American Airlines flight attendants will finally be able to vote on a new “tentative agreement” (TA), following five years of labor disputes. During this time, there have been countless failed attempts to reach a deal, constant strike threats, and even the creation of a strike command center back in June, all while flight attendants at the airline remained on pre-pandemic pay.
The terms of the contract were shrouded in secrecy for several days as the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents around 27,000 flight attendants employed by American, refused to disclose what they had agreed to. When pressed, the union described the TA as containing “leading industry rates” but refused to divulge further details.
On Friday June 27, APFA finally published the terms of the TA on their website. It notes that if members agree to the deal, American flight attendants will receive an immediate 18% to 20.5% wage increase depending on experience, half pay during boarding, and access to a profit-sharing formula. They will also get retro pay for the time spent without a new contract including during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the APFA describing the contract as a significant win, the union seemed to anticipate that members would be unhappy, defensively stating that they had fought for the “best contract we could achieve.” It begs the question, what areas in the agreement are the APFA hoping their members will not look too closely at?
If you compare the deal to competitors, such as Delta Air Lines, it becomes clear why flight attendants at American may have grievances with the new contract. For example, the APFA framed the boarding pay agreement as novel and revolutionary in the industry, but non-unionized Delta Air Lines already introduced this all the way back in April 2022 and without the need for years of negotiations and strike threats.
Turning to wage increases, while the APFA described the rates as “industry leading”, they neglected to mention how long they are going to be in this pole position. Delta Air Lines raised their flight attendants’ wages by 17% this year, just 1% lower than American, and as travel expert and View From The Wing blogger Gary Leff points out, “Delta will give its flight attendants another raise next year, and probably a higher percentage increase than American flight attendants will receive.” United Airlines are also still negotiating their contract and will use American’s deal as a baseline to push for higher pay rates.
American’s TA does adopt Delta’s generous profit-sharing formula, but this is unlikely to make up for the lower-than expected wages. Given American’s current financial performance, their flight attendants will not be receiving profit sharing pay outs like Delta because the airline makes substantially less in profits. Just this week, American reported a 46% decline in profits during the second quarter of 2024 and it is the most debt-laden airline in the US. In contrast, Delta paid out $1.4bn of last year’s profits to its workers.
It’s understandable that American flight attendants will be disappointed, given how long it has taken to reach a deal and the unattainable wage expectations set by the APFA. While promising immediate pay increases of 33%, the union only managed to secure half of that but seemed so weary from the protracted negotiations that they agreed to a deal they likely would have rejected a year ago.
Nor is AFPA the only airline union to overpromise and under-deliver. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) was in the news last week after hitting out against United Airlines' new sickness policy. United management sent an internal “schedule alert” stating that all United flight attendants will require verification from a physician going forward if they decide to take sick leave on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.
The AFA-CWA was quick to go on the attack, describing it as a “wilful contract violation” that demonstrates the management’s “lack of respect” for flight attendants. The United chapter President of the AFA-CWA, Ken Diaz gave a video address where he described United Chief Executive John Slater’s actions as a “direct and malicious attack”. With all this fighting talk, you would expect the union to leap into action. However, while they are seeking legal advice it remains unclear how long it could take to challenge United and amend the rules.
The fact that the AFA-CWA seems ineffective at protecting their flight attendants is hardly surprising given that their full focus and resources are going on the contract negotiations that continue to drag on. Just last week, the AFA-CWA sent out strike authorization ballots to their members with voting set to take place between August 1 and August 28.
Overall, it’s disappointing to see unions like APFA and the AFA-CWA constantly over-promise and under-deliver. For the APFA, the duration of the contract negotiations means the new deal is probably going to be passed by members. However, rather than being a sign of success for unions and collective bargaining, it more seems like a product of utter exhaustion. As American’s contract negotiations end, the AFA-CWA will continue with their strike threats and fight talk with the blind hope that United can achieve a drastically different outcome to American flight attendants.
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