American Airlines flight attendants overwhelmingly made their feelings clear, they aren’t happy and they are willing to strike. What does this mean for flights?
If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please click here. Both support LiveAndLetsFly.com.
If you haven’t followed us on Facebook or Instagram, add us today.
American Airlines Flight Attendants Authorize Strike
American Airlines flight attendants voted this week to authorize a strike. On August 30, 2023, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants held a strike vote looking for better wages especially for its most experienced union members. It’s important to note that this does not mean a strike is imminent. The vote is intended to put pressure on the Fort Worth, Texas based carrier and bring management to the table.
While fast paced, it’s possible that the two sides could come together before any strike takes place. However, short of reaching an agreement within 30 days, the strike remains a possibility for FAs at American. It will go before the National Mediation Board for review.
“American said, “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made in negotiations with the APFA, and we look forward to reaching an agreement that provides our flight attendants with real and meaningful value. We understand that a strike authorization vote is one of the important ways flight attendants express their desire to get a deal done.” – CNBC
FAs may picket at airports or take other measures that draw attention to their position.
United Airlines flight attendants have also indicated their displeasure meeting United know that they are ready for a contract and have been for two years. It may set the stage for similar labor group action much as we saw with ever-competing pilot pay packages earlier in the year.
Overwhelming Support
I buried the lede a bit. I’m sorry. I felt like this deserved an entire section of its own.
Of the Professional Flight Attendants Association members that were eligible to vote, 93% made their voices heard. That’s a shockingly high turnout and there’s a possibility that some FAs who were eligible simply weren’t available or were unable to submit the vote rather than disinterested.
But wait, there’s more.
The vote to strike was approved by 99.5%. At that rate based on the turnout of the airline’s 26,000 flight attendants and their votes, all but 120 (give or take) flight attendants voted to authorize the strike.
What Does It Mean For Travelers?
What happens to American Airlines travelers over the next 30 days? Legally, nothing should affect their travel plans. As the CNBC article linked above makes clear,
“Federal law makes it difficult for airline unions to conduct legal strikes — they need a decision from federal mediators that further negotiations would be pointless, which rarely happens. The president and Congress can also get involved to delay or block a strike.” – CNBC
However, if the FAs feel their voices aren’t being heard. It’s possible that they may make their impact felt through other labor actions. Mechanics were accused of writing excessive repair tickets to affect the airline’s performance some years ago, pilots were accused of sick-outs. These were both unconfirmed but demonstrate that in the event that a group wants to make an impact, they can do so while technically remaining on the right side of their agreement while still encouraging management to come back to the table with a serious offer.
If FAs are unable to secure a deal with management and follow through with a strike, they won’t be able to shut the airline down entirely, rather they will have to stage strikes in pieces. This will still cause a massive disruption to American’s operation and travelers will face cancelled flights and enhanced delays from fewer available FAs moving around the world to operate their next flight.
While a strike could come at a “good time” given that it’s after Labor Day and not directly around major holiday periods, The next two months can have particularly challenging weather at American’s hubs in Miami and Dallas as hurricane season will be in full swing.
But in all likelihood management will structure a deal averting an American Airlines strike by flight attendants.
Conclusion
Nearly every American Airlines flight attendant is mad about their compensation package, and is demanding a new contract. Given the airlines recent track record of capitulation, the FA work action vote is a shrewd one. Their fellow compatriots at United may get a better deal by going after American. If this happens as it did for the pilots, the United FAs might get a further raise for American FAs who will demand a match to the best available contract terms. This exact scenario occurred in the pilots labor group a the two respective airlines earlier this year. More than anything else, I am shocked that 99.5% of more than 25,000 people can agree on anything at all right now, that’s impressive in and of itself.
What do you think? Will the strike ever materialize? Will United inadvertently help American renegotiate their contract as they did with the pilots?
I’m sorry, but they need to provide much better service before receiving better pay/benefits. I would vote to decrease their pay, because they seem to be wanting more without providing better customer service.
Here before the tirade of comments saying how unreasonable these FAs are asking for raises given the service they provide. I think we can all agree that service standards on US-based airlines are definitely pretty poor. But the way some people act about strangers wanting work conditions at their job to be improved makes it seem like their paycheck is coming straight out of your bank account.
These airlines are making money hand over fist after a summer of record travel and FAs deserve a raise, if only due to cost of living increases alone. Pay is not the only thing in question here, a new contract brings new work rules that can improve trips builds, layovers, and IRROP policies. I especially admire the UA flight attendants picketing this week shedding light onto the “quality of life” improvements aside from pay that are needed—crew should not be waiting on the phone for hours with crew scheduling. You can debate pay all you want, but a new contract can improve a lot besides pay and alleviate problems passengers rarely think about.
