I’m still betting there will be no strike, but the union representing flight attendants at American Airlines has just warned its members that a strike is closer than ever after “final” negotiations failed to produce a deal.
Union Tells American Airlines Flight Attendants That Strike Is Imminent
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) and American Airlines have sat down with federal mediators in the District of Columbia in a last-ditch effort to hammer out a deal. But no deal has been reached and another week has gone by:
After years of bargaining, including almost a year of mediated talks with the assistance of the National Mediation Board, and despite the Union’s best efforts, American Airlines did not come to the table with an agreement that adequately compensates American’s 28,000 Flight Attendants…
We do not believe further negotiations will be scheduled prior to the National Mediation Board determining to release the parties into a thirty-day cooling-off period. All American Airlines Flight Attendants should prepare for an upcoming strike.
This isn’t the end: a deal could be reached even after flight attendants are granted the 30-day cooling-off period.
The two sides are still fairly far apart on back pay, with the union seeking pay raises to be retroactively effective as far back as 2019. Since Southwest gave its flight attendants full retroactive pay in their recent deal, flight attendants at AA are seeking the same thing.
Maybe It’s Time To Call The Bluff?
American Airlines has about 28,000 flight attendants. Replacing them overnight would not be possible…or even smart business. But maybe it’s time for AA to start seriously thinking about a lockout and training new hires?
As AA adjusts growth targets and freezes pilot hiring, the 17% pay raise AA offered with no strings attached seems better than ever, especially for junior flight attendants.
Sure, this is all a game of bluffing to an extent, but expecting years of backpay does not strike me a realistic at this point. What other jobs offer years of backpay like this outside of the airline industry?
I’m no fan of CEO Robert Isom or his $30 million paycheck last year. With inflation high over the last several years, the cost of living has certainly gone up.
But the fundamental problem remains: there is no shortage of folks lining up and happy to be flight attendants at present wages…that’s why the 17% pay raise seems so reasonable.
Many of us would like 17% wage increases and are not getting them, so I am not sure how much the public will be willing to support a strike when their summer plans are canceled…
CONCLUSION
Flight attendants at American Airlines say negotiations are over and a stirke is imminent. I’m still betting on a last-minute deal that American Airlines cannot afford, but the two sides remain in disagreement over key issues. Maybe it’s time for AA to start looking at more drastic options as well?
How long until we see the general public fearful of booking AA because of mainstream media coverage of a potential strike? It hasn’t got a lot of coverage yet but I expect it soon.
Could be the final nail toward the bankruptcy for American some are expecting. And then the question becomes what does the AA that comes out of it look like?
So , Strike already . Knock off the pussy-footing around , and man-up . If they weren’t so hesitant , they would have strike long ago . In UK the railway workers strike much faster then jet workers in US .
And the UK railway workers obtain pay increases rather quickly as a result of their surprise strikes . If the AA FAs don’t go for it , then they are chicken .
@Alert – airline workers in the US can’t simply just go on strike – they have to get approval by the NMB, outlined by the Railway Labor Act (RLA). The employees at this point are held hostage. They have formally asked twice: one of which was rejected in Nov2023, and the current is still pending (hence all the news on it – the NMB is expected to make a decision soon).
They aren’t held hostage. Nothing is preventing any one of them from leaving the airline industry altogether.
Years of back pay is necessary so they don’t keep prolonging this for years the next time. They do it on purpose because they’re shielded by the RLA knowing aircrew can’t strike (Nor “go to another job”, as they would start back at the bottom). Now the CEO is scared it may actually happen – so he wants to try give them a raise outside negotiations in an effort to show the NMB they’re not at an impasse. If it was genuine, he would do it at the negotiation meeting or he would have done that years ago, not simply on the last day. The contract itself was 5 years, yet it’s been expired (or “amendable” as airline contracts don’t technically expire) for 5.5?
CEO Isom, then President at the time was the one who planned all this “we have to compete with Spirit at all costs.” Now look at AA. They sure did compete, and AA’s stock growth reflects exactly like Spirit – a downward trend. While the other legacy carriers’ have rebounded. I believe the man is on the chopping block. Blames COO for all his previous decisions and fires him, trying to win back corporate travelers, labor relations at an all time low – he also has his house suddenly for listed sale in Highland Park. But, he don’t care – his exit package is $30m. He gutted AA and will get his golden parachute, much to the demise of all his employees. People like that should go to jail.
