The Association of Professional Flight Attendants has updated its members, sharing that they’ve reached a tentative agreement with American Airlines. Knowing that they were negotiating this week in Phoenix, not D.C. and without the involvement of federal mediators, it was clear that they were close to a deal and simply had to finish up details.
This allows American to trumpet putting labor unrest and substantial risk behind them heading into their second quarter earnings call on Thursday of next week.
Specific details of the agreement haven’t been shared yet, however the union emphasizes that it addresses their “concerns” on:
- compensation
- retro pay
- contractual improvements, and preserving our hard-won work rules
The union’s board will be briefed on details of the agreement on Wednesday, and after that meeting additional details of the contract will be released to flight attendants followed by details on the timeline and process of voting for the agreement.
That’s going to be the sticking point. While substantial raises will be involved – the union had turned down an immediate 17% raise and pay for time spent boarding flights while continuing to negotiate – they also reduced their own asks during the process while telling cabin crew that they should expect much bigger raises.
If the final deal falls short of what flight attendants have come to expect it might not be approved when they vote on the tentative agreement. American Airlines flight attendants have their current contract as a result of a merger-related arbitration that followed voting down of the last contract that they were presented. Southwest Airlines, too, voted down a contract prior to ratifying their current one.
American Airlines flight attendants haven’t had an increase in pay rates since January 1, 2019 and the value of their wages have been eroded substantially by inflation since then. This new deal will change that, as well as representing the first union flight attendant contract to match non-union Delta on boarding pay. It will also include a profit sharing formula similar to Delta’s, though less lucrative because American Airlines earns lower profits.
What remains to be seen is the amount of the final wage increase, and of retro pay for the years it’s taken to get to a new contract during which time no raises were forthcoming. Will retro pay be as significant as at Southwest?
Regardless, this is likely to set a new bar for negotiations at United Airlines where the flight attendants union plans to call for a strike authorization vote. American Airlines flight attendants won’t be striking this year – and there’s not enough time for United’s flight attendants to reach the point of a declared impasse and strike this year either.
Update: American Airlines offers this statement,
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. It’s a contract that will provide immediate financial and quality-of-life improvements for American’s flight attendants. It’s a contract we’re proud of and one our flight attendants have earned.”
good news and, coming before AAL’s earnings call, they will be able to estimate the cost of the contract proposal and share investor guidance accordingly.
Just as for UAL, signing a contract now that FAs will approve means the better part of $ 1billion in retro and hundreds of millions of dollars in increased costs per year – and that doesn’t even consider the lost time value of money esp. over the past 2 years and lost profit sharing.
Let’s see what they come up with
Can the FA’s start being professional again or must they wait until the approval vote?
They need time to figure out how to spin it because they overpromised to the rank and file.
It will be a NO.
Too high of expectations from the union.
Too much anger and animosity from the flight attendants.
Back to the drawing board.
In the mean time, Keep Climbing Delta
Take note Delta FAs. Big Labor unions aren’t all what they’re cracked up to be.
Does this mean FAs will stop going on food stamps and food banks?
Why does it take 5 years? Now the flight attendants had to fight for retro pay. Next American Airlines will drag out negotiations with its mechanics and ramp workers. These contracts should be worked out before expiration.
Great news! I’m still not going to fly them and haven’t set foot on AA metal in 8 years. They sucked bad before the current contract. Don’t see that changing anytime soon. After the next bankruptcy I might give them a try. Until then my $35-40k a year will go to Southwest, Delta and occasionally United.
Great…..more “only here for your safety” bs but more emboldened.
Hopefully AA files for bk soon and and blows this up
@John C–
It takes years, because under the Railway Labor Act, contracts never expire; they just become “amendable.” This gives both sides plenty of room to slow walk negotiations.
Retro pay? AA if you gave in on this you are so weak. Reward them for work stoppages, ridiculous demands, and generally being entitled lazy brats? You really think that suddenly FAs will offer great service and work hard? Fat chance. You missed your chance to reset and be a competitive airline, you gutless cucks.
Hey Timmy Tim,
I heard Delta was being ghetto again and banning their flight attendants from flying standby because of the IT meltdown?
Oh, but wait doesn’t seem to be happening at the legacy airlines with a union. Did you drink your daily purple juice today Timmy?
Your articles are so negative with untruths, and they are very anti-union! Delta flight attendants are losing out on money and their work rules are very harsh. I commend the flight attendants for sticking together. Robert Isom and his management team are terrible to say the least!
