotel accommodations in cities that they traveled to. In other words, JetBlue management was pulling the strings and the “Values Committee” station-hopped to run JetBlue’s anti-union campaign. It appears, now, that JetBlue management is using the same playbook as last time. On March 13, 2025, during a “pocket session” at JFK Airport, Values Committee co-chair, Delanno White, lied to every GO Crewmemberswho attended that meeting by stating the following:
Moreover, during the week of March 6, 2025, Mr. White was reported as informing newly hired JFK-based JetBlue GO Crewmembers that they are “too new” to sign an election authorization card. Another outright lie. As you know, every JetBlue Ground Operations Crewmember has the right to sign a union election authorization card, regardless of when they started to work at JetBlue. Crewmembers can sign a card if they want the moment they are hired at JetBlue Airways. Ms. Geraghty, I realize that you were not the JetBlue CEO in 2023, and you were not directly responsible for dispatching Values Committee members to influence how GO Crewmembers voted in the 2023 election. The Railway Labor Act, the federal law which governs union organizing in the airline industry, states that “no carrier, its officers or agents (emphasis added) […] shall influence or coerce employees in an effort to induce them to join or remain or not to join or remain members of any labor organization…” I am respectfully requesting that you direct Values Committee members, who are agents of the carrier, to refrain from influencing GO Crewmembers from exercising their federal right to request that a union representation election be conducted by the National Mediation Board (NMB). I also ask that you correct the lies told by Mr. White via email to all JFK-based workers. Please also advise Mr. White of his legal status as a paid agent of management who does not work Ground Operations at JFK Airport and further advise him of what his responsibilities are under federal law regarding workers’ freedom to form a union free from interference, influence and coercion. I would very much appreciate constructive dialogue on these extremely concerning issues and I look forward to your response. Respectfully, Richie Johnsen IAM UNION, AIR TRANSPORT GENERAL VICE PRESIDENT |
