The American Airlines flight attendants union is in contract negotiations and is proposing to make schedules and quality of life worse for all crewmembers hired after the contract is signed.
If adopted, the union’s proposal would require new employees to sit on ‘standby’ to pick up trips for three years, effectively making them work in service of better schedules for all existing flight attendants. Notably this change would not apply to any flight attendant already hired by the airline and in their first three years of employment.
- Working ‘reserve’ means there are specific days and times you’re scheduled to be ‘on call’ for the month. You can get a call and have to acknowledge it right away, head straight to the airport.
You have to be available at all of your scheduled times, maybe starting at 4 a.m. You may sit at home, be out and about, and have to head into the airport to travel – or not. (You may also be told ahead of time that on some of your reserve days you’ll actually travel.)
- You may wind up traveling to different cities as a complete surprise. you don’t know where you’ll be sleeping on a given night. Or you may wake up in the middle of the night and wait, only to do nothing.
Flight attendants at American work ‘rotating reserve’ meaning that they get assigned to reserve rather than scheduled for duty in advance even as they gain seniority. Crew based in certain cities have continued to be scheduled for reserve even with 30 years on the job.
Most airlines schedule ‘straight reserve’ meaning crew spend their first few years without set trips schedules, and as they gain seniority they no longer have to work reserve at all.
Naturally, senior crewmembers prefer this, and have been pushing for their union to change the reserve method as part of contract negotiations. But junior crew don’t want this changed, since the current method means they aren’t always and only scheduled for reserve duty.
The union has updated members with is proposal to the company for a Rube Goldberg scheme to try to make everybody happy.
- Straight reserve for flight attendants who haven’t been hired yet, for their first three years, followed by rotating reserve schedules.
- This wouldn’t place anyone currently in the union on straight reserve, even if they’re in their first three years of employment
- And as long as American keeps hiring flight attendants, it would dramatically reduce the amount of time more senior crew have to work reserve (at the expense of the schedules new hires work, making the job less attractive for anyone applying in the future).
Flight attendants hate being scheduled for reserve. I’m told that union leadership even supported American bringing back its attendance ‘points system’, which penalizes employees for calling in sick, because they feared that high sick rates would mean that the company scheduled more crew to work reserve as a backup. Now they’re proposing straight reserve, then rotating reserve, but only for future new hires.
This sheds light on an interesting phenomenon that’s underappreciated. Union contracts are generally designed to improve pay and quality of life for senior members at the expense of junior members. While the ‘union wage premium’, once estimated at 15% in academic literature, has disappeared in recent years more senior members of a union do well, but not at the expense of the company.
One area where this is similarly clear is boarding pay. Traditionally flight attendants have been paid only for time spent flying, not for boarding the aircraft, and they receive higher wages for time in the air as a result. Delta Air Lines changed this for their flight attendants, who are not unionized, unilaterally adding pay for time spent boarding. However no union has achieved this.
Indeed, prior to Delta’s move, unions did not generally even try to bargain for it. That’s because higher wages for time in the air, and no pay on the ground, benefits senior crew at the expense of junior employees since junior flight attendants tend to make short domestic hops (and spend more time boarding as a percentage of duty time) while more senior flight attendants work longer trips (and spend relatively less time boarding).
While it’s traditional for union-based seniority wages and work rules to benefit senior crew at the expense of junior employees who get paid less to do the same job, the practice of applying either lower wages or new, more onerous work rules only to employees not yet hired and covered by the contract is known as B-scales and hugely controversial.
Usually ‘B-scales’ are a way for an employer to get a union to accept concessions – since the employees voting on those concessions will never be harmed by them. Here it’s the union that’s proposing B-scale work conditions. After all, union leaders are negotiating a contract in the run up to a union election. They’re dealing with an issue on which their membership is split. So they’ve come up with a proposal to benefit existing members, without harming existing members, avoiding angering their member voters.
What’s so often missed from the ‘union versus management’ narrative is that a union’s position is so often about privileging one group of employees over another (‘worker versus worker’ more or as much as ‘worker versus management’).
It’s amazing how airlines feel that it’s completely acceptable to screw over their employees, especially their junior ones. Who would want to work in this industry if they knew the truth? This is what many employers did/do for many years and now thanks to the Pandemic, side gigs, and remote work, the tables are turning on employers. I fly American often and would really like to see happy, smiling crew because they are being treated well.
I worked as a purser/flight attendant for 40 years. I preferred to bid reserve for my first few years as flying a crappy domestic schedule was not my cup of tea. I usually volunteered to give up my days off and consequently was assigned the longer international trips. Everyone has their own reasons for doing what they do. Fortunately the airline I worked for did not force everyone to have rotating reserve.
