August 15, 2006 at San Francisco International Airport CHAOS is AFA's trademarked strategy of intermittent strikes designed to maximize the impact of an industrial action while minimizing the risk for striking flight attendants. In May 1993, AFA members at Seattle-based
Alaska Airlines were facing a 30-day cooling-off period after more than three years of negotiations. In June, 1993, the cooling-off period mandated by the
Railway Labor Act had expired. The first CHAOS strike took place in
Seattle when three flight attendants walked off an Alaska Airlines flight just before passenger boarding. A month later, another crew of flight attendants struck the last flight out of
Las Vegas. A few weeks later, AFA struck five flights simultaneously in the San Francisco area.
America West,
AirTran and
US Airways all settled with AFA on the eve of, or a few minutes after, the end of a 30-day cooling-off period in the 1990s. AFA flight attendants at Midwest Express (now
Midwest Airlines), completed a cooling-off period without reaching agreement on a first contract in 2002. After three weeks of a CHAOS campaign, and on the eve of CHAOS strikes, management agreed to terms that were ratified by the flight attendants. United Airlines flight attendants used the threat of CHAOS to leverage their negotiations during the airline's bankruptcy, succeeding in doubling the value of the replacement retirement plan management had proposed. Flight attendants at
Northwest Airlines, locked in a round of bankruptcy negotiations, deployed a CHAOS campaign days after joining AFA in July, 2006. Union negotiators concluded a new tentative agreement with millions of dollars in improvements, but which was voted down by a narrow margin. AFA continued preparations for CHAOS strikes at Northwest pending the outcome of negotiations and litigation surrounding the case. The bankruptcy court ruled in favor of the union, denying the strike injunction sought by management. On appeal, the federal district court and the court of appeals ruled that workers under the Railway Labor Act cannot strike in response to rejection of a collective bargaining agreement in bankruptcy. Northwest and AFA returned to negotiations and reached a new tentative agreement, which was narrowly ratified by the flight attendants on May 29, 2007. The flight attendants became the last major work group at Northwest to agree to new contract terms in bankruptcy. The new contract provided Northwest with $195 million in annual cuts through 2011, and secured a $182 million equity claim for the flight attendants before it was lost upon the company's exit from bankruptcy. On August 16, 2023, Alaska Airlines flight attendants protested across the US for better wages and working conditions. Across the US, it has been estimated that over 1,000 flight attendants were in attention outside of airports demanding a higher pay. In September flight attendants a part of the union voted for a new contract with a 99.47% approval rating. On August 28, 2024, AFA members at United Airlines voted with 99.99% approval to authorize a labor strike, with 90.21% members participating. However, no strike was immediately called, with negotiations between AFA and United continuing. ==Member flight attendant groups==