The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) represents more than 1.4 million active members employed in a wide range of industries in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The IBT negotiated the freight industry’s first national agreement in 1964 and began its efforts to unionize the airline industry in 1966 with employees of Western Airlines.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the only union that represents every craft of workers in the airline industry. The Railway Labor Act requires that airline employees be organized on a system-wide basis for the purpose of collective bargaining.
Teamster representation of airline industry workers has grown steadily over the years. IBT contracts now cover 80,000 airline industry workers, including mechanics, customer service and ramp agents, stock clerks, dispatch personnel, flight attendants and pilots. In its nearly 42 years in the industry, the IBT has negotiated top quality contracts. The superior wages and benefits in IBT agreements make Teamsters airline jobs the most sought after in the industry.