American Airlines Flight attendants organized by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) are ready to strike. Back in November 2023, a strike authorization vote received 91 percent votes in favor of a strike. The request for a strike was rejected by the National Mediation Board and a 30-day cooling period was imposed.
It is important to note that airlines and their employees are not covered under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) but rather the Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926 which was amended in 1936 to broaden jurisdiction from railways to airline workers. The passage of the Railway Labor Act was a measure taken by the federal government to restrict the workers from Self-Help practices such as going on strike. The act requires a very lengthy process of negotiations between the union and bosses which if negotiations fail are then sent to the National Mediation Board, currently led by appointees of President Biden. Unlike with the National Labor Relations Act, under the Railway Labor Act, the contract does not simply expire and there is a lengthy and convoluted process for negotiating a new contract. While this process drags on, the workers are forced to work under the current status quo.
The Railway Labor Act was the law that allowed supposedly “most pro-union since FDR” President Biden as well as both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to ban a strike of Railway workers in December 2022.
Since 2019, American Airlines Flight attendants have been unable to negotiate increased wages while inflation and cost of living have continued to rise. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic also set back negotiations. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants organized American Airlines flight attendants are demanding a wage increase over four years of 33 percent, 5 percent, 4 percent, and 4 percent. The union also is demanding retroactive pay raises for employees who have been working under the status quo for the last 5 years of negotiations.
In early June, American Airlines offered a measly one-time pay increase of 17 percent, less than half of the total demanded by the 28,000 American Airlines employees. The flight attendants and APFA rejected the embarrassingly insufficient proposal by the company which pays its CEO Robert Isom an annual salary of $31.4 million.
This is an ongoing story and Trabajo De Hoy will continue to provide updates as the struggle of the American Airlines flight attendants develops.
