American Airlines flight attendants sought government permission to strike going into the holidays. This was denied. Now they’re going to ask again.
- Under the Railway Labor Act, airline unions have to seek permission from the National Mediation Board to enter a 30 day cooling off period prior to engaging in ‘self help’ negotiations. (Airlines, similarly, cannot take unilateral action without the parties being released by the Board.)
- I wrote that there was no world in which the Mediation Board was going to allow a strike during Christmas holiday travel.
- The union may now feel that, with the holidays passed, their chances are better. Entering this 30 day period exerts significant pressure on the airline to come to an agreement.
The airline and union have been making progress on elements of their contract other than pay rates at government-facilitated negotiations. To allow the union to strike, the National Mediation Board would have to find that the parties are an “an impasse.” It’s not clear that they are.
Flight Attendant Union Leaders Confront CEO Robert Isom At Employee Meeting, October 2023
American Airlines has offered pay rates comparable to the top of the industry, matching Delta pay, Delta’s industry-leading boarding pay, and also similar profit sharing terms (though profit sharing payments would be lower, since American Airlines makes less money). The union wants substantially higher pay increases, as well as back pay for years of negotiations. American hasn’t moved off of its economic offer.
The union, for its part, has talked about not actually executing a full strike – instead hitting specific flights on a given day. That way its members can still work and get paid, while creating an environment of uncertainty for customers who would likely book on competitors instead. That’s because flight attendants aren’t in a position to hold out without income, the way pilots might be, and because the union itself doesn’t have the strike fund to pay them while they aren’t working.
Credit: American Airlines
Currently the union is in the midst of officer negotiations. Union leadership can’t compromise prior to their own elections. A savvy National Mediation Board would encourage negotiations to continue past the results of these member elections, when leadership may be in a better position to negotiate without immediate fear of their roles.
Union officers are paid substantially more than rank and file flight attendants, having received more than a 40% raise – to 115 hours of trip removal pay – with the JCBA imposed contract that was part of the union’s support for US Airways taking over American Airlines.
If only AA management could take a page from Alan Joyce and ground the fleet.
If the union wants a strike, they should be given one.
Lock all of them out, hire replacements and move on. Unions (especially for sky waitresses) are ridiculous and anti-business.
The question is: will anyone notice if they are striking?
Sadly the candy crush doesn’t play itself.
All those migrants that cross daily on the southern border should be given right to work visas why their asylum claims are processed. We could use them to bust up the unions in this country once and for all.
It’s offensive to me that a starbucks barista thinks they should be allowed to be in a Union same thing goes for sky waitresses. Your jobs are low IQ.
I’ll see you in KC this year AndyS. Oh that’s right, you’re not a member. Have a fantastic day from your high IQ sky waitress. By the way, it’s Ms Sky Waitress to you Mr Bully.
I don’t have any knowledge this other than the update posts here and the links within them but dang it’s hard to imagine the union pulling off a win here without moving the goalposts
NMB ought to grant it. Let the chips fall where they may. AA doesn’t need the NMB to be its backstop. The company would be then entitled to do a lockout if they feel that’s in their best interests. Maybe some of the whiners on this blog would like to apply for the job. My guess is most of them wouldn’t last more than a week.
AA flight attendants striking?……as in not working lolololololol (picks myself up off the floor) lolololololol
Good. Lock their lazy asses OUT!
Of course, that Candy Crush isn’t going to play itself.
Wow, no shortage of dumb comments by people who couldn’t themselves match the performance of the worst FA’s but need to make themselves feel less pitiful by denigrating other people. I’ll raise the IQ a sizeable notch here by asking a legitimate relevant question: Having been offered parity with the best wages in the nation for their job, exactly what further concessions does the union realistically hope to obtain?
I can’t see the union being allowed to strike during an election year.
This current crop of APFA negotiators have overplayed its hand. The rank and file are onto their bag dragging and it wouldn’t be surprising to see new leadership voted in and a tentative agreement soon there after waiting for ratification.
They will start acting rude
That’s it no pre departure beverage in First Class
No more friendliness or a warm welcome onboard
No more hanging coats or helping with luggage
They will now overcook your onboard meal so its dried out or leave it uncooked
Will anybody notice?