So basically, new flight attendants get screwed first by their own union’s management before they get screwed by the airline’s management.
And your point is?
I mean come on Gary, a unions entire job is to represent the best interests of their membership leveraging the unity in doing so. I know because I am a union leader and have negotiated contracts personally. There is always give and take. We always know what our membership wants, they let us know daily. So we go into negotiations with the goal of obtaining that, but already knowing we will have to give things up. There is a strategy to what you share with the Company and what you don’t. But in the end, you go for what the goal is, and surender what the company perceives is needed. The question is whether the tradeoff is good enough for the benefit gained. In my last set of negotiations, I got a 78% for on the contract while the Company thought they pulled one over on us (they didn’t).
In your article you are focusing on demagoguing the union, which you seem to be anti-union by the way, while failing to recognize the wins here. The union is effectively making it AA’s problem to get FA’s into the door. In reality, that really isn’t a problem because there are always youthful men and women wanting to work for the airlines, even if that means being on reserve for three years. What you fail to recognize is that the benefit of that sacrifice is that when they get past the three years, and beyond even that their work schedules will improve tremendously over what they have to look forward to right now. This is a win even for FA’s that haven’t been hired yet and will be the first to experience three years of reserve. And their reserve schedule even under this scheme will be better than some people who are on call 24/7. The losers are actually the senior FA’s that have delt with the current situation for their entire careers and only now in the twilight of their careers will they experience the benefits of this after dealing with the rotating reserve system for many years. So while they don’t have to pay the price, they also don’t really get the benefit.
And I have no doubt this will effectively be phased in, so those with less than 3 years will still be on rotating reserve until there are enough FA’s to reduce the needs. So pretty much everyone wins in some way, yet somehow according to you, they all get screwed by their own union. How did you twist something good into something bad, and why? By focusing on the negatives and not the positives and in order to make the union look bad.
@Luke Vader, see my response. No, they don’t. They all get a win out of this. Gary just wants to make the union look bad when this is a win win for all.
Unions, as they’re structured in the United States and basically everywhere, represent the antithesis of freedom and individual rights. For most people, they are basically worthless and do little more than line the coffers of those at the top.
I flew for AA from 1979-2011, we all served reserve, quite making it sound so dreadful, you can survive reserve and retire.
It’s only fair you work your way up to better seniority. Come on, 35 years with the same company; I should not still be working reserve. Thirty-five years in the private sector, and we are talking about retirement. I did my reserve in the beginning and paid my dues. It’s time for the new employees to pick up the slack. The reserve line is not bad if the company created decent trips, not 14-hour duty days with 10 hours of rest. I can go into many more facets of why this should change, but United and Delta will always outdo us due to the management and employee relations. AA is tone-deaf.
I had to fly 10 years at “B” scale wages which was about 30 % less pay and felt so used by our union as well as our company. I struggled to make enough money to feed my family and had to work a second job. I think the contract should be fair for all. I worked with too many “A” scalers that felt entitled and with attitude toward “B” scalers as well as paxs. It was always an unpleasant situation.
I sat reserve for 6 years, and many at my airline sat for longer.
3 years of reserve isn’t that long.
Once again, though, I do love your anti-union slant. This is probably way better than what the company was asking for – it’s never the union that wants things worse for their FAs; it’s always the airline.
@Tom – the company is fine with rotating reserve (status quo). The union wants change, but can’t really decide what it wants because any change will disadvantage some members to the benefit of others. And there’s an election coming! So they figured out the ones they want to disadvantage are future hires who can’t vote.
@UnionTHAT – come on. This is about union leadership favoring one group over another. The fact an election is upcoming only makes this more important.
No one has said can’t be on reserve. However Union wants the top to live off the bottom. There’s no sharing if the benefits to benefit everyone. If the ask was of the company, wouldn’t be an issue. However this is about taking from the people the union is supposed to represent.
This is problem with most unions. They are businesses first and foremost. While “elected” leadership is no different than the C Suite at a company.
I do believe unions are needed in certain circumstances. However for most part unions are nowadays just about making money for the leadership and those they favor. Anyone else that benefits does so by chance.
Ive always loved managing a union workforce because they eat their young before management has a shot. It’s a cycle. At some point the junior folks will have big numbers and get irritated and throw out leadership and try to get something different next contract.
