American Airlines flight attendants ratify new contract with immediate pay increases of over 20%
Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (right), announces a strike authorization outside Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport near Dallas on August 30, 2023.
Shelby Tauber | Bloomberg |
American Airlines The flight attendants agreed to a five-year collective agreement that ended one of the most controversial wage negotiations in the industry and secured salary increases of up to 20.5 percent for cabin crew in early October.
Eighty-seven percent of American Airlines flight attendants who voted in favor of the vote approved the contract, the union said Thursday shortly after polls closed.
“This contract represents a significant milestone for our flight attendants as it provides immediate wage increases of up to 20.5 percent as well as significant retroactive payments to compensate for the time spent negotiating,” said Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents the airline’s approximately 28,000 cabin crew members.
Flight attendants are the largest unionized labor group at the Fort Worth-based airline.
The collective agreement is a relief for American Airlines management, which has been struggling with threats of strikes from flight attendants if the two sides could not reach an agreement. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Labor Secretary Julie Su participated in the negotiations in June, which were overseen by the National Mediation Board. More than 160 lawmakers also urged the NMB to reach industry-wide agreements.
“Reaching an agreement for our flight attendants was a top priority and today we celebrate achieving this important milestone,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a statement.
Flight attendants, like other airline workers, are pushing for higher wages and other improvements to working rules after the Covid-19 pandemic derailed negotiations and the cost of living soared in recent years.
United Airlines and the flight attendants’ union are still negotiating a new contract, while Alaska Airlines Cabin crew members recently rejected a provisional collective agreement.
Higher wages have also been achieved in new collective agreements in other sectors, partly after strikes, for example in the automotive industry and in Hollywood.
About 33,000 Boeing Workers will vote on Thursday on a new collective bargaining agreement with a 25% wage increase. Some workers have said they will reject it. If the agreement is rejected, Boeing faces a strike.
