Tag Archives for union.
It’s a mess, but a mess that can be fixed with money. As a result if American somehow doesn’t fix it, it’s a huge failure of management. So it’s also a test of the new management team whose orders are normally to not spend a dollar more than they need to.
American Airlines pilots union spokesman Dennjs Tajer went on CNBC Squawk Box and made a number of claims against the airline. Some of them are true – like American not keeping pilots current during the pandemic despite receiving government subsidies in order to do so – and then there’s this claim: that the federal government is advising employees not to book travel on American.
Sometimes airline union leaders flat out steal from their members. Sometimes it’s more subtle.
Former American Airlines flight attendants union President Bob Ross had previously argued, in effect, that he shouldn’t be singled out among past union Presidents for financial impropriety, and that his improper financial practices had been approved by his subordinates.
Now he’s arguing, among other claims, that the accusations against him are all part of Sara Nelson’s plot to grow her power base.
Pilots are one of the few unionized work groups at Delta. They’re complaining that Delta gave non-union flight attendants a raise by adding pay for boarding time (in addition to their pre-pandemic raise, post-pandemic raise, and special profit-sharing).
However Delta cannot unilaterally change the pay of their pilots. Their pilots literally agreed to – voted on – a contract that paid more for time flying the plane and didn’t calculate pay including boarding time. Not only haven’t pilots made boarding pay a priority, they’ve chosen the current arrangement because it benefits senior union members at the expense of junior ones.
Delta’s decision to pay flight attendants for the time boarding aircraft sent shockwaves through the industry. Traditionally flight attendant union-bargained contracts pay flight attendants a higher wage for the flight itself, and don’t calculate time spent boarding. Thus, many flight attendants feel they ‘don’t get paid’ for that time.
I’ve heard from cabin crew at several airlines envious of their counterparts at Delta, who are seeing this new pay on top of raises that started right before the pandemic, on top of special profit sharing bonuses announced earlier this year, and on top of raises that go into effect May 1.
Houston-based Avelo is a startup. They’re scheduled to operate 630 flights this month, an average of just 21 a day, using 8 Boeing 737s. The same number of flight attendants voted to form a union as Avelo has planes.
Alcohol is about to return to American Airlines coach on Monday, and the carrier’s flight attendants union – the Association of Professional Flight Attendants – has demanded that a two drink limit be imposed on passengers.
This past weekend American’s operation melted down, along with other airlines including Southwest, Delta, and JetBlue. Once again the flight attendants union reports that crew had no hotels, and even worse that the airline – which was cancelling flights due to lack of crew – didn’t even keep track of where their flight attendants were to reassign them to trips to get customers home.
It’s particularly galling to send flight attendants to collections and threaten termination over their dues within days of reporting to those same flight attendants that their former union president misappropriated their dues for personal gain. And doubly so since the union flight attendants are paying for is so weak.
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 »
