CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – JANUARY 24: American Airlines workers picket at O'Hare International Airport on January 24, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. The workers, mostly flight attendants from the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), were picketing to demand better working conditions as contract negotiations continue. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Airline pilots won pay increases worth billions of dollars in new labor agreements last year. Flight attendants are now pushing for similar improvements.
flight attendants united airlines, american airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and others protested at dozens of U.S. airports Tuesday, demanding higher wages and a better quality of life.
“We have been in a period of austerity for 20 years and it is time for the industry to pay,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants (CWA), which represents United, Spirit, Frontier cabin crews. and others.
The demonstrations mark the first mass pickets organized jointly by the unions, which together represent more than 100,000 U.S. airline flight attendants. The new labor agreements would come not only after the pilot contracts, but also after the salary increases obtained by workers in the automobile sector, Hollywood writers and at large companies such as UPS.
Flight attendants at most of the largest airlines have not received pay increases since before the pandemic, which halted contract negotiations, while the cost of living has risen sharply in recent years.
American and other airlines told CNBC they are optimistic they will reach agreements with their flight attendants in the coming months.
Labor costs and fuel represent the two largest expenses for airlines.
Stagnant salary
Flight attendants earn an average of about $67,000 a year, according to the Department of Labor, although salaries can range from about $38,000 at the bottom 10th percentile to about $97,000 at the top.
Inflation has been “the hardest thing for our new employees,” said Julie Hedrick, national president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents about 27,000 American flight attendants. “We want [American] “Come to the table and recognize what we've done to make this airline profitable again.”
Most flight attendants get paid when the plane door is closed. Unions are pushing heavily for ground or boarding pay to compensate flight attendants for their work before takeoff.
Delta Airlineswhose flight attendants are not unionized, began paying them for boarding at half their hourly rate in 2022 (the Association of Flight Attendants started a new union drive there before the pandemic).
Alaska Airlines flight attendants gather on a picket line to protest historic changes to their new contracts, currently under negotiation, at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, USA, on December 19, 2023.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Strike threat
During the pandemic, after most travel resumed, cabin crew members faced increased work stress due to full planes, reduced staff, overloaded schedules and sometimes unruly travelers, according to unions.
“I'm not surprised they're unhappy,” said Conor Cunningham, airline equity analyst at Melius Research. “Remember what happened during the pandemic: they had to be the sky's police. They suffered inflation like all of us and their salaries did not increase with it.”
Despite Tuesday's picketing, the aviation industry is unlikely to experience strikes or work stoppages like those seen in the automotive and entertainment industries last year.
The contracts of flight attendants and other aviation workers do not have expiration dates and would require a federal release to go on strike. Still, several flight attendant unions have approved strike authorizations and the four airlines are negotiating with the flight attendant unions through federal mediation.
Southwest Airlines flight attendants rejected a tentative deal in a vote earlier this year.
“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.” , the airline said in a statement.
