Tag Archives for flight attendants.
Hopefully this messaging suggests we’re closer than ever to a new agreement that both sides can live with – and then that the union can sell the contract they negotiate to flight attendants, who have been promised that the wait will be worth it in terms of big raises and full retro pay for four and a half years since their deal became amendable.
American Airlines and its flight attendants union were summoned to a rare Saturday meeting in Washington, D.C. by the National Mediation Board.
The Mediation Board did not tell the parties that they were being released to ‘self-help’. Instead, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants told its members that negotiations continue.
The National Mediation Board has called American Airlines and its flight attendants union to D.C. for a meeting this Saturday, after what the union described as “last ditch” negotiations failed just over a week ago.
The FAA has decided that the workload in ensuring business class suite doors are in their correct position is significant. These doors generally have to be open during taxi, take-off, and landing. And that extra work means that airlines have to staff cabin crew beyond otherwise-required minimums (of 1 flight attendant per 50 seats) for planes with doors.
The American Airlines flight attendants union has told its members, “We do not believe further negotiations will be scheduled prior to the National Mediation Board determining to release the parties into a thirty-day cooling-off period. All American Airlines Flight Attendants should prepare for an upcoming strike.”
American Airlines and its flight attendants union were in Washington, D.C. this week for what the Association of Professional Flight Attendants described as ‘last ditch’ talks before a strike. Leaks from the National Mediation Board suggested that if a deal wasn’t reached by early June, flight attendants would be released to strike.
However the week’s negotiations ended, there is no deal – and no declared impasse by the National Mediation Board.
I’m increasingly worried that American Airlines flight attendants are being led down a bad path for someone else’s agenda.
Senator Bernie Sanders and a majority of Senate Democrats may have just given the National Mediation Board the political cover they need to allow a strike.
If this plays out as the union hopes – released to strike, and (assuming the company doesn’t fold to their demands) actually striking – American Airlines flight attendants could elect Donald Trump as President.
Without getting into debates of whom you wish to see win the election, I point this out because it’s likely not whom they wish to see as President on the whole.
At the beginning of the year, one American Airlines flight attendant put out a warning to aspiring cabin crew: don’t become a flight attendant unless you’re going to Delta. You’d think that efforts to unionize flight attendants at Delta face an uphill battle – and they do.
That’s why the latest tactics of Sara Nelson’s AFA-CWA are so interesting.
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 »