All those who think they disparage flight attendants by calling them ‘sky waitresses’ (do you really think we haven’t heard that one before?) should count themselves very, very lucky that they’ve never had to experience why those ‘waitresses’ are there in the first place. (Are they even intelligent enough to glean what I am referring to without explanation?) After all, the only reason a service is offered at all is because there’s time between takeoff and landing. Those of us who continue to offer a great service (including the oh-so-very-important-and-a-major-part-of-why-you-fly pre-departure beverage), we will continue to do so in spite of the rude, thankless, classless, disrespectful and mean passengers – like those who call us sky waitresses. You calling us derogatory names says much, much more about you than it does us.
I find it interesting that the company press photos have smiling flight attendants but the actual product for the passengers is often different.
@Actual
Nope. You’re still losers.
Wrong again Gary !! Not asking to strike asking to be released !!!
@Chris I’m sure you live in your dumb ass mother’s basement.
“Strike” is an old Indian word for “loser trash not doing their job”.
lol you guys are wild. If a flight attendant union went on strike, it would take years to replace that workforce… let’s do the math, shall we? 27,000 flight attendants. 5 weeks of training. infrastructure currently in place can maybe train 500 (realistically it’s prob only like 100-200 but we’ll say 500) qualified flight attendants every month due to training regulations. so it would take 5 years to replace that workforce. they’d be bankrupt within 6 months.
It takes a weird kind of ego to think lowly of flight attendants.
I work a high paying job that requires me to fly almost weekly and I’m in awe of the hard work flight attendants do and the terrible pax like Chris that they have to deal with. They are paid so poorly for the work they do, I don’t understand why so many on here don’t want to see them get a raise.
For the uninformed, rude commenters, you better not be on a flight with a medical condition or an evacuation and turn to your “sky waitress” for help! There are no atheists in a foxhole.
@Chuckplamer – what you don’t factor in are FAs let go during COVID that could step in more quickly. Also I bet –
At least 75% of the AA FAs would cross the picket line and be back at work within a month of a strike. They (and their union) frankly can’t afford a strike.
All bluster at this point. Old Joe and Mayor Pete won’t allow it to happen in an election year. All the union is doing is deferring the raises for their members AA has on the table. Very sad
@chuckplamer
All AA management has to do is threaten the seniority of FAs and voila, you’ll see half them back on the job within days.
It’s what happened last time they striked.
Hey AC… what FA’s are you talking about? Flight attendants who were furloughed during Covid are all back on the line.. unless they chose not to come back. We are still hiring, which means we are in need of flight attendants. There isn’t anyone else to step in unless they are trained which takes time.
I’m going to ignore the other ignorant comments. AA FA’s are asking for better work conditions along with pay that keeps up with inflation. We work long days and aren’t paid for most of it. Also, I’ve been here 11 years and still do pre departures, hang coats, and welcome you all onboard even when I get scowls and rude comments due to circumstances out of my control. There are still a lot of great FA’s out there that deserve a fair contract.
@ A220HubandSpoke
First, ignorant moron, correct grammar is the last time they struck. Second and more importantly, you quite obviously know nothing about the 1993 strike that AA flight attendants successfully pulled off against AA. NONE of us, literally none, lost one bit of seniority. Not one bit. If you’re going to make slanderous comments, at the very least know your facts. Signed, an AA flight attendant that actually ‘striked.’
@ A220HubandSpoke
And the Government made them go back, not seniority threat !
Actually, the government did not make us go back to work. AA flight attendants were well below industry average in pay at the time and wanted to go into binding arbitration to at least get to parity with other carriers’ flight attendants. AA CEO Bob Crandall, not wanting to give FAs even that much of a raise, denied the arbitration request, resulting in the strike. President Clinton, on the fifth day of the scheduled 18-day strike, convinced Crandall to enter binding arbitration, thereby ending it. The reason that it was a successful strike by the APFA was because it resulted in the wage increases gained by entering that arbitration – we got what we wanted. So to say the government made us go back to work is entirely inaccurate.
“Here for your safety……and voyeurism”
What the general public doesn’t really know about most Fight Attendants is they are only being paid after the plane is pushed back from the gate and pay is stopped when the doors open upon arrival. Boarding, Deplaning, delays, scheduled groundtime in between flights and aircraft swaps the only pay we receive is our per diem. Depending on the airline that ranges anywhere between $2.20 to $2.75 domestic and a little more for international flying. Most people that work get paid for the time they are at work. We do not. This unpaid time really adds up. Can you imaging working 40 hours a week but only get paid for 30? Perspective folks