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.
American Airlines and its pilots union have ratified a new contract, which came several weeks after pilots voted to authorize a strike. While that’s progress, American’s biggest work group is now in the spotlight for its contentious negotiations. Back in late August, flight attendants at the airline voted to authorize a strike, and it looks like this could become a reality right around the end of the year.
We’re now potentially just over 30 days from American flight attendants going on strike. It’s anyone’s guess if it actually happens, but it’s the closest we’ve been to a flight attendant strike at a major US airline in a very long time…
In this post:
American flight attendants authorized a strike
American Airlines and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) have been in negotiations for a new contract for quite some time.
After years of not getting a new contract, the union is demanding huge pay raises. For example, one proposal demands an immediate 35% pay increase, with 6% annual pay increases in subsequent years. That’s only part of the equation, as flight attendants also want boarding pay, increased pay for working international flights and premium cabins, and more.
While management has come back with a counterproposal, it’s nowhere near what the union is willing to settle for (or at least claims to be willing to settle for).
Negotiations had started prior to 2020, but were obviously paused around the start of the pandemic. They resumed in August 2021, though well over two years in, no contract has been agreed on. Earlier this year, federal mediators joined the bargaining table, in hopes of helping the two parties come to a resolution. However, that hans’t been successful.
Over the summer, the APFA Board of Directors approved a strike authorization vote for the membership. At the time, the union explained that it was “time to send a clear and definitive message to American Airlines, the media, and the flying public that we are willing to take all steps necessary to secure the Contract we have earned.”
In late July, flight attendants started voting on whether or not to authorize a strike. After a month of voting, the results were released — 99.4% of flight attendants who participated voted in favor of a strike authorization. Obviously that’s an incredible margin, and reflects the understandable frustration that flight attendants feel.
30-day cooling off period for strike starts soon
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 will only be permitted if the mediation process fails, and then there needs to be a 30-day cooling off period before a strike could occur.
Well, we’re starting to get to the point where that could become a reality. The mediation process has failed, and the APFA has today requested to be released from mediation, starting a 30-day cooling off period.
That means flight attendants could go on strike in just over 30 days. Now, in theory that puts us right to the holidays. However, that assumes that the union is released from mediation very quickly. It’s anyone’s guess if the union gets the necessary permission in a day, a week, or what…
Let’s see if a strike does end up happening. Of course it’s possible that during the 30 day cooling off period, the two parties continue negotiating, and even make progress. However, once a strike date is announced, that will probably have quite the negative impact on American’s bottom line, as people book away from the carrier over the holidays.
I’m curious to see the outcome of these negotiations
Let me start by saying that I think flight attendants work hard while not being paid particularly well. I wouldn’t last a week as a flight attendant, because I’d lose my patience with the traveling public.
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’s 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
It seems that the US airline industry has now normalized 30-40% pay increases for pilots, and that’s just the cost of keeping pilots happy. We haven’t really seen any airline set the same precedent with flight attendants, so we’ll see what happens there. I imagine all airlines are trying to hold out on offering huge raises, because if one airline does it, other airlines will likely have to follow.
The implications for passengers are starting to get serious. With the union asking to be released from mediation, we could finally see the first major strike among flight attendants at a US airline in a very long time.
Bottom line
American Airlines is currently negotiating a new contract with its flight attendants, which has been going on for years. The two parties are way off in terms of what they’re willing to accept, with flight attendants wanting 50%+ pay raises over the next few years, and management not being willing to offer that much.
Several weeks back, the union concluded a strike authorization vote, which flight attendants overwhelmingly voted in favor of. With no progress having been made in recent weeks, the union has now requested to be released from mediation, triggering the 30-day cooling off period before a strike. We’ll see how soon the union gets released from mediation, as I’m sure the goal is to have a strike right around Christmas and the New Year.
We don’t often see strikes at US airlines, though this might just be the first one in a long time. Flight attendants are seeing the huge pay raises that pilots are getting, and understandably want in on the action. Management probably doesn’t view the demands of flight attendants as seriously as those of pilots, given the pilot shortage, and how hard it is to train new pilots.
But still, thanks to collective bargaining, flight attendants do have quite a bit of power, and could bring the airline to a screeching halt.
Do you think we’ll see American Airlines flight attendants go on strike?
I think it's terrible FAs have to be punished for what the pilots and union did. Pilot salary is OUTRAGEOUS - no matter the shortage - pure extortion. But Union should never have allowed it to go that far.
