Good news to American Airlines passengers – American and APFA reached a tentative agreement last week Friday. Though the new agreement must be ratified by the union’s members, it substantially lowers the risk of a strike happening at the airline in the near-term.
Things weren’t looking so great for American recently. While Alaska Air had reached a tentative agreement with its flight attendants, including pay for boarding, American and its flight attendants continued on with tense negotiations. However, news last Friday broke that American and APFA reached a tentative agreement, which means we likely won’t see a flight attendant strike at the airline this year.
American and APFA Reached a Tentative Agreement
Though American and APFA reached a tentative agreement, we don’t know what’s included yet. What we do know is that the new agreement addresses three main areas – compensation, retro pay, and work rules. We also know that the union’s board must approve the tentative agreement before rank and file members can vote to ratify or reject it, and that they’ll meet on said agreement on July 24.
Not voting schedule was provided, but we know that Alaska Airline’s flight attendant contract vote would begin in late July and end in mid-August. With that agreement having been reached in early July, it’s reasonable to believe that American’s contract vote will happen sometime next month and could wrap up by the end of August or early September.
Even if flight attendants vote to reject the contract, they’d have to go back to the bargaining table and/or mediations, be released from mediation, then pass through the mandatory cooling off period before a potential strike may occur. So, the likelihood of a strike happening in 2024 at American is minimal at best now.
United Flight Attendants Are Heating Up
On the heels of American’s and Alaska’s agreements, United’s flight attendants are turning up the heat. While there’s is no official timeline yet, it is said that United’s flight attendants union – the AFA-CWA – will be holding a strike authorization vote soon. Like their counterparts at the U.S. legacies, they’ve been working without a new contract agreement for quite some time now, as their last contract became amendable in 2021.
Final Thoughts
It’s great that American and APFA reached a tentative agreement. Flight attendants have been working without new contracts for a long time, as most of their negotiations were derailed by the pandemic and the ensuing (albeit, temporary) financial pain at the airlines. Of course, American isn’t doing great, as it continues to cede ground to United and Delta, but that’s a different story altogether.
At any rate, I hope all flight attendants get the contracts that they deserve, especially with how travel and passengers have changed in the post-pandemic world. Plus, further disruptions are the last the we need at a time filled with mass delays and cancelations triggered by things like IT issues.
Of course, the union fights I’m looking out for next are between those representing crews at Alaska and Hawaiian. After all, getting union approvals for the merger will be the biggest challenge after securing regulatory approval.