I hate my union. It keeps the lazy people in a job and wastes salary on the lazy people that could be going to people that actually work.
won’t happen, by the time they get enough member at the bottom, the ones who complain now will be senior enough to not care about the new hires
I was a flight attendant for 20 years. What you are describing is what airlines have been doing for years. Reserve is what new flight attendants do, because they are not senior enough to hold a schedule. I was on reserve for about 2.5 years and that was before cell phones!! We had beepers!! It’s just a way of life and this person writes about not knowing where you are going to fly or spend the night- guess what? That happens to senior FA if you cancelled or rerouted. It’s part of the job.
@Luke Vader +1
Julie president of apfa sold her sould to her senior friend and AA. This only proves the lack of respect for the entire membership. The company doesnt want keep.peole for.kver 5 years like these old dirtu lazy bad senior fas tha not onky take advantage of junior fas on senior trips but try to pay them to.do their job and seeling their premium trips for 150 to 250 each the the union dont do shit to stop thay
The union has over looked a critical detail.
Should the lower tier populate with minorities, egg will be on everyone’s face when claims of bias fill the ears of a Democratically controlled Congress or Administration.
So now the paying customer will feel the frustration and get kicked off the flight by a mad gate agent.
Revise my comment: So basically the flight attendants get screwed by management and the paying customer gets screwed by the flight attendant/gate agents. Thanks, management.
This is wild. So basically no rotation at all for 3 years for the new hires and just completely straight reserve? Many are not going to stand for that. They are already leaving for United and Delta
Jeff, do you even pay attention? AA is garbage, and so are most of their employees. I fly at least 30 segments a year with them because I live in Dallas and there are no other choices if you want direct, but they’re a freaking dumpster fire. Always late, bad attitudes by loser employees. Dgaf.
It was AA that had rotating reserve. You have flight attendant at LAX with over 35-years who still have to sit reserve every few months. It is a real problem for those who commute, which is many of them.
The system of solid reserve for the first few years is what US had before it purchased AA.
I am lazy, I don’t like to work. I really don’t have any education. I also believe I should receive raises based on my company letting me work there for a lifetime versus merit. I like to pretend I’m important and a safety director versus I’m really just a server. But I have discovered newfound power because I can kick anyone off a plane if they look at me wrong. I am very bitter to my employer who has given me a consistent paycheck during the pandemic even though I didn’t have to show up to work. My life is rough.
Smith needs to stop flying and take the bus. Airline employees work harder than customers will ever understand. Most members of the public couldn’t cut it in the airline industry.
Good article Gary. Interesting information I did not know.
All junior employees have to pay their dues in some manner. This is hardly a unique situation. Neither is policy and benefit change progression based on operational evolutions, hire date, or any number of other factors. Look no further than the plethora of large companies still phasing out traditional pension systems while newer hires have 401Ks. It’d be up to potential new hires to make a fully informed decision whether they want to sign up to these terms or not — no one is forcing them to work for AA or take a position they’ll find intolerable for three years. Plenty of other jobs, airlines, and industries out there for those who want more immediate schedule stability.
When is this supposed to be signed into place???
It’s sad that Unions have SO MUCH POWER, yet compromise so much. Why can’t the Union fight for ALL EMPLOYEES instead of pitting one group over another???
This is ridiciculous… There are win/win options. Unions hold all the chips, but yet act in the interest of the company instead of all employess.
Here’s a better solution to the new contract… NEW EMPLOYEES WHO ARE ON THE 3 YEAR STRAIGHT RESERVE DO NOT PAY THE UNION SINCE THEY’RE NOT FOR THEM. How about that???
UNION MEAN UNIONIZED… TOGETHER… ALL AS ONE. Not this group and that group.
Also, it’s funny how these Senior FAs are saying Juniors need to pay their dues…
Did you pay yours? Should we make ALL FAs regardless of seniority work 3 years straight to “pay their dues”… then pick up with your current status of seniority? I mean EVERYONE should pay their dues right?
Currently, AA has 40 plus year flight attendants on reserve. Those of us that already paid our dues flying reserve sometimes, for over a decade, shouldn’t be subjected to out archaic reserve system.
I guess the hypocrisy lies wherein the union will be out in force the day new recruits join the airline giving them the hard sell to join…
I wouldn’t join a union I found out screwed me before I started on the job based on the fact in three years they’ll help me screw over someone in the same position I am.
People always mention what Delta does without even having a union, in this case boarding pay
As if people are stupid enough to think that Delta is doing it out of the kindness of their big warm hearts and not to desperately fight off the growing trend of people wanting to have collective bargaining in the workplace.
I’ve been Cabin Crew since I was 19 and have just turned 40. During that time it’s gone from being a job for life to one that airlines want to paint as a gap year summer camp job.
