CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – JANUARY 24: American Airlines staff picket at O’Hare International Airport on January 24, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. The employees, mostly flight attendants with the Association of Skilled Flight Attendants (APFA), were picketing to demand higher working conditions as their contract negotiations proceed. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Scott Olson | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Airline pilots won pay raises value billions of dollars in recent labor deals last yr. Flight attendants at the moment are pushing for similar improvements.
Flight attendants from United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and others picketed Tuesday at dozens of airports across the U.S., demanding higher wages and a greater quality of life.
“We now have been in a period of austerity for 20 years, and it is time the industry paid up,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents cabin crews at United, Spirit, Frontier and others.
The demonstrations mark the primary mass pickets jointly held by the labor unions, which represent greater than 100,000 flight attendants at U.S. airlines between them. Latest labor deals would come not only on the heels of pilot contracts, but in addition pay raises won by autoworkers, Hollywood writers and at major firms like UPS.
Flight attendants at most of the most important airlines have not received pay increases since before the pandemic, which paused contract talks, while the fee of living rose sharply lately.
American and other carriers told CNBC they’re optimistic that they’ll reach agreements with their flight attendants in the approaching months.
Labor costs and fuel account for airlines’ two largest expenses.
Stagnant pay
Flight attendants make a mean of about $67,000 a yr, in line with the Labor Department, though pay can range from around $38,000 at the underside tenth percentile to about $97,000 at the highest.
Inflation has been “essentially the most difficult for our recent hires,” said Julie Hedrick, national president of the Association of Skilled Flight Attendants, which represents about 27,000 flight attendants at American. “We wish [American] to come back to the table and recognize what we have done to return this airline to profitability.”
Flight attendants for essentially the most part are paid when the aircraft door is closed. Unions are largely pushing for either ground pay or boarding pay to compensate flight attendants for his or her work before takeoff.
Delta Air Lines, whose flight attendants aren’t unionized, began paying flight attendants for boarding at half their hourly rate in 2022. (The Association of Flight Attendants began a recent union drive there before the pandemic.)
Alaska Airlines flight attendants gather at a picket line protesting for landmark changes of their recent contracts, currently under negotiation, at San Francisco International Airport, in San Francisco, California, U.S. December 19, 2023.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Strike threat
Through the pandemic, after most travel resumed, cabin crew members faced increased job stress from packed planes, reduced staffing, overloaded schedules and at times, unruly travelers, in line with the unions.
“It doesn’t surprise me that they are unhappy,” said Conor Cunningham, an airline equities analyst at Melius Research. “Remember what happened within the pandemic: That they had to be the police of the sky. They got hit with inflation identical to all of us and their wages didn’t increase with it.”
Despite the picketing Tuesday, the aviation industry is unlikely to see strikes or work stoppages like those seen within the auto and entertainment industries last yr.
Flight attendants’ and other aviation staff’ contracts do not have expiration dates, and would require federal release to go on strike. Still, several flight attendant unions have approved strike authorizations, and all 4 carriers are negotiating with their flight attendants’ unions through federal mediation.
Southwest Airlines flight attendants rejected a tentative agreement in a vote last yr.
“We reached an industry-leading Tentative Agreement with TWU 556 in October 2023 and are scheduled to fulfill next week with the union and the National Mediation Board to proceed working toward an agreement that advantages our Flight Attendants and Southwest,” the airline said in a press release.
Correction: Southwest Airlines flight attendants rejected a tentative agreement in a vote last yr. An earlier version misstated the timing.
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