Now, everyone expects the FAs to continue to work for FREE! Trading one wrong for another. ALL workers should be compensated fairly. If AA goes broke, they can point to the pilots and union. NOT the...
I think it's terrible FAs have to be punished for what the pilots and union did. Pilot salary is OUTRAGEOUS - no matter the shortage - pure extortion. But Union should never have allowed it to go that far.
Now, everyone expects the FAs to continue to work for FREE! Trading one wrong for another. ALL workers should be compensated fairly. If AA goes broke, they can point to the pilots and union. NOT the low-level FAs. Offering a fair wage would not break them, but the pilots started an avalanche.
LOCK. THEM. OUT.
Well give them what they want. Lose a ton of money. Go into Chapter 11. Park older planes, fire a load of FAs and cram down severe pay cuts on the remaining FAs via a bankruptcy judge. This happened before and will happen again.
AA reportedly testing 'tip jars' on some flights, and adding a tip prompt feature for in-flight food and beverage purchases...
Never been a FA, but working the premium cabin seems to be more desirable, but not more difficult, than working in economy?
Repugnant they are timing this to threaten everyday people just trying to get home for the holidays. Sick to see AOC spreading lies about them sleeping on couches.
Also, more pay for long-haul and premium cabins (the exact flights FAs want the most) is downright silly and just a way for senior FAs to get paid even that much more than junior FAs.
Their problem should be with the Pilots for absolutely fleecing AA....
Repugnant they are timing this to threaten everyday people just trying to get home for the holidays. Sick to see AOC spreading lies about them sleeping on couches.
Also, more pay for long-haul and premium cabins (the exact flights FAs want the most) is downright silly and just a way for senior FAs to get paid even that much more than junior FAs.
Their problem should be with the Pilots for absolutely fleecing AA. Perhaps they should have negotiated together and the pilots could have taken less. Hopefully the regulators see the Q3 $0.5B loss and laugh at the FAs.
Give the AA FAs everything they are asking for.
I do not fly AA because of the experiences I have had with their FAs.
Meanwhile, 100,000 applicants are waiting to apply and most would qualify under today's standards with no issue. And probably be better in the end than what you see now.
AA should call their bluff. Give them boarding pay, fine. But the rest...these lazy entitled idiots can all suck wind.
I do think the FAs should be paid for boarding time, they're present, in uniform and honestly, working (organizing the galley, greeting passengers, assisting with boarding, etc.). I've always found it silly that they are not paid for this time.
Requirements to be a flight attendant?
High school diploma? Nope. 4-6 weeks training. That is it.
Considering how downright nasty some of them have become, and how lazy most are, the Airline should cut their pay and hope they quit. Replace them with a younger group that would be happy to work hard for a starting pay of $25/hour plus generous benefits. Have built bumps at a fair rate... pay increases of 5%-10% first...
Requirements to be a flight attendant?
High school diploma? Nope. 4-6 weeks training. That is it.
Considering how downright nasty some of them have become, and how lazy most are, the Airline should cut their pay and hope they quit. Replace them with a younger group that would be happy to work hard for a starting pay of $25/hour plus generous benefits. Have built bumps at a fair rate... pay increases of 5%-10% first few years, then 5% later. Add a true COLA tied to a government number. Boost the number of FA's per flight. (For every 5 FAs on a flight, lowering the pay by $5/hour++ gives you a "free" FA for that flight.) Add in additional perks and benes. (Nicer hotels, food, etc.) Pay them for boarding time.
Hire some of these foreign flag airlines to train them.
By lowering starting pay to $25 with bumps in the future and clearing the high end out, you would net out at the same cost you have now, with better service, happier employees and better customer satisfaction.
I couldn't agree more. The US union seniority system is broken from a passenger standpoint. I flew BA recently and several of the FA's appeared to be in their 20's. On an international flight. Delta international FA's appear to be in their 60's to early 70's.
60 with experience and generallu knowing what they are doing or 20 and know f- all. What is wrong with getting older Peter Pan? With the exception of a few, you need experienced staff and that comes with age.
All these outsourced call centers also employ younger staff with no experience in the industry and on low pay. Next time you have a problem you’ll end up speaking to teen who has no idea what to do as opposed to an older person who can resolve it in minutes.
Ben, i think the headline that includes "Horizon", the name of an airline, is confusing. I suggest you change it to "inbound".
I agree, I was VERY confused and was expecting the whole time reading for him to talk about Horizon Airlines.