Also, to add above – AA can’t simply replace the flight attendants. Their training facilities can barely handle 1,000 trainees at one time. Even if they did an expedited training of 2 weeks, that would take around a year to train 27,000 new flight attendants. The airline will lose $130 million a day by those airplanes not being able to take off (excluding pure cargo flights). The airline would not survive even two weeks.
Thank you so much for explaining this to people who think they are in the know but are missing a few key pieces of info.
@Alert – airline workers in the US can’t simply just go on strike – they have to get approval by the NMB, outlined by the Railway Labor Act (RLA). The employees at this point are held hostage. They have formally asked twice: one of which was rejected in Nov2023, and the current is still pending (hence all the news on it – the NMB is expected to make a decision soon).
That’s what I thought. I was about to go look it up to be certain.
That being said, I doubt 27k flight attendants would leave en masse regardless of a deal. It’s not like they have extraordinary marketable skills (in many cases) where they would go an get a 30% raise just for jumping ship. Not saying this to be a d… But sometimes they do need to realize their worth. Additionally, the worth of some of them is less than what they get paid now.
You clearly don’t realize that most flight attendants actually have degrees. They chose the job because they love it. They deserve fair pay and a fair contract. I support them.
Having a degree doesn’t mean much in terms of being able to find another job. I’m guessing those that do have degrees, have degrees in very unmarketable fields like Communications, Marketing, etc. I’ve known more than a few servers and bartenders with varying degrees in majors like English.
The reality is that many of them would have a tough time finding another job. Some wouldn’t but if they are so severely underpaid and mistreated they would have left if they had better opportunities.
Fair pay can be vastly different things to people.
Having a degree is irrelevant to what I said. You say you support them now, then you will whine when the cost of tickets go up. Good grief.
After the insanity of American’s gigantic pilot pay agreement that the airline basically couldn’t afford there simply isn’t much money left to offer flight attendants.
Lots of electronic ink has been spilled over what amounts to gross ineptitude by AA’s management and board by continuing to follow the AmericaWest ULCC DNA while maintaining the cost structure of a full service airline. Ultimately the airline is going to have to decide whether to be a larger Spirit or an airline that can charge more because they have a better product. The big problem is that this management is incapable of doing that. It’s time for a clean slate.
I mean pilots are harder to train/recruit and losing too many of them does put the airline at a distinct disadvantage. When the FA’s jobs can largely be trained in a month (or less) if push comes to shove, then they are more expendable.
That being said, yes, their management is a flaming pile of garbage and should have been shown the door post covid. However, none of these execs that keep getting recycled at these corps are any better and they refuse to hire people who don’t come “pre-packaged” with “experience”. Otherwise, Scott Kirby would have never been given a job outside of plane washer.
I agree with this 100%. They cry foul on its labor when labor will simply always be there. They will never point fingers at themselves (management).
Isom was behind all this “compete with Spirit” hoo-rah (gutting planes, service, premium account holders, AAdvantage program, etc), now when it didn’t work, he blames others, fires them, then tries to blame labor for bringing it all down. This man refuses to look in the mirror – he and his US Airways/AW team has destroyed AA’s product. Yet, he’ll get his golden parachute ($30m exit package – on top of whatever he’s getting paid annually), and the other 120,000 employees are left in the dust. He should go to jail.
there is no magic to bring the two parties together………both have to calculate perfectly to get the most they can get without a strike. Those calculations are more complex than a high stakes poker game. i don’t envy those involved in pulling this off.
Crap service and ugly clogs are cheap to come by. I say replace them if they walk. Because in the end it all comes back to consumers f AA caves.
I have booked travel for July and August and didn’t even check fares on AA because of the uncertainty around this. Probably an overreaction but why risk it when there are other options available? (And I finally get to check out Delta’s A220.)
I’m about to look at September travel and have no plans to check AA’s fares or schedules.
I think it is untenable since AA can’t afford more, there is a zero sum when you choose to overpay your CEO and leadership and pilots but tell FA’s to pound sand for year. I also think it is ridiculous that airlines have this much power that they can just stall negotiations for years and years and not offer raises and then it seems like 17% is a lot. But it’s not if you look at it from the perspective of not getting a COLA each year that should have been at least 3% or more, so it’s more like at least half that “raise” is COLA. I can see why FA’s are angry- they stuck around in good faith thinking an agreement was coming and got more and more senior- so their options now are crap- stay and get limited raise/COLA, or go to a new airline that is better and start over. AA made a lot of mistakes that have compounded a problem that they kicked down the road as future AA’s problem. Terrible to see, like watching a car wreck in slow motion.
