Tag Archives for union.
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.
The Alaska Airlines flight attendants union, whose members have already overwhelmingly authorized a strike, says that they’re giving negotiations “the next two weeks” and that they “won’t wait” to take the next steps towards a strike after that.
The smart thing would have been to take the money since nothing was required in exchange – it was literally just allowing the airline to increase paychecks without a new contract or accepting any company terms whatsoever. You don’t leave free money on the table especially when you… need the money. This would have set a new baseline to negotiate upwards from.
American Airlines is offering a 17% raise and increased profit sharing to its flight attendants immediately, without waiting for a new contract. The union just has to allow them to pay cabin crew more, and doesn’t have to give anything up in return. That’s the message that airline CEO Robert Isom sent in the form of a video directly to flight attendants today.
The union has opened what they’re calling a “Strike Command Center.” To prepare for a strike, the union is telling flight attendants… you’re on your own and expect not to be able to pay credit card bills.
American Airlines and flight attendants go back to mediation in Washington, D.C. next week for what the union characterizes as a “last ditch” effort to avoid a strike. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants is telling crewmembers to “prepare for” a strike, and there’s certainly a looming threat and with negotiations dragging on that threat becomes more real. But for now it appears mostly posturing, and a deal seems likely.
Charlene Carter was fired as a Southwest Airlines flight attendant in 2017 after criticizing her union, TWU Local 556, for spending crewmember dues advocating for political causes like abortion.
American Airlines and its flight attendants were at the negotiating table with federal mediators in Washington, D.C. for the last six business days. The union reports back that no agreement was reached. They expect the National Mediation Board to insist on one ‘last ditch effort’ to reach an agreement early in June before declaring an impasse, which would start a 30 day ‘cooling off period’ before releasing the parties to ‘self-help’ (a strike).
Flight attendants have significantly reduced their bargaining demands in tense negotiations with the American Airlines. The parties have been working this week in Washington, D.C. with federal mediators, and will continue to do so all next week, in front of a leaked deadline to wrap up a deal under threat that the government will release cabin crew to strike.
Flight Attendants voted to authorize a strike with nearly 99.5% casting a ballot in favor back in August. The union asked the National Mediation Board to declare an impasse in the fall, hoping to be allowed to strike over the peak Christmas holiday. This was denied. Subsequent requests haven’t received a formal answer.
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 »
