American Airlines flight attendants say their pay is so low, they fight for airplane meals to save money and sleep in their cars—and they’re ready to strike

Because the airline and its attendants negotiate, American CEO Robert Isom this week despatched a video message providing a 17% wage enhance, simply sufficient to push new Boston and Miami flight attendants above meals stamp eligibility.

The airline stated the pay enhance would take impact instantly and claimed it’s not “asking something from the union in return,” an uncommon transfer, Isom stated within the video message, which was confirmed by an American Airways spokesperson. “However these are uncommon instances.” 

Nonetheless, the Affiliation of Skilled Flight Attendants (APFA) rejected the supply, calling it a “PR transfer” forward of strike negotiations that can happen between American Airways and the union subsequent week. 

Inflation surges, pay stays flat

APFA and American Airways have been in negotiations over a brand new contract on and off for the reason that earlier one expired in 2019, APFA President Julie Hedrick instructed Fortune. 

“We’re behind on every thing,” Hedrick stated. She cited low wages and low pay for meals bills on journeys as probably the most urgent points. When flight attendants go on home journeys, they obtain an extra $2.20 an hour for meals bills; for worldwide flights, they obtain $2.50. These numbers are “very behind” what meals really prices at this time, Hendrick stated. 

Since 2014, when the earlier contract was negotiated, flight attendants have been left with measly beginning salaries whilst inflation has shot up 33%, Hedrick stated In response to an employment verification letter from American, which circulated on Reddit a couple of weeks in the past, an entry-level flight attendant can count on to make $27,315 a 12 months, earlier than taxes. (Like many airways, American pays its attendants just for the time the airplane is within the air.Boarding passengers, ready between flights, and touring to and from the airport all imply flight attendants sometimes work about two hours for every “flight hour” they’re paid.) 

With American’s proposed 17% enhance, the beginning wage jumps to $31,959 per 12 months, or $35.5 per flight hour. That fee pushes junior flight attendants who reside alone above the extent for qualifying for meals stamps in states like Massachusetts or Florida. 

Most new flight attendant hires are required to reside in cities like Dallas, Miami, and New York, which have excessive prices of dwelling that they can’t afford, Hedrick famous. 

American flight attendants are sleeping of their vehicles, she stated. A few of them battle for journeys only for the possibility to eat the airplane meals, if the pilots don’t take their meals first. 

“Our new rent flight attendants are struggling,” Hendrick stated, including that new hires most strongly rejected the 17% hike.

For these attendants, lagging pay provides insult to harm when seen towards the backdrop of the post-pandemic years, which exacerbated longstanding points within the {industry} together with staffing scarcity, lengthy hours, and unruly passengers, a few of whom assault airline employees.

That’s resulting in document burnout amongst attendants. 

18 months of pickets

“We’ve got picketed for a 12 months and a half, and we’ve achieved at the very least 11 pickets,” Hedrick stated. “Our flight attendants have demonstrated our resolve and our solidarity to get a contract, an {industry} meeting-contract that we deserve and we are going to take nothing much less.”

APFA is proposing a elevate of 33% — consistent with the rise in inflation since 2014—with a cap at $91 per hour through the first 12 months of a brand new contract, with pay raises for every year after.

An American Airways spokesperson instructed Fortune that the video message “represents the newest from American.” They didn’t reply questions concerning the proposal or the upcoming negotiations. 

Of the 39 separate points on the desk – corresponding to sick go away or crew relaxation, APFA and American have reached a “tentative settlement” on 25. The opposite 14 are related to compensation, bills, holidays, and different phrases of settlement. 

100-year legislation might snarl strike

Union leaders face an uphill battle as they head to Washington subsequent week to barter. Airline strikes are exceedingly uncommon—the final one occurred in 2010, when Spirit Airways pilots went on strike for 5 days. 

That’s as a result of railway and airline employees aren’t allowed to strike except given the inexperienced gentle by federal mediator teams, through the 1926 Railway Labor Act. One such group, the Nationwide Mediation Board, will oversee the American Airways negotiations, and might permit a strike to happen if it finds that the teams are at an deadlock. Nonetheless, the federal authorities can even block a strike—as occurred in December 2022, when President Joe Biden signed a measure handed by Congress to impose a contract between rail corporations and employees that many employees had rejected. 

Biden, who has known as himself “probably the most pro-union president” in historical past, enforced the settlement to keep away from an “financial disaster” through the holidays, he stated on the time. With a number of main railroad corporations at risk of a industry-wide strike, the stakes for an settlement have been extraordinarily excessive; $2 billion might’ve been misplaced day-after-day of a strike. 

The stakes for a potential strike at American are much less dire, since different main carriers wouldn’t be affected.

However American attendants aren’t the one one calling for wage hikes. United Airways remains to be negotiating a brand new contract with their flight attendants. Southwest Airways, in April, permitted a contract that features pay raises totaling greater than 33% over 4 years. The union representing Southwest flight attendants, the Transport Staff Union, stated that it supplied document positive factors for flight attendants and units an {industry} commonplace. 

APFA, likewise, is asking for a 33% hike, with raises of 5%, 4%, and 4% for the remaining years of a four-year settlement. 

The union has additionally acknowledged that they won’t settle for any deal with out retroactive pay. Final 12 months, American Airways awarded pilots $230 million in retroactive pay after negotiations with its pilots’ union. 

Hendrick’s message concerning the 17% hike appears to be: We wish the entire bundle, not piecemeal raises. 

“Our flight attendants need nothing to do with it,” she stated. “They, overwhelmingly, yesterday stated, ‘No, we would like a contract. We’ve been in negotiations lengthy sufficient, and it’s time to get this deal achieved.’”