The flight attendants are increasingly frustrated that pilots won huge pay raises last year while they continue to work for wages that, in some cases, have not increased in several years.

They argue that they have not been rewarded for working through the pandemic and being responsible for the safety of passengers.

The unions are calling Tuesday’s protests a national day of action. It is not a strike.

Federal law makes it difficult for airline unions to conduct legal strikes, which can be delayed or blocked by federal mediators, the president and Congress. Mediators have already turned down one request by flight attendants at American Airlines to begin a countdown to a strike; the union plans to ask again next month.

“We appreciate and respect our flight attendants’ right to picket and understand that is their way of telling us the importance of getting a contract done — and we hear them,” American Airlines said in a statement Tuesday. 

Flight attendants remain the last group standing at the negotiation table with the Forth Worth, Texas-based airline.  Pilots for American Airlines reached a new contract agreement in August featuring big pay raises and bonuses. Soon after in December, American reached an agreement with roughly 15,000 passenger service agents, the Dallas Morning News reported at the time. 

Tuesday’s protests were organized by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), which represents crews at United Airlines and several other carriers; the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the union of crews at American, and the Transport Workers Union, which represents crews at Southwest and other airlines.

United Airlines in a statement Tuesday said that its first negotiation session has been scheduled for March 19 by a federal mediator requested by the AFA. “We’re looking forward to working with AFA to narrow the issues so that we can continue to work toward an industry-leading agreement for our flight attendants,” the company said. 

Alaska Airlines said that its leadership and the AFA are continuing to bargain and meet with a mediator, describing discussions as “productive,” in a statement Tuesday. “With six recently closed labor deals at the company and a tentative agreement reached in January for a new contract for our technicians, we’re hopeful to do the same for our flight attendants as soon as possible,” the airline said.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement issued Tuesday, “We reached an industry-leading Tentative Agreement with TWU 556 in October 2023 and are scheduled to meet next week with the union and the National Mediation Board to continue working toward an agreement that benefits our Flight Attendants and Southwest.”

Transport Workers Union Local 556, the union representing Southwest Airlines flight attendants, overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract agreement by the airline in December.

Credits: U.S. Airlines

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As the airline and its attendants negotiate, American CEO Robert Isom this week sent a video message offering a 17% wage increase, just enough to push new Boston and Miami flight attendants above food stamp eligibility.

The airline said the pay increase would take effect immediately and claimed it is not “asking anything from the union in return,” an unusual move, Isom said in the video message, which was confirmed by an American Airlines spokesperson. “But these are unusual times.” 

Still, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) rejected the offer, calling it a “PR move” ahead of strike negotiations that will take place between American Airlines and the union next week. 

Inflation surges, pay stays flat

APFA and American Airlines have been in negotiations over a new contract on and off since the previous one expired in 2019, APFA president Julie Hedrick told Fortune. 

“We’re behind on everything,” Hedrick said. She cited low wages and low pay for food expenses on trips as the most pressing issues. When flight attendants go on domestic trips, they receive an additional $2.20 an hour for food expenses; for international flights, they receive $2.50. These numbers are “very behind” what food actually costs today, Hedrick said. 

Since 2014, when the previous contract was negotiated, flight attendants have been left with measly starting salaries even as inflation has shot up 33%, Hedrick said. According to an employment verification letter from American, which circulated on Reddit a few weeks ago, an entry-level flight attendant can expect to make $27,315 a year, before taxes. (Like many airlines, American pays its attendants only for the time the plane is in the air. Boarding passengers, waiting between flights, and traveling to and from the airport all mean flight attendants typically work about two hours for each “flight hour” they are paid.) 

With American’s proposed 17% increase, the starting wage jumps to $31,959 per year, or $35.5 per flight hour. That rate pushes junior flight attendants who live alone above the level for qualifying for food stamps in states like Massachusetts or Florida. 

Most new flight attendant hires are required to live in cities like Dallas, Miami, and New York, which have high costs of living that they cannot afford, Hedrick noted. 

American flight attendants are sleeping in their cars, she said. Some of them fight for trips just for the chance to eat the plane meals, if the pilots don’t take their meals first.

“Our new hire flight attendants are struggling,” Hedrick said, adding that new hires most strongly rejected the 17% hike.

For these attendants, lagging pay adds insult to injury when seen against the backdrop of the post-pandemic years, which exacerbated longstanding issues in the industry including staffing shortage, long hours, and unruly passengers, some of whom assault airline staff.

That’s leading to record burnout among attendants. 

18 months of pickets

“We have picketed for a year and a half, and we’ve done at least 11 pickets,” Hedrick said. “Our flight attendants have demonstrated our resolve and our solidarity to get a contract, an industry-meeting contract that we deserve, and we will take nothing less.”

APFA is proposing a raise of 33%—in line with the rise in inflation since 2014—with a cap at $91 per hour during the first year of a new contract, with pay raises for each year after.

An American Airlines spokesperson told Fortune that the video message “represents the latest from American.” They did not answer questions about the proposal or the upcoming negotiations. 

Of the 39 separate issues on the table, such as sick leave or crew rest, APFA and American have reached a “tentative agreement” on 25. The other 14 are associated with compensation, expenses, vacations, and other terms of agreement. 

100-year law could snarl strike

Union leaders face an uphill battle as they head to Washington next week to negotiate. Airline strikes are exceedingly rare; the last one occurred in 2010, when Spirit Airlines pilots went on strike for five days. 

That’s because railway and airline workers are not allowed to strike unless given the green light by federal mediator groups, via the 1926 Railway Labor Act. One such group, the National Mediation Board, will oversee the American Airlines negotiations, and can allow a strike to occur if it finds that the groups are at an impasse. Still, the federal government can also block a strike—as happened in December 2022, when President Joe Biden signed a measure passed by Congress to impose a contract between rail companies and workers that many workers had rejected. 

Biden, who has called himself “the most pro-union president” in history, enforced the agreement to avoid an “economic catastrophe” during the holidays, he said at the time. With multiple major railroad companies at threat of an industrywide strike, the stakes for an agreement were extremely high; $2 billion could have been lost every day of a strike. 

The stakes for a possible strike at American are less dire, since other major carriers would not be affected.

But American attendants aren’t the only one calling for wage hikes. United Airlines is still negotiating a new contract with their flight attendants. Southwest Airlines, in April, approved a contract that includes pay raises totaling more than 33% over four years. The union representing Southwest flight attendants, the Transport Workers Union, said that it provided record gains for flight attendants and sets an industry standard. 

APFA, likewise, is asking for a 33% hike, with raises of 5%, 4%, and 4% for the remaining years of a four-year agreement. 

The union has also stated that it will not accept any deal without retroactive pay. Last year, American Airlines awarded pilots $230 million in retroactive pay after negotiations with its pilots union. 

Hedrick’s message regarding the 17% hike seems to be: We want the whole package, not piecemeal raises. 

“Our flight attendants want nothing to do with it,” she said. “They, overwhelmingly, yesterday said, ‘No, we want a contract. We’ve been in negotiations long enough, and it’s time to get this deal done.’”

Credits: American Airline

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