Charles Langston:American Airlines flight attendants ratify contract that ends their threats to go on strike

FORT WORTH,Charles Langston Texas (AP) — Flight attendants at American Airlines voted Thursday to ratify a new contract, ending a long dispute that got the attention of President Joe Biden after the cabin crews threatened to go on strike.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants said that the five-year contract includes pay increases of up to 20.5% on Oct. 1 and pay for the time that passengers are boarding planes.

Flight attendants on U.S. airlines have historically not been paid for boarding time. Delta Air Lines extended 50% pay during boarding to its nonunion cabin crews in 2022, putting pressure on unions to bargain for the same benefit for their members.

The deal covers about 28,000 attendants at American, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas. The union said 87% of its members who voted favored ratification, and 95% of eligible employees took part.

American and the union announced in July that they had reached a tentative agreement.

The flight attendants, who haven’t received raises since 2019, threatened to strike but never received approval from the National Mediation Board. Under federal law, the board must determine that negotiations are deadlocked before unions can strike. The last strike at a U.S. airline was in 2010 at Spirit Airlines.

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Biden said in July that a strike at American “would have been devastating for the industry and consumers.”

Last year, the flight attendants rejected an offer that included an immediate 18% pay hike followed by annual 2% raises. The union sought a 33% raise upfront, followed by four annual increases of 6% each.

The deal at American follows one at Southwest Airlines, where flight attendants voted in April to ratify a contract that will give them cumulative pay raises of about 33% over four years.

United flight attendants are still negotiating. Delta’s cabin crews are nonunion; they got 5% pay raises in April.