American Airlines management and flight attendants insist on mediator in contract dispute

Flight attendants have been working without a contract since December 2019.

On Friday, the flight attendant union and American Airlines executives petitioned the National Mediation Council for federal mediation.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants has been operating without a contract since December 2019. The union says it has since been negotiating a new deal with a short break in the midst of COVID-19.

Julie Headrick, president of the National Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said the union is keen to come to a solution.

“We are entering a critical period of negotiations for a new contract,” Headrick said. “We have had productive discussions at the negotiating table…and we are ready to work with the National Board of Mediation to complete these negotiations and secure a contract with much-needed improvements for 25,000 American Airlines flight attendants.”

APFA National Communications President Paul Hartshorne Jr. said they are trying to provide higher wages and a better work-life balance for union members.

Flight attendants returned to flying at the same hours as before COVID, but with a reduced staff, he said.

“The staff has been reduced, flight attendants are doing more flights a day, working more hours a day,” Hartshorne said.

American Airlines posted a net income of $127 million in the most recent quarter. For the full year, the company’s 2022 net income was $803 million.

The company released a statement on Friday saying it was pleased with the decision to seek union mediation.

“We are very proud of the progress we have made in our negotiations with APFA – unions and business groups have met regularly and jointly over the past few months to reach an agreement that is of real and meaningful value to our guardians. flight,” a spokesman for the company wrote.

In search of a federal intermediary, the union joins Southwest Airlines flight attendants from Dallas in seeking the same. Southwest assistants applied last summer.

Their union, TWU Local 556, held a picket outside Dallas Love Field on Thursday demanding fixes for outdated technology that led to the company’s historic vacation travel slump in December.

Neither Southwest nor the union responded to requests for comment Friday.

Both airlines are also negotiating with their pilot unions. The Southwest pilots said in January that they would vote to fly out in May. The American is still negotiating with his pilots.

Bill Zieble has been a staff reporter for KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks, from education to the environment.

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