A week of negotiations in Washington, DC between American Airlines and the union representing flight attendants ended in an impasse. Now the union is warning its members that a strike is closer than ever, with only two hurdles left.
Without A Deal, Strike Looms On The Horizon For American Airlines Flight Attendants In July
Both sides met with federal mediators in the District of Columbia this week in an effort to avert a strike and hash out a deal. Flight attendants have not seen a raise since 2019, a period that has seen persistent inflation erode the value of those wages.
The union now expects the National Mediation Board to insist upon one more “last ditch” effort to resolve differences and ink a deal. If that fails, flight attendants will be authorized to strike after a 30-day cooling off period.
https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1796727918082834886
The current timeline suggests we could see a strike as soon as the second week in July.
As View From The Wing points out, demanding a higher profit share seems to miss the point when American Airlines loses money flying and just downwardly revised its 2024 earning estimates.
American Airlines flight attendants demand a "fair share of the profits" but I don't think this is helpful framing.
They haven't gotten a raise since 1/1/19 and have seen wages eroded by inflation. Southwest and Delta crew earn more than they do.
But American spends orders of… pic.twitter.com/YYblR8ZURS
— gary leff (@garyleff) May 31, 2024
The Politics Of This In An Election Year
All of this puts the Biden Administration in a very difficult position. It’s an election year and a strike over the summer that ruins the travel plans of thousands of Americans and goes viral in the media will not help the President’s message that the economy is on the right track. Biden counts organized labor as a critical ally and is not going to come out publicly against any union action, even if that includes a disastrous strike.
But you can bet his Administration will be doing everything it can behind the scenes to prevent this and from a consumer perspective that should be lauded if it diminishes the possibility of a strike.
A strike will benefit no one…not flight attendants, not other AA workers, not the airline, and certainly not consumers. I’m of the opinion that if AA CEO Robert Isom made $31 million last year despite the poor performance of AA, his front-line workers deserve a raise to keep up with inflation and avoid having to seek out public assistance. I’d still like to see a deal that gives greater raises and higher starting pay to junior flight attendants, some of whom are really scraping by right now (and yes, I am quite aware that they chose their profession but I am adamant that anyone who works full time should not need any public assistance or else something is very wrong with the system).
CONCLUSION
I’ve had Award Expert clients asking me already if they should reschedule their trips on American Airlines this summer. At this point, it is absolutely premature and I still predict that after more hand-wringing and faux outrage, a deal will be reached later this month. But it is undeniable the two sides are still far apart and flight attendants find themselves one step closer to a strike as we enter June.
image: APFA
I think Isom is counting on FA’s not striking and calling their bluff because a strike wouldn’t do them or American Airlines any good. Customers will remember and not soon forget or forgive if American FA’s go on strike.
Having said that I do think AA needs to pay their FA’s a living wage. There is no excuse for a full time newly hired FA to receive a poverty verification letter from AA. There is no excuse as to why a new hire FA qualifies for tax payer funded public assistance while their CEO makes $31 million a year. American needs to pay their flight attendants a livable wage but at the same time the flight attendants need to give up their demands on profit sharing seeing how American managed to to post record revenue in the first quarter of this year yet somehow still managed to loose hundreds of millions of dollars in the same quarter. Take the money in your pay check, take the boarding pay which I believe AA is offering and leave the profit sharing for the next round contract negotiations in 3 or 4 years from now.
Going on strike will help senior flight attendants but it will devastate and hurt junior flight attendants. And if customers leave American for good for United, Delta, Southwest, Alaska, JetBlue that will undoubtedly lead to furloughs at AA starting with the most junior FA’s who already can’t afford to live without public assistance.
Robert Isom (CEO) received over $31,000,000.00 in 2023 while some full time flight attendants receive food stamps. This means us tax payers are subsidizing Isom annually earnings. Pay the guy $1,000,000.00 per year.
Sorry in advance for Dunning out, but Delta FA’s = not unionized, higher pay, higher profit sharing, happier FAs, better service.
WTF are they doing over there in AA and their union.
I just feel that upper brass at AA still haven’t grown out of their sorta “low cost carrier” mentality and it’s been shooting them in the foot. I’ve stayed away from AA for some time and haven’t looked back.
Cut the pay of senior FAs. They make way too much. Raise the pay for FAs with little seniority. All FAs should get nearly the same pay with a small premium for experience.
Exactly!
The UNION decides how the FAs share of the pie is divvied up, not Executives at AA. It’s all about how the contracts are written and enforced and the union leadership, being made up of mostly senior FAs always benefit themselves and their cronies citing seniority etc … if they really. honestly cared about the plight of junior FAs then why aren’t they shaving off percentages of pay increases for the most senior FAs making the most money already and giving a higher percentage of wage increase to the impoverished junior FAs? They could, they could build that into the new contracts, but they never have and am guessing they never will. Which means they don’t truly care and it’s just theatrical crocodile tears.
That is not to say the AA FA’s don’t have some legitimate gripes … they sure do such as lack of boarding pay and other work rules and they certainly deserve a new contract and raise, I just don’t think they are being very realistic. at how much and how many things they are asking for. Maybe due to the historic pilot contract … the purpose of negotiation is both sides give and get. The FAs are acting as if there is no negotiating, just demands to be met. That’s just not how it works, neither side gets everything they want. They seem to have forgotten that.
Lastly … talk about tone deaf and first world problems! The fact that these folks have the poor taste to be equating their entitled attitude and demands for things that are just not reasonable to War is disgusting.
There are real wars going on … kids orphaned and killed, people tortured, death and destruction, terrorism going on right now in hot spots all over the world … real WAR … that analogy is in such poor taste it makes me question any type of intelligence or any ability to empathize with other human beings on the part of the union leadership that came up with that … they are completely self-absorbed. Kind of hard to support them looking at it that way. I can’t believe no one had the sense to point that out to whomever thought that was a good campaign … just stunning