American Airlines is facing a strike by flight attendants ahead of the busy summer travel season.
The current contract expires in 2019, and cost-of-living adjustments remain stagnant at rates negotiated in 2014.
Whatever you think about unions, workers are suffering in the Biden economy.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) issued a statement to members advising them to prepare for a strike.
Association Discussion Update #56
Intensive Mediation No Agreement;
Flight attendants must prepare for strikeTwo weeks of intensive mediation at the National Mediation Board (NMB) office in Washington, DC, failed to produce an agreement with American Airlines. The session followed three weeks of mediation in DFW. At the request of NMB, we cannot release specific details. We remain both in the key economy of the deal plus the company’s request is completely unacceptable for schedule concessions.
More information on the status of the negotiations and future steps will follow. We believe that the Board will call the third party for one last ditch effort in the next two weeks but that has not been set yet. We believe we will have more information from NMB there and will send an update. If we cannot reach an agreement, the matter will be before the NMB to determine if we will be released. While these delays are frustrating, we also know that the company’s ability to prevent these negotiations from ending quickly.
All flight attendants should prepare for strike. The Strike handbook will be mailed to your address on file with APFA.
Our right to strike under the Railway Labor Act has not changed. However, we cannot attack until it is released by NMB and after a thirty-day cooling-off period. There should be no unlawful or illegal conduct, including but not limited to work slowdown/stoppage or concerted action to deny open travel. Please do not endanger yourself or our collective efforts by encouraging or participating in illegal or illegal activities.
The company, however, remains tone-deaf. For Flight Attendant Appreciation Day, the airline is serving cold sandwiches with a low salary.
Comments on Instagram are brutal:
“The FA’s appreciation for the promised industrial contract!!!”
“Why don’t you post about the surgery in the last 4-5 days? About FAs literally stranded all over the country with no hotels, sitting around with tracking/Scheduling for hours and not getting paid???”
“I’ve been on vacation texting and calling from the FA since 3am the past few days because you’ve deliberately left them stranded, lost in the system, abandoned and unsupported. We don’t need IG shoutouts, we need reliable infrastructure and consistency from the company we work. Step up and for the love of God leave the stale cookies and coagulated ham sandwiches in the draft folder next time.”
Some immediately called the CEO of American Airlines Robert Isom, who received a new compensation that increased to more than $ 31 million in 2023.
“@robert_isom Honest question; Do you think you work 2,100 times smarter or harder than a flight attendant? I don’t think it’s physically possible considering we work to our absolute limits. 17 hours a day with 6 hours of rest is not common. So why do you pay yourself more than 2,100 times a flight attendant’s salary?Your flight attendant wants to get on with life, buy a car, start a family, not worry about the grocery store because you can’t buy food.
“YOU HAVE FAILED US. @robert_isom@americanair Signed, 27,000+ Flight attendants who respectfully don’t need your humiliating ham sandwich right now, but would rather have a contract. Thanks.”
According to the Railway Labor Act, the National Mediation Board does not often allow it strike, but a The bipartisan group of 168 lawmakers called on the Council “to use all tools at our disposal to support the negotiated resolution.”
We are writing to express our concern about the number of ongoing and ongoing contract negotiations between the parties before the National Mediation Board. As you know, there are thousands of workers across the country who are currently going through contract negotiations, and we encourage you to use the tools at your disposal to ensure a timely resolution of these cases.
First, we would like to acknowledge the work of the National Mediation Board (NMB) in dealing with the unprecedented level of bargaining in recent years due to the unmet demands of delayed bargaining during COVID. With NMB’s assistance, most of these negotiations were completed, demonstrating the professionalism and hard work of your Board and staff. We are committed to providing you with the resources to carry your work forward.
However, we are concerned about the increasing number of pre-NMB contract negotiations that are being conducted unfairly to the detriment of workers. We understand that certain negotiations have been going on for five years, and we have heard from workers who are concerned that they are being unfairly delayed in the bargaining process. For example, we know that more than 100,000 flight attendants are currently in contract negotiations, many of whom are working under contract terms that are now several years past the contract date that could be changed. Furthermore, many of these workers are on the front lines during the Covid pandemic and have made countless sacrifices to keep the company financially secure, and it is important that they are able to reap the benefits of the collective bargaining process in a timely manner.
We are also concerned that the reason for these prolonged negotiations is the recent inability of workers to use self-help options to ease labor disputes. It has long been understood that the best way to achieve labor peace is through collective bargaining backed by the threat of “self-help” for both sides, including the right to strike for workers. Indeed, workers in various professions have obtained new contracts in recent years, many of them won because of the reliable ability of workers to exercise self-help options.
However, over the past several decades, the ability of workers to use self-help options has been lost. In fact, there have been only two strikes for airline workers since 2006, the last being the Spirit Airlines Pilots in 2010, compared to dozens in the 1980s and 1990s. Thus, management has no incentive to reach an agreement with workers on time and many companies use this development to their advantage, improving the lives of tens of thousands of front-line workers.
Accordingly, we urge the Council to use all the resources at its disposal to encourage the resolution of the conflict with the long overdue ratified agreement.
Thank you for your diligent work to resolve disputes and please continue your work knowing that we support your efforts and use the statute to encourage the settlement of disputes contracts.