The fact that they don't get paid during boarding is ridiculous. Not sure how anyone was ever ok with that. FA's and pilots should be on the clock the minute they are required to be at the airport and should remain on the clock until they leave for the day. When I was young and held hourly jobs, I was on the clock and getting paid, even if there was a lull in customers because you're still there giving your time and effort for the company.
I agree, but this is what the senior FA's want.
Has anyone ever thought that better wages attract better employees? If you want better service you can’t be the one that pays the least. People who are willing to work for 30k a year, which is what is the current salary, may not be the hardest working considering you can make more working at a gas station.
Everyone deserves better, and don’t be mad at the frontline employees asking for $5 an hour. Be...
Has anyone ever thought that better wages attract better employees? If you want better service you can’t be the one that pays the least. People who are willing to work for 30k a year, which is what is the current salary, may not be the hardest working considering you can make more working at a gas station.
Everyone deserves better, and don’t be mad at the frontline employees asking for $5 an hour. Be mad at the management who take millions. That’s what is raising costs. Just the other day an article was posted saying the autoworkers new salary only increases the cost of producing a car by a hundred dollars or so over the lifetime of the contract. And all the companies claimed it would make them uncompetitive.
If service is so bad currently maybe trying something different will make it better.
The problem is the most senior FAs on AA are the worst. And they make multiples of the entry level salary.
I fly AA JFK-SNA regularly. It is generally senior FAs that takes the flight. Service is hit and miss sometimes, but wouldnt paint them with the broad brush you are using.
I would be for improving pay if there were conditions in the contract that linked the raise to better performance. I doubt the union would ever go for that.
The ‘better wages attract better employees’ is a mantra of the past, at least in the service and hospitality industry on the US soil
Even more so off the soil
Just listen for 5 minutes to any broadcast on NPR -they’re obsessed on the topic to the point I feel like they’re ran by unions- and perceive the level of entitlement of whomever is new or recent to the the job market
You realize that THE UNION is one who negotiated the "no pay during boarding" thing right? Look up Your history dude. It was so that the Senior FA's could get paid more per hour while in the air on longer flights. Also, they DO get paid (just at a lower rate) and then at an artificially higher rate during air time (which evens out to MORE than a "living wage"). This whole convo is ridiculous.
What goes around comes around. Before deregulation break even load factors were in the 60’s and sometimes lower. Now they’re in the mid 80s and with these new contracts they will likely go even higher. Bottom line is air fares are going to have to increase, dramatically, to pay everyone off. That will lead to a decrease in system load factors but will result in higher overall revenue. And as the LCCs have seen, they...
What goes around comes around. Before deregulation break even load factors were in the 60’s and sometimes lower. Now they’re in the mid 80s and with these new contracts they will likely go even higher. Bottom line is air fares are going to have to increase, dramatically, to pay everyone off. That will lead to a decrease in system load factors but will result in higher overall revenue. And as the LCCs have seen, they too are not immune to the problem. I think the combination of higher fares and lower load factors will lead to overall better customer service. To think, airlines may actually someday go back to competing on service rather than price. Airlines are cyclical, capital intensive, and labor intensive. The days of super cheap air fares may soon be over.
Federal mediators, not a union and not a blog writer, determine whether mediation has failed.
WN pilots have also asked to be released to seek self-help but have been denied.
AA has offered APFA compensation in-line with what DL is paying its FAs, the only FAs at the big 4 that have received a pay raise since covid. WN FAs (actually union leadership, not members) rejected one proposal but have another on the table....
Federal mediators, not a union and not a blog writer, determine whether mediation has failed.
WN pilots have also asked to be released to seek self-help but have been denied.
AA has offered APFA compensation in-line with what DL is paying its FAs, the only FAs at the big 4 that have received a pay raise since covid. WN FAs (actually union leadership, not members) rejected one proposal but have another on the table.
AA's proposal includes boarding pay just as DL added to its FAs. Because AA and DL have large mainline domestic systems, boarding pay will increase the pay above scale levels esp. for lower seniority FAs that fly short domestic flights. WN FAs would also benefit from boarding pay.
It is also worth remembering that NW took on its mechanics, a far more skilled workgroup, the union struck, NW locked them out, and NW survived but the union was broken after a year or so of very difficult operations.
Maintenance was the only large non-pilot employee group that did not vote on being represented after the DL/NW merger. DL mechanics have never met the requirements to be represented by a union since the merger.
As part of the merger process, multiple combined DL/NW workgroups including FAs and ground workforces voted not to be unionized, eliminating tens of thousands of union positions.