I’m sorry, I get kinda tired of the silly CEO pay argument as it isn’t really grounded in reality. Even if you didn’t pay Isom, and I’m not saying he is good, clearly he isn’t, that would amount to 0.50 an hour nominal raise if evenly divided over the FA’s alone. Also, lots of people aren’t getting more than 3% cola raises. This isn’t limited to the airlines.
This article displays your lack of understanding of labor negotiations in the airline industry. Back pay is nearly non negotiable for labor unions. It isn’t because of the pay per se, though that is obviously important. Rather the issue is that if unions don’t demand back pay, they lose all leverage to force management into negotiating in good faith. If management knows they won’t have to make good on back pay, they will drag their feet in negotiating more than they already do. The Railway Labor Act, which governs the negotiating process for airlines, already heavily favors management. Without the consequences of back pay the unions have virtually zero leverage.
I’m quite aware of the how the process works and you’re right to the extent that backpay does put the fire under the feet of managmenet to reach an agreement. But with a 17% raise and more meainingful profit share on the table, I don’t think back wages are a reasonable ask.
1. A 17% increase doesn’t even keep up with inflation since 2019.
2. I wouldn’t be the least bit impressed by an offer of profit sharing from a company that is $30+ BILLION in debt.
The union knows that if they give in on back pay they will be paying the price for it long after these negotiations are over. They can give in on a lot of things. Back pay is not one of them.
Matthew, I used to work for Amtrak. They like all railroads and airlines were covered under the Railway Labor Act. Contracts always went beyond the point where they were amendable. Back pay was always paid, but you had to be on the payroll to get the back pay. It was typically paid in a few lump sums (not one) after settlement. It’s true American can’t afford to pay more, but that’s because AA is badly run and actually loses money or breaks even on flying. AAdvantage the largest loyalty program in the world makes money, not flying people around (and I realize without the airline AAdvantage wouldn’t be profitable) like say DL. Honestly, I think the real negotiations come when the union and AA are released and in the 30 day cooling off period. Until then, both sides want to be seen as fighting for their shareholders and members down the wire.
So what your article fails to mention is an immediate 17% raise puts them pretty much where Delta is and that is not any surprise. YEARS of contract negotiations and they are still offering the same EXACT thing they were offering in the beginning.
Furthermore, Southwest offered a 22% raise to it’s flight attendants. To me the issue at AA is sounding like a failure in leadership but that is nothing new for them.
Also American Airlines rescinded job offers when they had flight attendants ready to go to training so they don’t seem to care how it looks to the general public either or having back up flight attendants.
One quick correction. When you say “training new hires” it should be corrected to “hiring scabs to break the picket line.”
That’s right – and I’d imagine some junior FAs might be willing to do it for a 20% pay increase when their union actions mean they cannot pay thier bills.
I just don’t see this ending well for AA or the FAs.
I have 4 upcoming business trips that I need to book. American Exec Plat, Million Miler +, etc.
None of the flights will be booked on American. I can’t be the only one who is walking away from AA.
And who knows, I may never come back. They treat me better on other carriers with zero status than they do on American — despite the ridiculous amount of Loyalty Points I’ve earned in 2024, plus large credit card spend.
Note to the union: FAFO.
Would such a strike include regional FAs like PSA and Republic?
AA management will look like idiots should the FAs strike:
– Alaska FAs just settled their contract, why not AA
– the Rep & Dem National Conventions are just around the corner, one convention is in a AA hub, bad optics
– PAX will flock to the other legacy and LCC carriers for service during the peak summer crush, lost revenue never regained
– cash will drain from AA, hope they have huge lines of credit with the bankers
– BOD and shareholders have short tempers and will jettison C-Suite leadership in a flash to preserve dividends
Lots of chest pieces in play. Wonder who makes the next move??
“What other jobs offer years of backpay like this outside of the airline industry?”
Most other union jobs outside of transportation can strike the minute their contract expires. See the car industry strikes of the big 3 . They don’t negotiate for 5 years after their contract expired. Glad you did your homework.
I’m talking about the overall economy – it is still a small fraction of overall jobs.
What about saying a 17% pay raise is “reasonable” when the inflation since their contract became amenable has been 23% and US average wage growth over that time has been 34%. Another example of Matt doing his homework…
@ Matt – Inflation has risen 22.8% since the contract became amenable in 2019, 17% pay rise is not reasonable.
Also @Matt you said that no other industries get back pay. Can you please point out the industries where the employees get shafted with no contract for 5 years? And please tell me what incentive management has to not screw the employees like this again if they don’t have to pay back pay?
I’m really disappointed with your analysis here…