JetBlue ground operations workers seek union vote, major labor group says

A major airline union said Friday that it has enough support among JetBlue Airways’ roughly 3,000 fleet service staff to seek a unionization vote, in the latest move to organize workers.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said it will file an application for a union vote with the National Mediation Board. The work group includes baggage handlers and other ground operations employees.

A vote could create the third major work group at the New York-based airline to unionize. JetBlue’s pilots and flight attendants are already unionized. It would come during a wave of union votes across companies from Amazon to Starbucks.

A vote could also take place while JetBlue is in the process of trying to acquire budget airline Spirit Airlines, where more than 80% of employees are represented by unions, compared with JetBlue’s 46%, according to annual company filings.

“The IAM has sufficient interest among JetBlue Fleet Service workers to conduct a union representation election,” the union said in a statement.

JetBlue didn’t immediately comment on the IAM’s statement.

Most major airline workers are already largely represented by unions, though some carriers like JetBlue are less so than some competitors.

Delta Air Lines is the largest U.S. carrier whose workers aren’t mostly unionized, though the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA in 2019 launched a union drive of the Atlanta-based carrier’s flight attendants. Flight attendants had previously rejected unionization.