Teamsters OK Deal With 40% Raise for Frontier Air Maintenance Controllers

DENVER, Colo.—Teamsters Local 455 has ratified its first contract with Frontier Airlines, giving the 12sters maintenance controllers covered a 40% raise. The five-year deal, announced by the union Dec. 3, includes up to ten years of pay increases. It will bring the average pay for maintenance controllers, who manage the airline’s maintenance schedule, from about $60,000 a year to more than $100,000, a Teamster official told the trade journal MRO Network—and it also guarantees overtime pay after eight hours, when controllers typically work 12-hour shifts. It will sort out what the official called a “convoluted” wage system at the low-cost carrier, where “they were hiring controllers at higher wages than for those already employed.” The agreement also locks in seniority and ensures that controllers, who need similar skills to technicians but must have “years of experience” more, get paid more than lead technicians. Local 455 also represents material specialists, aircraft appearance agents, and aircraft maintenance technicians at Frontier; the technicians’ contract will expire in 2022. Read more