Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), right, announces a strike authorization outside Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), near Dallas, Texas, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023.
Shelby Tauber | Bloomberg | Getty Images
American Airlines Flight attendants approved a five-year labor agreement, ending one of the industry's most contentious contract negotiations and granting cabin crews pay raises of up to 20.5% in early October.
Eighty-seven percent of American Airlines flight attendants who voted approved the contract, the union said Thursday, shortly after polls closed.
“This contract marks an important milestone for our flight attendants, providing immediate pay increases of up to 20.5%, along with significant retroactive pay to cover time spent negotiating,” said Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents the airline's roughly 28,000 cabin crew members.
Flight attendants are the largest unionized workforce at the Fort Worth-based airline.
The contract agreement is a relief for American’s leaders, who had faced a strike threat from flight attendants if the two sides failed to reach a deal. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Labor Secretary Julie Su had attended negotiations in June, overseen by the National Mediation Board. More than 160 lawmakers have also pressed the NMB to reach agreements across the airline industry.
“Reaching a settlement for our flight attendants has been a top priority and today we celebrate achieving this important milestone,” American CEO Robert Isom said in a statement.
Flight attendants, like other airline workers, have pushed for higher wages and other improvements in work rules after the Covid-19 pandemic derailed negotiations and the cost of living soared in recent years.
united airlines and its flight attendants union are still negotiating a new contract, while Alaska Airlines Cabin crew members recently rejected a tentative labor agreement.
Other industries have also secured higher wages in new contracts, some of them after strikes, such as in the auto industry and Hollywood.
About 33,000 Boeing Workers will vote on Thursday on a new contract with 25 percent wage increases, which some workers have said they will reject. Boeing faces a possible strike if the deal is rejected.
