American Flight Attendants Prepare For Strike As Negotiations Fail

The “big three” carriers in the United States have had quite a couple of years, with record revenue (though also record costs). This success is a bit of a double-edged sword for airlines, as many labor groups are also looking for huge raises.

While American Airlines pilots ratified a lucrative contract in August 2023, flight attendants are still waiting on a new contract. Current pay is so poor that new hire flight attendants qualify for food stamps in some states. Flight attendants voted to authorize a strike nearly a year ago, though they haven’t been released from mediation.

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While negotiations have been taking place in recent weeks, there’s now some bad news — apparently negotiations have once again ended with no resolution, and flight attendants are being told to prepare for a strike. While we haven’t seen a flight attendant strike in the United States in decades, something’s gotta give here…

The basics of American flight attendant negotiations

American Airlines and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) have been in negotiations for a new contract for years. The two parties had started negotiations before the pandemic — as you might expect, that was put on hold for some time, given how the aviation industry changed in 2020.

Negotiations resumed in 2021, though around three years later, flight attendants still don’t have a new contract. The reason these negotiations are complicated is because flight attendants are demanding massive pay increases. We’ve seen a huge amount of inflation in recent years, and flight attendants want their new contracts to reflect that, along with retroactive pay.

Last year, American flight attendants voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. When flight attendants voted to authorize a strike, that didn’t mean a strike was anywhere close to happening. After all, they need to follow the procedures of the Railway Labor Act. A strike is only permitted if the mediation process fails, and then there needs to be a 30-day cooling off period before a strike could occur. Despite multiple requests to be released from mediation, that hasn’t yet been granted.

American’s management has promised flight attendants an industry leading contract. That promise was made before any other US airlines got to the point of approving a new contract, so that’s a bit of an empty promise.

We recently saw Southwest flight attendants ratify a new contract that sees them getting huge raises, plus retroactive pay. So if American management is serious about an industry leading contract, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what that entails.

Union tells members to prepare for a strike

Up until now, American’s flight attendant union hasn’t been released from mediation, meaning they haven’t been able to start the 30-day clock on a strike.

In the past couple of weeks, negotiations have been ongoing, but they’ve finally once again stopped, without a resolution. The flight attendant union is once again pushing to be released from mediation, and is telling members to prepare for a strike.

Earlier in June, the union set up a strike command center, to answer questions from flight attendants regarding a strike. The union states that it will only present a contract to members that meets economic requirements, including retroactive compensation for five years of stagnant wages.

The union suggests that members make preparations for a strike, including setting aside money, considering moving up doctor and dentist appointments, refilling prescriptions as early as possible, applying for “union-friendly” credit cards that have provisions concerning payments in the event of a strike, avoiding “big ticket” purchases, and more.

Management got sneaky behind union’s back

It’s worth noting that back in early June, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom wrote a note directly to flight attendants, offering them a 17% pay increase effective immediately, with no strings attached. It’s pretty well written, and smart on management’s part:

The company and APFA negotiating teams have been meeting regularly for months to reach a new agreement. We have made progress in a number of key areas, but there’s still a good deal of work to be done.

We will be back at the table with APFA leadership next week and a deal is within reach, but I don’t know how long it will take to get to the finish line and I don’t want another day to go by without increasing your pay.

So, to get more money to you now, we presented APFA with a proposal that offers immediate wage increases of 17% and a new formula that would increase your 2024 profit sharing.

This means we’ve offered increased pay for all flight attendants and are not asking your union for anything in return. This is unusual. But these are unusual times.

If APFA agrees, the increase would be effective for the June bid month, and you would see the increased rates in your pay on June 30.

Importantly, this does not replace our commitment to get the deal done as soon as possible but gives each of you an increase in pay now. We are committed to reaching a new agreement and now is the time to make a deal.

The union wasn’t happy about management trying to communicate directly with flight attendants, rather than through the union. For that matter, flight attendants expressed their displeasure with management, and quickly rejected this proposal.

It goes without saying that presumably management had a motive here, beyond just being charitable. On the one hand, more money immediately with no strings attached would have gotten flight attendants some much needed money immediately. On the other hand, the intent here was clear — it was supposed to weaken the bargaining position of the union, and decrease the odds of them getting the contract that they want. After all, management would argue they already got a “reasonable” 17% pay increase, and that should be enough.

I’m curious to see the outcome of this

Let me start by saying that I think flight attendants work hard while not being paid particularly well. I wouldn’t last long as a flight attendant, because I’d lose my patience with the traveling public. While service is consistently inconsistent, there are so many flight attendants who do a great job, and they deserve these raises.

Here’s my take on these negotiations:

• I can’t blame flight attendants for wanting more pay, and for negotiating for as much money as they can… who doesn’t want a raise?
• The fundamental issue with flight attendant negotiations vs. pilot negotiations is that there was a pilot shortage, while there seems to be a never-ending pool of people who want to become flight attendants (which airlines always highlight, by claiming that getting hired as a flight attendant is more selective than getting into an Ivy League)
• Even if there’s not a flight attendant shortage, the issue is that all the flight attendants belong to one union, so collectively they have quite a bit of bargaining power
• Airlines are getting to the point where I think they have unsustainable cost structures, but I also can’t blame flight attendants for wanting pay raises when you have some pilots making $400+ per hour

Southwest flight attendants just got great new contracts with immediate 22% pay increases, and 3% pay increases in each of 2025, 2026, and 2027. On top of that, they received retro pay, which comes out to around $18K per flight attendant. You’d think that would set the tone for negotiations at other airlines…

Of course American’s fundamental issue is that the airline lags Delta and United when it comes to profitability. Like, American can barely afford these contracts, but that’s not really the fault of frontline employees. Go figure that the compensation for American’s CEO doesn’t reflect the company’s lackluster performance.

Bottom line

American Airlines is currently negotiating a new contract with its flight attendants, which has been going on for years. In the past couple of weeks, the two parties have been making what they claim is their final attempt at negotiating a new contract.

The union has now said that negotiations have failed, and is telling flight attendants to make preparations for the possibility of a strike. A strike could only happen if the union was released from mediation, and that would then trigger a 30-day cooling off period.

We literally haven’t seen a flight attendant strike in decades. So while it seems unlikely that a strike would happen, at the same time, it seems that there’s no other way forward…

How do you see this situation playing out?