American Airlines flight attendants are going to WAR with the carrier again. They’re donning their red union pins that were distributed as part of the (W)e (A)re (R)eady campaign during contract negotiations. They signaled a readiness to strike although the National Mediation Board never allowed them to do so.
Now, the union is telling flight attendants to wear their pins again because American Airlines isn’t making enough money. They aren’t even connecting this here to profit sharing. They won the profit sharing formula used at non-union Delta Air Lines, but they’re receiving far less because American Airlines doesn’t earn very much profit.
- They voted no confidence in the airline CEO
- They’re “speaking up when leadership is taking our airline in the wrong direction.”
- Wear the red pin and people will pay attention.
- They, they say, their “voices cannot be ignored.”
But I can’t figure out what their voices are saying?
- The union does not say what direction the airline should be going in.
- Nor do they say what their demands are. Fire the CEO? Buy new planes? Serve better food? They aren’t even demanding increased flight attendant staffing on widebodies!
A month ago speculation about the future of Robert Isom had reached a fever pitch. Chatter inside the company was a constant distraction – everyone was talking about how much time the CEO had left, and their guesses on who would replace him. That seems to have died down?
Of course, speculation is mostly uninformed and we don’t know what the board is doing, although my base case has been that he keeps his job, if only because this board has no history of holding management accountable. In some sense the problem at American Airlines is the board itself.
It’s just not clear what the union is trying to accomplish here – solidarity for what? What are the things they even want, in asking flight attendants to wear their red WAR pins again? And what do those pins even signify now, since I actually have seen quite a few crew still wearing them nearly two years after achieving their new contract. Some may be expressing general unhappiness in their jobs, while others just never got out of the habit or removed them.
“red WAR pins”… did you consider, maybe, they support our Dear President and his new War!
(Sorry, not a ‘war’ and we ‘won’ but also we need more ‘money’ for the ‘war’ and we can’t afford ‘healthcare,’ not sorry)
1990–you just can’t help yourself can you? It’s honestly kind of impressive how you are able to tie everything back to the orange man, no matter how unrelated the subject is.
Robert Isom and his senior staff should also wear red pins against the Flight Attendants. I been on many AA flights (and other airlines) and the Flight Attendants maybe the reason AA is not as profitable as iDelta or United.
For lord’s sake Gary, get an editor or at least a spell checker. I haven’t seen one of your articles go out that isn’t full of typos or errors!
@Jay — You forgot to whine about ‘TDS’…236 more days. Motivated.
We Are Ready……to provide excellent and hospitable service inflight…..LOL!!!
Must be protesting using Glen Powell’s condiments.
@Peter — Smash! LOL.
There is a small contingent of flight attendants that the union really represents. They want to sit in the jump seat most of the flight and play on their phones, stay at only five star hotels, and be paid a six figure salary.
No. They simply want to purge Isom and the highly incompetent USAir folks along with AWest managers in executive management positions. Same stuff that Wall Street wants. They want their airline back. That’s it.
I wonder if these pins have been approved. If not maybe the river to the sea pins will reappear.
Just petulant children acting out. Do you expect unskilled labor to actually have solutions?
AA is basically a jobs program now. Just a group of people paying themselves to show up at work and do the bare minimum.
Incredibly destructive behavior on the pilots and flight attendants. They are trying to get shareholders nervous and demand major cost cutting measures, which will hardly effect them and mostly turn to bleeding out the other departments. All in the name of getting 30k+ bonus with very mediocre performances from themselves.
Sadly everyone, when Bob Crandall left so did the American Airlines I was proud to work for. The union, APFA, is just trying prove to the membership it’s relevancy, which is truly an embarrassment. If there should be NO confidence vote, it should be with APFA. This is now USAir on steroids and its flight path for success and solvency is pretty grim.
I’ve been with American Airlines (40 years) through good and bad and unfortunately by way of DEI and other reckless venues made possible thru the unions, its demise is eminent.
Those claiming it’s DEI… Delta and United managed to have profits just fine while having that program…
Have another sip out of the punchbowl Jon.
Have another sip out of the punch bowl Jon.
“They, they say, their “voices cannot be ignored.”
why not?
Do they honestly think the public is going to sympathize with them! AA is my last choice of airline to fly on because of its poor customer service. Granted most others are not much better. Flying used to be a pleasant experience. Now it is a nightmare partly because of flight attendants attitudes. Hard to find a more entitled bunch than flight attendants. The word attendant has become an oxymoron.
