American Flight Attendants Reject New Contract

Didn't the AA FAs and Pilots reach an agreement with Doug prior to the merger? And didn't they say that everything would be all to their benefit and awesome -- which is why they encouraged the merger? Where is that article to insure I have my facts straight?

This is hilarious! 😀 The AA unions jumped in bed with Dougie because of their irrational hatred of the pmAA management, and now it's coming back to bite them in the rear!

Or you could work at Delta and just avoid all of this mess! 🙂

Just fascinating that it was voted down by only 16 votes! Unreal. I bet the union leadership is just sick to their stomach with it having been so close.

Human nature, who'd a thunk it. Selfish, irrational, and ultimately seemingly self-destructive.

I like reading your blog Ben. You provide useful information for folks like me who are trying to get through life with as little pain as possible; and enjoy Krug. I'm assuming we both are putting a lot of thought into what we're doing and why, and hence have a tendency not to judge others.

The problems of the world are manifest, and those of us who have access to a free press, and use it, as bloggers or commenters, and who have more freedom of choice than most of humanity can only dream of, must I think, pause before judging others in print.

For someone who makes a living flying around the world endlessly to no good end, but for his own pleasure and a blog post, I'd advise hesitation before critiquing others who provide the service upon which that very living depends.

Environmentally, your chosen profession is close to the most destructive to the planet and to the future of humanity that I can imagine. I don't mean to be harsh, but would you disagree ?

You provide a somewhat useful service to people like myself, who too are hurtling selfishly toward oblivion. But I'd personally prefer you'd refrain from critising those who make it possible. Besides, it's so uncouth...don't descend into that hell known as FlyerTalk ! It's why I read you blog in the first place, it's so positive and upbeat !

AA is, in my humble opinion, by far the best legacy US domestic airline currently in operation. My experience is mostly flying up and down the west coast, my base being SFO. All the operations staff in SFO and LAX, particularly the Admirals Club in SFO, are pretty much great.
Hopefully the FAs as a whole have made the right choice and it will work out. But not knowing the corporate culture there and all the dynamics, I'll support them through the process without criticism until it's resolved. It's the least I can do after all the great service they have provided me over the years.

Kind regards,

Tom.

"For five intense months of negotiations, our JNC confronted management against a backstop of binding arbitration. "

This type of communication seems to only put a wedge between management and "us." As if to say we had to make them give us this contract, which leads people to believe that if you try harder you can get more.
AA flight attendants wanted this merger more than any other workgroup, it's time to start acting like adults and realize you can't make hundreds of thousands of dollars being a flight attendant. When I was at headquarters coworkers in managemnt started believing there was no way to make that work group happy. It just became a joke. Everyone makes career choices and at a certain point a person has to realize there is a max pay and not everyone can be the CEO. They need to grow up.

I think the one FA comment gives a pretty good idea why many voted this way: "But, in two years we could have made what we were making OVER a decade ago."
Many FA at AA ( and UA and other legacy carriers) are, understandably, still bitter that they lost a lot of income and perks over the years. Some realize that that is just how times have changed and they are still better off than for example switching to Southwest. Some still expect/hope that things will go back to the way they were.... resulting in what seems like an irrational vote to me...

It sounds to me like the ex-TWA flight attendants wanted to send a message. More than a decade in the making...

@Tom – I do not take Ben’s comments on this matter as “judging” or “critising” [sic] those who make his travels possible. We, the travelers, make our trips possible by paying for (or earning) those trips, which results in jobs creation. Contrary to your impression, I took Ben’s comments on this as him being somewhat concerned for the FA and is contemplating if they may in fact be get a worse outcome than what they had hoped for by voting down this T/A - which could also affect travelers in various aspects down the road. His post is perfectly reasonable and salient.

@BHill @Lucky

I re-read the whole post again and I agree with you regarding Ben's concern.
Ben, I apologize, please take down my comment.

Tom.

Tom,

How exactly does Ben's flying differ from anyone else's? He flies for his profession as do millions of others. As to "no good end" I am assuming that all of your flying is done to provide humanitarian aid in places where there is no person in that location that could provide it, even if you wired them the funds.

"Kind regards",
Eric

@Erik @Lucky

Eric, or Erik, yes I agree with you. It was an ill considered comment/post.

Ben, again, I apologize. I didn't think it through very well. Probably best if you could take down my comment.

Happy FAs = Happy travels. This will lead to more unhappy FAs, which mean less pleasant flights for us. Dummkopfs.

Others have covered a number of details that are quite interesting and I won't retreat that ground. The piece that I found fascinating is that in an election split by 16 votes (a bit under .1% of the total votes), 851 votes were invalidated. I have no idea how a simple 'yes/no' is invalidated, but that seems like a HUGE range (around 5% of total votes) considering the final tally. Perhaps some of those votes are things like the phone cutout and the vote couldn't finish or the website timed out or something and that person ended up voting again later and their vote actually counted, but seeing potentially a large multiple of the spread in 'invalid votes' seems like a problem (and not one that I necessarily know the answer for other than to make certain votes can't go invalid in the future)

@ Mike - recount! 😛

@Ivan - Supreme Court! 🙂 Seriously though, there's a solid chance that the invalidated votes would have swung the vote (or given a more definitive margin of victory at least). 5% seems like a huge number for electronic voting means (i.e. no hanging chads, no fouled ballots, etc).