Piedmont Tentative Agreement Highlights

CWA and Piedmont Airlines reached a tentative agreement on January 26, 2018, which provides significant improvements in the collective bargaining agreement, including wage increases across the board and new defined pay scales.

Below are highlights of the tentative agreement. A full article-by-article explanation is forthcoming. CWA will also be scheduling information sessions so that you can have your questions about the tentative agreement answered prior to voting.

Pay Raises and Defined Pay Scales:

• Over two-thirds of the members will receive at least a 7% raise in the first year of the contract.

• All members will be placed on the pay scale by hire date seniority. When you are placed on the scale, if your first year wage increase is not at least 3%, you will receive the difference in a lump sum bonus based on your W-2 earnings from 2017. In each year of the contract, if you do not receive at least a 3% pay raise you will get the difference in a lump sum bonus based on your previous year's W-2.

• Pay raises will be retroactive to January 1, 2018.

• There are eleven (11) pay scales, depending on location, with 15 steps corresponding to years of service.

• Wages at the top of the scales in the first year of the contract range from $16 to $19.50, depending on location. In the final year of the contract, the top wage range is $17.25 to $20.75.

• Members will get two raises per year until they reach top-out pay after their 14th year: one raise on the first day of the first payroll period each year and a raise for longevity or years of service, effective on your date of hire.

• We are creating a lookup tool, which will allow members to input their station and years of service in order to calculate their new wage.


Vacancies will be filled by most senior qualified, with the exception of operations agent, POC, or other specialty positions.


Permanent Shift Trades: In cases where member A does a permanent shift swap with member B for the entire bid period and member B cannot cover member A’s original bid for any reason, the shift will not revert back to member A. Member A keeps the shift they swapped for, not the original shift they had.


Furlough Time Increased: Members who have been furloughed will remain on the recall list for their station for four years instead of three.


High Revenue Days: Every station will have 14 designated High Revenue Days. If a member works on those days, they will be paid time and half pay. Not every station will have the same High Revenue Days.


Health Insurance:

• In 2018-19, full-time employees will pay no more than 18% of premiums; in 2020 employees will pay no more than 19% of premiums.

• Part-time employees working an average of 30 hours per week will pay no more than 25% of premiums.


Uniform Allowance: If a member does not spend all of her or his allowance in one year, the remainder will carry over to the next year. Members may carry over for one year.

Training Day Pay: Members will be paid a minimum of two hours pay for training if they are required to attend on their day off.


Mandatory Overtime: All reasonable effort will be made to provide one hour notice when assigning mandatory overtime. If that is not possible, the local union representative will be notified.


Vacation for Part-time Employees: Part-time employees with 15 years of service or more can take their vacation in up to 3 weeks. All part-time employees can elect to reserve one week of vacation time to use as Day At Time (DAT) each year. 

Medical Exam Board: If a member’s personal doctor and the company’s doctor do not agree on a diagnosis that would lead to any medical restriction, the decision will go before the medical exam board. The two medical examiners agree upon and appoint a third, qualified and neutral medical examiner.

To sign up for email or text updates, click here. Follow us on Facebook here.