CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 24: American Airlines employees picket at O’Hare International Airport on January 24, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. The workers, mostly flight attendants from the Professional Flight Attendants Association (APFA), were picketing to demand improved working conditions as contract negotiations continued. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Scott Olson | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Airline pilots won pay raises worth billions of dollars last year in a new collective bargaining agreement. Flight attendants are now demanding similar improvements.
Flight attendant from united airlines, american airlines, southwest airlines, alaska airlines and others picketed dozens of airports across the United States on Tuesday, demanding higher wages and a better quality of life.
“We’ve had 20 years of austerity, and it’s time for our industry to pay the price,” said Sarah Nelson, president of the Flight Attendants Association CWA, which represents flight attendants at United Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines and others. he said.
The demonstration marks the first large-scale picket jointly organized by unions representing more than 100,000 U.S. airline flight attendants. The new labor deal would not only come on the heels of a pilot contract, but would also include pay increases won by auto workers, Hollywood screenwriters and major companies, including: UPS.
Most flight attendants at major airlines haven’t received raises since before the pandemic, and while the pandemic has put a pause on contract negotiations, the cost of living has risen sharply in recent years.
American Airlines and other airlines told CNBC they are optimistic they will reach an agreement with flight attendants in the coming months.
Labor and fuel costs are the two largest expenses for airlines.
Salary stagnation
According to the Department of Labor, the average annual salary for flight attendants is about $67,000, but the average salary ranges from about $38,000 at the bottom 10th percentile to about $97,000 at the highest.
Julie Hedrick, national president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines’ approximately 27,000 flight attendants, said inflation is “the most challenging situation for our new employees.” “What we want is [American] It’s about having a seat at the table and recognizing what we’ve done to bring this airline back into the black. ”
Flight attendants are most often paid when the aircraft door is closed. Unions primarily demand either ground pay or boarding pay to compensate flight attendants for their work before takeoff.
delta airlinesflight attendants are not unionized, but began paying flight attendants at half their hourly rate in 2022 (the Flight Attendants Association started a new union campaign there before the pandemic).
Alaska Airlines flight attendants gather on the picket line to protest groundbreaking changes to a new contract currently under negotiation at San Francisco International Airport on December 19, 2023 in San Francisco, California, USA.
Carlos Barriareuter
threat of attack
After most travel resumed during the pandemic, flight attendants faced increased job stress from crowded planes, layoffs, tight schedules and sometimes unruly travelers, according to the union.
“It’s not surprising that they’re dissatisfied,” said Conor Cunningham, an airline stock analyst at Melius Research. “Remember what happened with the pandemic? They had to be the police in the skies. They got hit by inflation like all of us, but their wages didn’t increase along with it. It was.”
Despite Tuesday’s picketing, the airline industry is unlikely to see strikes or work stoppages like those seen in the auto and entertainment industries last year.
Flight attendants and other airline workers’ contracts have no expiration date, and they must be released by the federal government to strike. Still, several flight attendant unions have approved authorization to strike, and all four airlines are negotiating with their unions through federal mediation.
Southwest Airlines flight attendants voted down the tentative agreement last year.
“We reached an industry-leading interim agreement with TWU 556 in October 2023 and will meet with the union and the National Mediation Board next week to continue working toward an agreement that benefits flight attendants and Southwest Airlines. ,” the airline said in a statement. statement.
Correction: Southwest Airlines flight attendants voted down the tentative agreement last year. Previous versions had incorrect timing.
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