The flight attendants of CHAOS

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

When contract negotiations between Alaska Airlines and their flight attendants' union broke down in 1993, the union had a choice to make.

The union — The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA — knew that if they chose to strike, Alaska Airlines could use a plan. While Alaska Airlines technically couldn't fire someone on strike, they could permanently replace the striking flight attendants with new workers. Essentially, if the union went on strike, they could risk thousands of people's jobs. The flight attendants knew they needed a counter-strategy.

They went with a strategy they called CHAOS: "Create Havoc Around Our System."

The strategy had two phases. Phase one: The union kept Alaska guessing about when, where, and how a strike might happen. They kept everyone, even their own members, in the dark. And in turn, Alaska Airlines had to be prepared for a strike at any place and any time. Phase two was to go on strike in a targeted and strategic way.

The havoc that the flight attendants created set off a sort-of labor-dispute arms race and would go on to inspire strikes today. And, it showed how powerful it can be to introduce a little chaos into negotiations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:06.6	I am mildly obsessed with these moments in history, specifically sports history.
0:11.5	When somebody looks at the way everybody is doing something and says, but wait a second,
0:17.6	what if I tried it this totally unexpected other way, you know, famously in high jump,
0:24.2	a guy named Dick Fosbury started jumping over the bar backwards and it was so effective
0:29.2	that now everyone does it or in baseball.
0:33.2	At some point, a very clever player was like, what if instead of swinging at a fast moving
0:37.8	ball, what if I just hold the bat up to where the ball is going to be and knock it frustratingly
0:45.5	into the infield?
0:47.2	And the bunch is born.
0:48.4	Love the bunch and look, I'm obsessed with these moments because it forces everyone
0:53.0	to be like, wait a second, can they do that?
0:55.7	That can't be legal.
0:57.0	But yeah, it is and the game is changed forever.
1:01.2	And kidding, of course, these moments don't just happen in sporting competition.
1:05.4	They happen in our world too, the world of economics and business.
1:09.2	And there's an example that has become particularly relevant right now.
1:12.8	Yeah, so we're in the middle of what people have been calling hot labor summer.
1:17.3	I guess it's turned into, I don't know, unseasonably warm labor fall or whatever.
1:23.2	But yes, we are seeing this spate of labor actions across the country strikes in Hollywood
1:29.6	at hospitals and schools at car factories.
1:32.9	And you know, strikes are not so different from sports.
	...

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