ALBAWABA - American Airlines has given its flight attendants immediate wage rises of 17% as well as an updated system for larger share of profits in 2024 in its revised contracts, according to Reuters citing a memo to employees by CEO Robert Isom, as the airline fears looming union strikes.
Beginning in January 2020, the latest round of discussions was put on hold during the pandemic's peak and then picked back up in June 2021, before resulting with the current raise, with Isom saying “we are committed to reaching a new agreement and now is the time to make a deal,” adding that there is “still a good deal of work to be done.”
Flight attendants working for American Airlines said that they have not received a salary hike in more than five years and have requested an urgent raise of around 33 percent. Officials from the union argue that flight attendants went through a lot during the epidemic, enduring rowdy customers who disagreed with the contentious mask regulation that was implemented on airplanes.
As a result of the failure of the discussions that took place a month ago to result in an agreement, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents more than 23,000 flight attendants in the United States, has requested that prepare employees a potential strike.
In the airline industry, strikes are an exceedingly uncommon occurrence. The most recent one occurred in 2010 among pilots working for Spirit Airlines, according to CNBC, which notes that a release by federal mediators would be triggered in the event that the two sides are unable to come to an agreement, a procedure that would take many weeks to conclude.
Julie Hedrick, who serves as the national president of the APFA, has said that the motion would be discussed by the board of directors this coming Wednesday, noting that the airline has to prioritize the drafting of a more long-term agreement with flight attendants, saying “this is not that.”
