American Airlines Flight Attendants Picket Across the U.S.
byDaniel McCarthy/American Airlines flight attendants picketed 11 major U.S. airports this week, the latest in a series of union actions in the American airline industry that continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Flight attendants from the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (AFPA) picketed over pay and staffing issues in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Miami, Los Angeles, and more, after “reasonable improvements” for flight attendants were rejected by American, the APFA said.
According to the union, members have not gotten a raise since January 2019, and negotiations on a new contract have been delayed because of COVID-19. The union, like others in North America and Europe, has said that service has been restored to pre-pandemic levels, but staffing has not, which means longer duty days, minimal rest, and constant rescheduling for attendants.
Members of AFPA are asking American for better pay and better flexibility during scheduling. Its proposals, which include 13 days off in a 31-day RSV month, restriction on assignment into a Flex Day pattern to one time per month, and more, have all been rejected by American.
AFPA is far from the only union to have had issues with new contracts coming out of COVID-19.
Earlier in November, United Airline pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative agreement with the carrier. ALPA said that almost 10,000 United pilots participated in the vote, and 94% of them voted against the proposal. United has since announced a 5% increase to pilot salaries, but the two still need to hammer out a deal.
Also in November,Delta Air Line pilots represented by ALPAsaid it was planning to strike if the National Mediation Board, the independent agency that coordinates labor relations in the U.S. railroad and airline industry, deems further mediation efforts unproductive. The process for an airline strike in the U.S. is different than in Europe and the U.K., two areas that experienced, and continue to experience, regular travel interruptions because of strikes and work stoppages by various labor groups.
现在,这个过程意味着三角洲不是蚂蚁icipating a strike, despite 99% of the Delta pilots represented by ALPA voting to do so. Delta, in a statement to Reuters, said that it is confident that a deal will be reached as it has in past negotiations
Other strikes over the past few months include one by Lufthansa workers in Germany, which canceled more than 800 flights in September, and the first national U.S rail strike in 30 years, which shut downAmtrak service for a short period that same month.