They work a highly desired job that requires little to no skill, and are easily replaced.
AA should go in the other direction and finally break up that union. It’s long past due.
Yea, airlines should be able to have FAA (flight attendant assistants) and paraflight attendants that are paid less.
They can’t. See SCOPE clause!! Nice try!!
God for bid you are on a flight requiring a water ditching or evacuation. Then you will see what low skill set is all about. You have no clue what you are talking about. Stay home Will.
Forgive me if I don’t trust flight attendants who don’t care about their passengers when times are normal to suddenly start caring during an emergency.
It’s fundamentally a job that doesn’t require a high level of skill or years of previous experience. If you’re a flight attendant who’s mad about not getting a raise, there are five applicants waiting behind you to take your place.
Sorry you can’t come to terms with that.
Not as easy to fill these jobs as you think. Sure there are many candidates for the openings. Airlines cannot train flight attendants fast enough.
The attrition rate is high for a variety of reasons. Maybe Matthew should do a piece on that.
Don’t think new hires crack $30,000 a year for the first 4-5 years. Try living on that in the ny tri state area, the Bay Area, Chicago, DC ie many areas where there are bases.
If the AA FA’s truly want to be happy with their jobs, they first need to come to grips with what their job is. Their job is just as the job title suggests, to attend to all the needs of the passengers during the flight. That includes assisting with boarding and luggage, serving promptly and efficiently all the beverage and food services for the flight, and doing all of it with a cheerful attitude.
They need to come to grips with the fact that they have almost nothing to do with flight safety. That is the responsibility of the pilots, mechanics and air controllers. The FA’s are just along for the ride like the passengers when it comes to the critical flight safety issues.
Except that’s not true. The flight attendants actually are there mainly for safety. Do you really think the multibillion dollar corporations whom charge $50 for a checked bag would keep the flight attendants around if their main purpose was to serve sodas and pretzels? They would have been replaced decades ago with vending machines, especially at the ultra low cost carriers
If parents said “we are here primarily for kids’ safety” and neglected them except to watch for house fires, parents would be arrested.
This is not even remotely true…aviation safety is a team effort. While flight attendants don’t fly the plane or do engine inspections, it’s all part of the “Swiss cheese” explanation to safety. When severe turbulence is expected, who will wake sleeping passengers to buckle their seatbelt? In a ditching, who is going to stop pax from opening the rear doors and sinking the aircraft? Passengers can’t even pay attention to a exit row briefing, who expects them to know how to open a door in an emergency situation, let alone know when it is safe to do so? There are multiple instances of accidents where lives are saved due to the actions of FAs. You might not see them do anything safety critical on your average flight but I guarantee they are necessary.
You think pilots are getting you off the plane that’s on fire from the mistake they made (about 75%). No flight attendants are. You think mechanics are giving you CPR? Or are they just putting duck tape on the engine. Get real. You’re a clown.
With any luck they’ll take the whole airline down with it. I used to fly AA religiously, over half a million miles. Not anymore. It’s sad how far they have fallen.
Amusing to see these shit-tier FAs in mid/shit-tier airlines in UA and AA demand more pay while they stay on their candy crush and generally continue to be shit-tier as an FA and proclaim that “safety” is their only job.
If FA strike, they need to be prepared for public criticism after the strike. FA need to be prepared to defend their right to strike. This will be very very interesting to watch. There are many junior and senior FA with horrible work ethic who treat passenger as an annoyance. These FA should leave the profession asap. They hate the job and passengers feel it. Union needs to be stronger in its message to the Members as well. If you dont like it here? Speak to us. We will help you exit the Company.
What do the AA flight attendants want? Just higher pay? Or is something else the problem? I know at United, while nobody would turn down a raise, that isn’t the major issue. The enormous numbers of 3 leg redeye trips (with sit time, no less) and the entire lack of any clean lines are the biggest issues if the huge number of complaints I hear daily about both issues is any indication. I don’t think I ever hear anybody complain about our hourly wage, but we would like some quality of life returned to us.
They should be allowed to bust up the union and hire non-union replacements all young and pretty. No Gays, Grannies or Grande.
No issue at all. This is one of the 2 airlines globally that I avoid at any cost.
Slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment. No one is being forced to work as a flight attendant.
Management (in any Company) seems to have memory loss in their deliberate failure to remember that their front line employees are the face of the Company not the Bean Counters or golden parachute Executives. And when front line employees aren’t happy … NO ONE IS HAPPY.
I can definitely tell that they’re unhappy.