Maybe the two sides got to an agreement because they were negotiating while sitting outside, and weren’t allowed to go indoors until an agreement had been reached. It’s been quite a bit hotter than normal this summer in Phoenix, so that was a pretty good incentive. LOL
don’t know.
I have no idea what DL is doing but if you think a union can come up w protection for every imaginable and UNimaginable scenario, you are the epitome of why unions fail – spending five years fighting over language that does nothing in real life
and while Delta has cancelled the most flights today – 25% of mainline so far – United’s on-time is worse.
In case you missed it, this IT mess is far bigger than the airlines and there is no playbook for dealing with it in Berlin at the bank, at the airport in ATL, or with online banking in Australia.
You are the epitome of union mouthpieces which are all took and no delivery.
Don’t worry. They’ll be able to get this new higher cost base sorted out in the next bankruptcy.
So now that AA flight attendants finally have their.contract, they will be happy to serve pre departure drinks and will stop hiding in the galley. Yeah, right.
they deserve a raise, predicated on their performance. No improvement in service and attitude…..no money
The old broads care only about retro pay. So many in the high seniority bands are ready to retire and this will be the impetus. They’re flying the minimum 40 hours and clogging up the UBL boards trading everything away. This will put the 5000-10000 band in the bidding range they’ve been waiting for. Everyone will be happy and approve it. Boarding pay, if it’s included, is an added benny to the mid to lower band seniority ranges, unsure if that’s there. But AA probably has a reasonable estimate on the coming retirements (1000s?) that will substantially reduce those legacy costs. They’ve been piling on new flight attendants like crazy in anticipation of this.
If flight attendants are wanting a better contract so they will do their jobs,then they better fight a lot more because from the stuff I’ve heard,not all flight attendants aboard certain flights have been pulling their weight with doing their jobs properly and if that is the case,then those slacking flight attendants don’t deserve any new contact at all, especially if there going to act like lazy brats on flights. Those types of flight attendants should be Fired Immediately
Glory Be! About time. Praise The Lord and pass the contributions!
@ Mantis:
Your ignorance doesn’t deserve a reply; but did you say this when AA pilots demanded full retro pay? When Robert Isom paid himself full retro pay? When Southwest flight attendants demanded full retro pay? And the list goes on. And now to address your claim of AA not being competitive for offerring flight attendants retro pay — AA pilots just got it. Southwest FAs just got it, Alaska FAs will probably vote no on their tentative agreement and renegotiate their contract to include full retro pay. Then, United FAs will reach a TA with full retro and Delta will bump their FAs up to match the wages of the non-union carriers. AA will not be uncompetitive. The know there is no way their FAs will vote yes without it.
ML gets it right.
This tentative agreement is going to get voted down by the union membership
The union raised expectations so high, and this agreement is almost certainly not going to meet those expectations, that it will be voted down.
Which the union and the airline already knew so they have left issues in reserve for the second shot at it.
Yep, Clueless keyboard cowboys as usual !!!!!!!!!!
I mean it’s great and the FA’s definitely needed a raise. My question is how is American going to afford this? Their balance sheet is dismal and this will add millions of dollars a year to their costs. Strike or deal, bankruptcy is something I see as a real possibility.
If we take DLs bad numbers into account…its true that all airlines are affected. AA seems to manage better this time while DL and UA still have higher cancelations rates. Delays don’t look better on DL side either… And if we include Endeavor (Delta’s regional) it doesn’t look good for Delta at all.
Just shows that all airlines are closer together these days.
Sure hope this gets the old bags to retire. What I’ve seen trudging on international flights and in the hubs is pretty abysmal. Most look like they’re hanging on by a thread and surely don’t have the physical ability to do much of anything – service or safety – related except lock the window 787 window shades or come around with a coat hanger yelling at pax to put a shade down so they can go on break.
Contrast that to some recent Finnair flights I’ve taken and it’s like comparing Dom to Boone’s farm.
Regardless, this won’t change much of anything.
@Lord Timothy Dunn, oh I bet you’re an absolute joy to serve! Kudos to Finnaire!
The industry needs to introduce a required retirement age to the flight attendant profession. Pilots at 65, ATC at 57 – inflight First responders at 70.
I dare say that would take care of multiple issues!
Does this mean I’ll get a PDB of my choice again? How about friendly, proactive service or was the raise not enough to cover that too?
@Lord Timothy Dunn, Esq.: “yelling at pax”
Exaggerating much?
they deserve a raise its hard work
And as demonstrated here, unappreciated by a bunch of self-centered pricks.
Two legs on Sunday July 21. Best service in a year. I don’t approve of what happened before, but I’m glad it’s over.