I don’t mean it badly to Gary but this is nothing more than union busting fodder.
Here in the UK, unions brought in weekends off, the right to 4 weeks annual leave, maternity pay, virtually every health and safety workplace regulation and the right to bargain for pay and terms and conditions against entities that purely exist to serve billionaire shareholders.
Unions are far from perfect and I personally think they need to evolve a lot… But they are surely better than trusting your boss will have your back
Gary, why don’t you talk about how AA Flight Attendants have worked under an expired contract since 2019 with no raises for FAs over 13 years of seniority which is the majority of the 26000 FAs on the property. Remember airline contracts are governed by the Railway Labor Act and like the railroads we can’t strike the day the contract is up because it’s considered “Amendable”.
No major airline Union will ever get to strike because the board will never release us. Reserve sucks for pilots and FAs but it’s part of starting out in the industry. Seniority is a factor in many industries. You don’t start with the best hours, days off, holidays off when your new. Airline hours are horrendous along with the demands of the job. It’s get better but after 24 years I’m barely better than the middle of the 26000.
Well…if this goes through, good luck finding FA’s that will stay… This sorry union of ours continues to go backwards. They are pointless and pathetic. An embarrassment to AA and the industry. Our seniority will never increase as most new hires will never put up with this. At 17 years I’ve never seen anything like it.
Look…the guy who writes this stuff doesn’t even work for an airline. He’s not in the union meetings. So don’t believe everything you read. He thrives on starting controversy in the airline industry.
@Bar – this is literally based on reporting from the union itself, linked to in the piece
Ok first of all it ain’t going to happen that will get voted down in a heartbeat! That is not a life nor a good welcome to your new job! Only reason for this is probably the lame company that took AA to the bottom probably wants straight reserve for 5 or more years… so mismanaged that company will fly united or delta AA is just horrible now since that moronic merger!
Who’s getting screw over are the ones who already did 14 to 16 years of their life on reserve and we are still here being forced on reserve again. That is what’s not fair! A few years to start on reserve is nothing. Doing it for a life time really sucks. People will be happier to do this when your a new hire. When you are not taking care of your parents and helping with your grandchildren. Besides it’s a fact most senior people also have more medical issues than the younger generation. 3 years is Nothing compared to the years some of us have already given on Reserve. Tell me what other company can you walk into expecting to get the best schedule and not have to put in your time to earn your way up.
I’m an engineer, not a flight attendant. However, as an engineer, I worked on call for three years. It was the job I balanced that with the money I made and the potential the job offered. I thought it was a fair deal and that turned out to be true. No one is forcing new applicants to take this job. If the balance is right, take the job. If not, move on. Quit whining
Used to talk to some of airline pilotsin the 80s. A lot of them said when I get senior I’m going to try and make things better for the new guys coming in. so they might not have to go through some of the stuff I did. Looks like when they get seniority and making their big money they kind of forget that. Purpose of the Union was supposed to be to help everybody in the Union. Unions need the seriously be overhauled. And yes I’ve been in the Union in aviation (manufacturing). I’ve been a union steward. There’s more cons than pros to the union now.
As a flight attendant.. straight reserve .. do your time .. move up and never look back .. we all did it .. it’s fair ..it is not mentioned that a senior flight attendant can bid reserve if he or she wants .. why suffer for your entire career when you can “suffer” for 3 years .. it’s not as bad as the article states .. you are not on call 24 hrs .. they call and release you .. you get paid .. you stay home a lot ..you get to go to international destinations that your seniority could never allow .. most new hires are young and this life can be exhausting but exciting..
I wonder if any of the Asian airline crews flying transpacific have such “hazing” (I call it hazing because that is what it seems like.)
A grueling schedule? Hahaha!!! 36yr flt attendant here. I was on Piedmont’s grueling rsv. Then Usairways for a total on 18yrs. However, Usairways had a fabulous RSV system. If AA would make it a good RSV system, I can assure you that no one would mind it. I was able to get married and have 2 children on Usairways rsv system.
So, save your “grueling ” comments. Piedmont had horrible rsv system. AA has a better system than that. Now, with that being said. AA needs to step up and fix the RSV system!!! Not the rotating rsv but the whole system to make it desirable and better!!!!
I noticed that a lot of comments are saying that reserve life can be handled well by young FA’s coming in. But some of us are applying for FA in our 40s and 50s as a second career and our bodies and tolerances are not as youthful as we once were but in order to get the job we’re able to make it work.
I retired from AA last year, and I can tell you the last time we actually “voted” on anything was 2013-2014. APFA makes all contract negotiation decisions without any input, suggestions, or votes from its members.