Ralphie double-tapped his reply to Jon, so I wanted to as well, and correct a typo 😉
Ralphie…forget about the sipping the punch, you should loosen that red hat a few notches.
Arguing that DEI hurts AA’s performance, while other carries thrive, because it supposedly puts otherwise unqualified employees in place is difficult to take seriously from someone who claims 40 years with AA. Let me guess: AA was running flawlessly, financially rock solid, operationally perfect, and universally admired… right up until DEI showed up.
If the claim is that DEI is driving AA’s performance down, show the data as you have provided zero evidence. There’s no demonstrated correlation, let alone causation, between AA’s financial results and DEI initiatives. What we can document are: (1) a 2011 Chapter 11, (2) a 2013 merger, (3) industry wide labor repricing since 2024, and (4) AA’s return to profitability in 2023–2024 with 2025 profits dipping but still positive. None of that proves your “feelings” about DEI.
And frankly, if some of the long tenured, consistently negative flight attendants I encounter had to re-apply for their jobs based solely on their performance, many of them would be scrambling for some DEI support. Their current behavior wouldn’t come close to meeting the standards expected of new hires.
Let’s be honest, Ralphie: airlines have had their own version of “DEI” long before it became today’s cause du jour. We just called it union protections and the good old boy network. Both have put unqualified people into jobs and handed out promotions they had no business receiving, long before DEI ever entered your vocabulary.
Seniority rules and good old boy connections have shielded under performers, frozen advancement, and dictated opportunities for decades. So pretending DEI is some brand new threat to standards is…cute.
AA’s challenges come from decades of industry wide economics, mergers, fuel shocks, bankruptcies, and restructuring, not a three letter acronym someone recently decided to blame because it’s convenient.
Well Steven, unfortunately you assume a lot (red hat comment) and read nothing. You skimmed my comment and went for the woke jugular. I said after Mr. Crandall left things took a serious side, obviously you weren’t around then to know what it was like. Too bad your ignorance is blinding you.
Ralphie…apologies but I didn’t misread anything. You said your pride in AA ended when Crandall left, your words, not that things “took a serious side.” Whether someone was there at the time has nothing to do with the validity of the argument you made now.
And I responded directly to what you wrote: “by way of DEI and other reckless venues made possible through the unions, its demise is imminent.” If you claim DEI is driving AA’s decline, it’s completely reasonable to ask for evidence. That’s not “woke,” (another DEI-like buzzword…what is the opposite of woke Ralphie?) it’s just addressing the causation you introduced.
I’m responding to the statements you made, verbatim. If that’s not what you meant, then that’s an issue of clarity, not my reading.
It’s striking how someone can spend 40 years in a workplace no doubt shaped, to at least to some degree, by nepotism, closed networks, and opportunities that consistently circulate within the same small group, department, company, industry, etc. In all that time, were you equally vocal about the unearned advantages those systems created…the same advantages you imply are exclusive to DEI?
It’s strange that when DEI enters the discussion, an initiative perhaps meant to broaden access and counter years of nepotism, old boy networks, and other entrenched advantages it is instead framed as creating an unfair advantage, rather than an attempt at correcting, or perhaps balancing, an existing one.
The irony isn’t subtle, and the timing of the concern is hard to overlook. Someone moved your cheese (look up the meaning if you are not already familiar with the phrase).
Steven you make some valid points, but people on both sides of the spectrum have been turned away from jobs when they should’ve been hired based on merit. We all see it.
Steven, I am familiar with Mr. Malhota’s book and work, however good people are not hired on merit on both sides of the spectrum. Mouse in a maze or not…..
Dissect it anyway you want
@Johnmcsymthe “They simply want their Airline Back” . as an Exec Plat for several years … I want their airline back as well — when the flight attendants, welcomed everybody on board, (and meant it), helped people when boarding – let me help you get that in the overhead -, thanked their frequent fliers, addressed their top flies by name, and made the flight enjoyable .. Today, 2 out of three attendants are hanging out in the galley looking at their phones, appeared put out if you ask a questions, don’t realize that without the customers they wouldn’t have a job, that in order to stay in business you need those repeat customers, and that having a positive experience is why customers come back…
Drop the Red pins — instead pick up a SMILE and a Welcoming demeanor, SAVE your airline not tank it…