American Airways just lately provided a 17% pay increase for flight attendants, however staff say it will not be sufficient to cease the airline’s first strike in 15 years.
Because the airline and its flight attendants negotiate, American CEO Robert Isom despatched out a video message this week providing a 17% pay increase, simply sufficient to push new Boston and Miami flight attendants above meals stamp eligibility.
The airline stated the wage will increase would take impact instantly and claimed it was not “demanding something from the union in return,” an uncommon transfer, Isom stated in a video name that was confirmed by an American Airways spokesman. “However these are extraordinary occasions.”
Nonetheless, the Skilled Flight Attendants Affiliation (APFA) rejected the provide, calling it a “PR transfer” forward of strike talks between American Airways and the union subsequent week.
Inflation is rising, wages stay on the identical degree
APFA President Julie Hedrick stated APFA and American Airways are in negotiations to enter into and terminate a brand new contract, because the earlier one expired in 2019. Fortune.
“We fell behind in every part,” Hedrick stated. She referred to as low wages and paying for meals throughout journeys as probably the most pressing issues. When flight attendants go on home journeys, they get an additional $2.20 an hour for meals; they get $2.50 for worldwide flights. These numbers are “far behind” what meals truly prices immediately, Hendrick stated.
Since 2014, when the earlier contract was signed, flight attendants have been left with paltry beginning wages, whilst inflation has soared 33%, Hedrick stated. In keeping with an employment verification letter from American that was shared on Reddit a number of weeks in the past, a flight attendant entry can anticipate to earn $27,315 a yr earlier than taxes. (Like many airways, American solely pays flight attendants for the time the airplane is within the air. Boarding passengers, ready between flights, and driving to and from the airport all imply that flight attendants sometimes work about two hours for each “hour of flight” ” which they pay.)
With American’s proposed 17% improve, beginning pay jumps to $31,959 a yr, or $35.50 an hour of flight time. That charge pushes junior flight attendants who dwell alone above the meals stamp eligibility degree in states like Massachusetts or Florida.
Most new flight attendants need to dwell in cities like Dallas, Miami and New York, which have a excessive price of residing that they cannot afford, Hedrick famous.
American flight attendants sleep of their vehicles, she stated. A few of them battle for journeys simply to have the ability to eat on the airplane if the pilots do not take the meals first.
“Our new flight attendants are struggling,” Hendrick stated, including that the brand new hires strongly rejected the 17% increase.
For these workers, the pay backlog provides insult to harm amid years for the reason that pandemic which have exacerbated the {industry}’s long-standing issues, together with understaffing, lengthy hours and unruly passengers, a few of whom assault airline employees.
This results in document burnout amongst service personnel.
18 months of pickets
“We picketed for a yr and a half, and we held at the least 11 pickets,” Hedrick stated. “Our flight attendants have proven our willpower and our solidarity to get the contract, the {industry} assembly contract, that we deserve, and we cannot settle for something much less.”
APFA is proposing a 33% increase — in step with inflation since 2014 — capped at $91 an hour in the course of the first yr of the brand new contract, with wage will increase for every subsequent yr.
This was reported by a consultant of American Airways Fortune that the video message “represents the final of America.” They didn’t reply to questions concerning the provide and future negotiations.
Of the 39 separate points on the desk — equivalent to sick depart or crew holidays — APFA and American have reached “tentative settlement” on 25. The remaining 14 are associated to compensation, bills, holidays and different phrases of the settlement.
A 100-year-old regulation might strike
Union leaders face an uphill battle as they head to Washington subsequent week for talks. Airline strikes are extraordinarily uncommon – the final occurred in 2010, when Spirit Airways pilots went on strike for 5 days.
That is as a result of railroads and airways aren’t allowed to strike except given the inexperienced mild by federal arbitration panels beneath the Railroad Labor Act of 1926. One such group, the Nationwide Conciliation Board, will monitor the American Airways negotiations and will authorize a strike if it finds the teams deadlocked. Nonetheless, the federal authorities may block a strike — because it did in December 2022, when President Joe Biden signed a congressional measure to impose a contract between railroad firms and staff that many staff rejected.
Biden, who referred to as himself “probably the most pro-union president” in historical past, pushed via the deal to keep away from an “financial catastrophe” in the course of the holidays, he stated on the time. With a number of main railroad firms threatened with an industry-wide strike, the stakes for an settlement had been extraordinarily excessive; $2 billion could possibly be misplaced every day of the strike.
The stakes for a doable hit to American are much less dire since different main carriers wouldn’t be affected.
However not solely American workers are calling for greater wages. United Airways continues to be negotiating a brand new contract with its flight attendants. Southwest Airways accredited a contract in April that can improve wages by greater than 33% over 4 years. Southwest Flight Attendant Union, the Transportation Employees Union, stated it has secured document positive aspects for flight attendants and is setting an {industry} normal.
APFA, likewise, is searching for a 33% increase, with will increase of 5%, 4% and 4% for the remaining years of the four-year settlement.
The union additionally stated it might not settle for any deal with out again pay. Final yr, American Airways paid pilots $230 million in again pay after negotiations with the pilots’ union.
Hendrick’s message concerning the 17% increase appears to be that we wish the entire bundle, not partial raises.
“Our flight attendants need nothing to do with it,” she stated. “They overwhelmingly stated yesterday, ‘No, we wish a contract.’ We have been negotiating lengthy sufficient and it is time to shut this deal.”