Flights attendants press airline companies for greater salaries

Airline pilots won pay raises worth billions of dollars in brand-new labor offers in 2015. Flight attendants are now promoting comparable enhancements.

Flight attendants from United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and others picketed Tuesday at lots of airports around the U.S., requiring greater salaries and a much better lifestyle.

“We have been in a period of austerity for 20 years, and it’s time the industry paid up,” stated Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants- CWA, which represents cabin teams at United, Spirit, Frontier and others.

The presentations mark the very first mass pickets collectively held by the labor unions, which represent more than 100,000 flight attendants at U.S. airline companies in between them. New labor offers would come not simply on the heels of pilot agreements, however likewise pay raises won by autoworkers, Hollywood authors and at significant business like UPS

Flight attendants at many of the biggest airline companies have not gotten pay boosts because before the pandemic, which stopped briefly agreement talks, while the expense of living increased dramatically in the last few years.

American and other providers informed CNBC they are positive that they will reach arrangements with their flight attendants in the coming months.

Labor expenses and fuel represent airline companies’ 2 biggest expenditures.

Flight attendants make approximately about $67,000 a year, according to the Labor Department, though pay can vary from around $38,000 at the bottom 10 th percentile to about $97,000 at the top.

Inflation has actually been “the most difficult for our new hires,” stated Julie Hedrick, nationwide president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents about 27,000 flight attendants atAmerican “We desire [American] to come to the table and acknowledge what we have actually done to return this airline company to success.”

Flight attendants for the many part are paid when the airplane door is closed. Unions are mainly promoting either ground pay or boarding pay to compensate flight attendants for their work before launch.

Delta Air Lines, whose flight attendants aren’t unionized, began paying flight attendants for boarding at half their per hour rate in2022 (The Association of Flight Attendants began a brand-new union drive there before the pandemic.)

During the pandemic, after a lot of travel resumed, cabin team members dealt with increased task tension from jam-packed airplanes, decreased staffing, overloaded schedules and sometimes, rowdy tourists, according to the unions.

“It doesn’t surprise me that they’re unhappy,” stated Conor Cunningham, an airline company equities expert at MeliusResearch “Remember what happened in the pandemic: They had to be the police of the sky. They got hit with inflation just like all of us and their wages didn’t increase with it.”

Despite the picketing Tuesday, the air travel market is not likely to see strikes or work interruptions like those seen in the vehicle and show business in 2015.

Flight attendants’ and other air travel employees’ agreements do not have expiration dates, and would need federal release to go on strike. Still, a number of flight attendant unions have actually authorized strike permissions, and all 4 providers are working out with their flight attendants’ unions through federal mediation.

Southwest Airlines flight attendants turned down a tentative contract in a vote in 2015.

“We reached an industry-leading Tentative Agreement with TWU 556 in October 2023 and are scheduled to meet next week with the union and the National Mediation Board to continue working toward an agreement that benefits our Flight Attendants and Southwest,” the airline company stated in a declaration.

Correction: Southwest Airlines flight attendants turned down a tentative contract in a vote in 2015. An earlier variation misstated the timing.

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