American Airlines Flight Attendants Will Picket The White House On Thursday
On Thursday American Airlines flight attendants will picket across the country, and at the White House. They’ve been without a raise since 2019, when their contract became amendable. They’ve asked for government permission to strike, but that hasn’t been forthcoming. There’s no deadlock. American Airlines has increased its offer since the last bargaining session.
A strong showing may signal ‘resolve’ to the company – that flight attendants are united in getting a good deal and won’t settle. But they probably do little else. Picketing in front of the White House might get more media, and make a point to the President not to intervene the way President Clinton did, halting an American Airlines flight attendants strike in 1993. I’m quite optimistic that a strike can be avoided altogether.
American Airlines has raised their financial offer. The union has changed the rhetoric around what they want. It’s no longer a target raise that far outpaces the rest of the industry. Instead they’re focused on,
- Wages comparable to what Southwest got in its latest contract
- Retro pay, for the increases they would have gotten had it not taken 5 years to get a new deal
Normally you wouldn’t expect much retro pay – perhaps a small signing bonus – in a flight attendant deal. However, Southwest Airlines didn’t just increase wages they provided retro pay as well and crew there can get $20,000.
Even in their picketing messaging, American flight attendants are now focused on the Southwest Airlines economic proposal which means they’re now within the zone of reality in terms of their bargaining. For a year I wrote that they couldn’t get there until union leadership elections have passed, and officers have no been re-elected.
Meanwhile, the airline has upped its own. It’s been pegged to non-union Delta. American offered to match the top of the industry in pay rates, and add boarding pay – something only Delta provided and no union contract has ever achieved. American also offered to match Delta’s profit-sharing formula, but those payments would still be lower for American crew because the airline earns less profit.
Delta raised pay 5%, and American increased its offer. Southwest has a big new contract, and these deals are complicated – some crew do better under one formula versus another. A Delta flight attendant working 80 hours, with boarding pay and profit sharing, earns as much as Southwest flight attendants will under this new contract.
What’s going to be tough, since the structures of the businesses and contracts are so different, is picking and choosing pieces of one and pieces of another. Delta has the comparable business, but a lot more flexibility that allows them to earn a higher return on the wages they pay.
While tempers are flaring, some of that may be for show, because the parties are finally talking about economic terms within the same framework – both sides are working from comparisons to what cabin crew make at other airlines.