Delta is setting the standard for employee compensation post covid - both for its unionized pilots and its largely non-union non-pilots.
There is little reason to think a mediator will decide that APFA's proposal is reasonable; AA could then choose to break the union, leading to months of disruption but a return to higher service levels at AA and a much lower cost basis. It is very likely that many FAs would cross the picked line and rejoin AA as non-union employees.
Robert Isom, AA's CEO, started his career at NW.
There are a whole lot of ways that this could play out. The chances that APFA will strike and win an even richer contract are very low.
Unions are legalized extortion, nothing more. They increase consumer prices, lower productivity, and thus are bad for the overall economy. They served their purpose early on, but now with minimum wage laws and OSHA, they are nothing but a drag on society. Lock them out, AA, grow a set. You will be very happy in 6 months.
Typical republican response regarding unions. The USA has the worst working conditions in the industrialised world
No sick pay, no holiday pay, no maternity leave let alone paternity and no statutory redundancy legislation as well as awful holiday entitlement.
Without union representation workers have almost no rights.
Meanwhile in Europe thanks to unions, we have many benefits that wouldn’t exist without them including anti discrimination legislation.
I can thank my union...
Typical republican response regarding unions. The USA has the worst working conditions in the industrialised world
No sick pay, no holiday pay, no maternity leave let alone paternity and no statutory redundancy legislation as well as awful holiday entitlement.
Without union representation workers have almost no rights.
Meanwhile in Europe thanks to unions, we have many benefits that wouldn’t exist without them including anti discrimination legislation.
I can thank my union for allowing me to work just 5 days a week, a minimum of 35 days vacation, a pension, sick pay, overtime and pay increases. It also saved my job and that of many colleague from being laid off during Covid.
Without my union my pay would be lower, pension stopped and I would be working shift patterns including weekends amongst numerous other things
‘ mercians hate unions as they think it’s a communist conspiracy.
LOL yeah you have great benefits yada yada but you pay for it in high taxes and product costs. I lived in Germany for 10yrs sales tax was 14% and that was a while ago spare me the lecture you can have Europe
More freedom the America? Sign me up.
I would be for improving pay if there were conditions in the contract that linked the raise to better performance. I doubt the union would ever go for that.
You should write for the Daily Show. This is pure comedy.
They want more money for working the premium cabin? What’s next? More money for performing the safety demo?
Hey, hun so have you become knowledgeable on the different levels of service offered in each cabin by a flight attendant often with being short one crew member? My guess is no so then kindly STFU and speak on what you know, thank you.
Says the AA flight attendant. "Justsaying" Thanks for proving our point!
Hun, we do have an idea, being short of cabin crew is a different problem as you know than salary increase.
No one is saying you should consistently work for the missing colleague.
But this who don’t want to do even the bare minimum should retire or leave, and if they can’t retire, well, welcome to the club of us peasants who don’t have a Union protecting our lazy rear ends
@justsaying. Yes, I have "first" hand knowledge every day and Fanny is correct. It's absurd. If you barely offer anything to premium passengers other than a drink and a non coursed dinner on Intl J, serving those cabins is EASIER! I am in them every week and I assure you they are the senior mamas (I am sure you are one) who want nothing to do with economy and love how easy it is up...
@justsaying. Yes, I have "first" hand knowledge every day and Fanny is correct. It's absurd. If you barely offer anything to premium passengers other than a drink and a non coursed dinner on Intl J, serving those cabins is EASIER! I am in them every week and I assure you they are the senior mamas (I am sure you are one) who want nothing to do with economy and love how easy it is up front. They are looking for every angle to work less and offer little...premium cabins are the gold for them.
Go take your Hun somewhere else. And, for god's sake, throw out your clogs.
How about the frustration we the customers feel when Flight Attendants refuse to do their job?
I am pro-union. I was all for the striking UAW workers.
But with regard to American Airlines FA's, haven't they been on strike the last 20 years. I don't think i have seen them doing their job. I guess if an AA flight operated without the FA's the level of customer satisfaction would exponentially go up.
Best...comment...ever, Manny! 100% agree. As a passenger, it certainly feels like the vast majority of AA flight attendants have been on strike for the past 20 years. The union is a big part of the problem. Entitled, petulant, self-absorbed.
I 100% agree
I said that -politely- to a lead FA after getting off my AA flight last week where, as customary, they didn’t even pass by once in the air to serve water in F between LAS and LAX (no turbulence this time used as excuse) and she almost ran after me