JetBlue’s 2,529 pilots have voted to unionize.

Roughly 71 percent of the pilots cast ballots in favor of joining the Air Line Pilots Association during a month-long election that wrapped up on April 22.

The pilots are the first group of JetBlue workers to succeed in unionizing. They tried and failed to win union representation in votes held in 2009 and 2011. JetBlue had been nonunion since it was founded in 1998.

The two sides will begin negotiations after the National Mediation Board, which conducted the election, certifies the union.

Representing some 50,000 pilots in the United States and Canada, the association is the largest pilots’ union in the country. It also represents pilots at Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

Captain Lee Moak, the union president, said that the addition of the JetBlue pilots would “make our union stronger by adding their unified voices to the association’s strong bargaining and advocacy efforts.”

Reuters, April 22
The New York Times, April 22