Tag Archives for flight attendants.
There are a number of issues that flight attendants are unhappy with in the new contract their union negotiated with American. The last time cabin crew voted on a contract, they voted it down. The union is doing a good job selling it, in my opinion, but the membership is clearly divided – and their powerful LAX base president has given new voice to the opposition.
It’s interesting to look at what American Airlines flight attendants didn’t get in their negotiations. They’re going to get boarding pay – they’ll be paid for the time spent boarding an aircraft – but that doesn’t start until six months after the contract is ratified. They’re going to get higher 401(k) contributions, but that doesn’t start until 2025. They aren’t going to get higher staffing levels. They won’t even get pre-pandemic staffing levels restored.
The new American Airlines flight attendants contract that workers will be asked to vote on contains new language about the union helping the airline track down and discipline members who sell their seniority.
A new American Airlines flight attendants contract gives crew immediate 18% – 20.5% raises, starts paying them (at half pay) during boarding during the first time, and adopts Delta’s generous profit-sharing formula. They also get changes to work rules, meal costs on the road and retirement contributions. It was likely the most they could get from an airline that underperforms financially, putting them on equal footing or slightly above the next-best paid flight attendants in the industry. But it doesn’t give them everything they’d hoped for.
Online, flight attendants are griping.
American Airlines and its flight attendants have a tentative agreement on a new contract, four and a half years after the last one became amendable.
Details of the five year deal are now public. Between immediate pay rate changes and the addition of boarding pay, flight attendants will receive up to 28% raises immediately the month following contract ratification. And they’ll get full retro pay for the time spent without a new contract, which can be over $25,000 per crewmember.
Employees are furious about this new policy. While the union says it’s filing a grievance, individual flight attendants have been bombarding both federal and state agencies with complaints on their own.
According to a voicemail recording received by a United flight attendant in response to a complaint regarding the new weekend sick policy requiring an absence certificate, the Department of Labor has assigned an investigator and is launching an investigation.
This absence certificate being required by the airline is extensive and invasive, demanding personal health information including a “treatment plan” and “progress of treatment” that is highly unusual to share with any employer – let alone for merely taking a sick day that an employee is contractually entitled to when sick.
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.
Now that American Airlines is huddling with its flight attendants union in Phoenix this week to wrap up a new contract, without even the help of federal mediators, United Airlines flight attendants are ready to turn up the heat in their own negotiations.
The American Airlines flight attendants union has changed its tune. They are no longer telling their members that a strike is imminent. In fact, a strike has been the threat that has brought them close to a deal.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
