United Flight Attendant Union Elects Leader Behind Canada DUI Crew Rule Changes

United Airlines (UA) has a new leader representing its flight attendants. Scott Pejas, a United crew member since 1996 who is now based at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), has taken over as President of the Master Executive Council (MEC) for the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), the union representing United’s roughly 30,000 cabin crew members, Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported. He steps into the role shortly after United flight attendants ratified a new five-year labor contract.

Before reaching the top of United’s union structure, Pejas served as a local council leader in Chicago starting in 2016. During that time, he helped rewrite the wording of United’s Canada admissibility policy, a change that stopped some flight attendants with old DUI convictions from losing their jobs simply because they could no longer legally enter Canada. The policy shift remains one of the lesser-known ways a union has directly protected members’ livelihoods at the airline.

Who is Scott Pejas, United Airlines’ New Flight Attendant Union Leader

Pejas began his flying career in 1996 out of United’s Los Angeles base before transferring to Chicago O’Hare in 1999, where he has remained ever since. He first entered union leadership in 2016, when he was elected Vice President and then President of Local Executive Council 8, which represents flight attendants based at O’Hare.

Pejas plans to keep flying as a working crew member even while leading the union’s largest airline membership. The Association of Flight Attendants represents roughly 55,000 flight attendants across nearly two dozen U.S. airlines, and United’s crews alone make up more than half of that total. That makes the United MEC presidency one of the most consequential positions within AFA’s entire structure.

Why a DUI Conviction can Ground a Flight Attendant at the Canadian Border

The policy change tied to Pejas traces back to a strict rule at the Canadian border. A DUI conviction in the United States within the last five years automatically makes a person inadmissible for entry to Canada. That standard applies to ordinary travelers, but it also applies to airline crew, including pilots and flight attendants who need to operate or lay over in the country.

For years, United required flight attendants to be legally able to operate to every destination in its network. A flight attendant who could not enter Canada because of a past DUI conviction therefore risked losing their job entirely, since Canada is one of the airline’s most frequently served international markets. Given how strict Canadian DUI law is compared with many U.S. states, this was not a rare edge case for United’s cabin crew workforce.

How Scott Pejas Helped Rewrite United’s Canada Admissibility Policy

Pejas’ work on this issue began during his time as Chicago’s local council leader, years before he became MEC President. The union describes the resulting change to United’s Canada admissibility language as one of Pejas’ most notable pieces of work. It reworked how the airline treats crew members who lose the legal right to enter a specific country partway through their career.

The practical effect is significant. Inadmissibility to Canada no longer automatically means a United flight attendant has to give up flying for the airline. That single change shifted the consequence of a past conviction from a potential firing offense to a scheduling issue instead, without requiring flight attendants to challenge their conviction or seek a rare legal exception just to keep their job.

What Changes for Flight Attendants who Can’t Legally Enter Canada

The updated policy works differently depending on seniority. Under the current system:

• Veteran flight attendants who are “lineholders” can simply bid for trip sequences that avoid Canada entirely, sidestepping the admissibility issue altogether.
• Newer flight attendants on reserve status have less control over their assignments. If they are assigned a trip that includes a stop in Canada, it is logged as a “missed trip” rather than treated as a refusal of duty.
• A pattern of missed trips can still lead to disciplinary action over time, but it does not result in automatic termination the way outright inadmissibility once did.

This system gives affected flight attendants a path to keep working while the airline still enforces its scheduling needs. It also means United, rather than losing an experienced crew member outright, can continue rostering them on the large majority of routes that do not touch Canadian airspace or airports.

Comparing United’s Policy to How Other Airlines Handle Inadmissible Crew

United is not alone in flying to Canada, but it is unusually flexible in how it treats crew members affected by inadmissibility. United applies a similar approach to its pilots as it does to flight attendants, allowing them to continue working around the restriction rather than facing automatic dismissal.

That consistency across both cockpit and cabin crew groups reflects a broader policy stance rather than a one-off carve-out for flight attendants alone.

Not every U.S. carrier offers the same flexibility. At other airlines, becoming inadmissible to Canada can still lead directly to termination, regardless of how minor the underlying conviction was or how long ago it occurred.

That gap between carriers is part of why the union frames this change as a genuine, tangible win, rather than a routine contract adjustment. It is exactly the kind of policy outcome that rarely makes headlines but can directly determine whether an employee keeps their career.

From Chicago O’Hare to the Top of AFA’s Largest Airline Local

The Canada admissibility rewrite was not Pejas’ only notable achievement as a local union leader. He was also involved in ending the exclusion of airline workers from the Illinois Employee Sick Leave Act, another example of behind-the-scenes union work that affected day-to-day protections for crew members rather than headline-grabbing pay disputes.

That track record shaped how Pejas was introduced to the wider United AFA membership once elected MEC President. The union’s own materials describe his approach going forward as centered on transparency and advocacy, building on the kind of policy work he carried out at the local level in Chicago for nearly a decade before taking the airline-wide role.

What else Scott Pejas takes on as MEC President

Pejas becomes MEC President at a moment when the union has just closed one of its longest and most difficult chapters: a labor contract fight that dragged on for years before flight attendants ratified an improved agreement. That deal is expected to remain in force for five years, giving the new union leadership a period of relative contract stability compared with the extended, and at times combative, negotiations that preceded it.

Outside of work, Pejas is married to his wife Caryn, has a son named Jack, and a Golden Retriever named Thor, according to details shared through the union’s own introduction of its newly elected officers. For AFA’s roughly 30,000 United flight attendants, though, his more immediate legacy so far is a quieter one: a policy change that meant a years-old DUI conviction no longer has to end a flying career simply because of a layover in Canada.