April 27, 2022: -Delta Air Lines said it would start paying flight attendants during boarding, a first for a major U.S. airline and an initiative that comes during a unionization drive for the Atlanta-based airline’s biggest workgroup.

Usually, flight attendants are paid starting when the aircraft doors close.

According to a company memo, Delta plans to begin the boarding pay, half of flight attendants’ hourly rates, on June 2. The carrier is also increasing boarding time for narrow-body flights to 40 minutes from 35, which the company says is “one of several steps we’re taking to add resiliency to our operation.”

The pay changes were announced as a union campaign by the Association of Flight Attendants that started in 2019 picks up steam again as the Covid pandemic crisis wanes for airlines.

Delta’s more than 20,000 flight attendants are not unionized, unlike other major U.S. airlines.

“As we get closer to filing for our union vote, management is getting nervous,” the AFA said late Monday. The organization is the country’s largest flight attendants union, representing cabin crews at United, Spirit, Hawaiian, Alaska, and Frontier, among others.

“In this case, they also know that changing domestic boarding time from 35 to 40 minutes without adding a benefit would create an uproar — just as the ‘test’ in Atlanta did back in October,” the AFA said, referring to a test of the new procedure last fall.

The boarding pay is on top of the 4% increases Delta announced in March, employees’ first annual increase since 2019.