Flight Attendants with American Eagle at PSA Airlines to vote on strike authorization

On August 9, Flight Attendants at American Airlines wholly-owned PSA Airlines announced that they will take a strike authorization vote in contract negotiations for their next union contract with the airline. The flight attendants are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants and the Communications Workers of America (AFA-CWA).

The flight attendants union called the most recent round of contract proposals from management insulting and decided that a vote to authorize a strike was called for. Flight attendants are fighting for pay increases to help them keep up with rising costs after many years of stagnant pay, which they say has made it difficult to pay basic bills.

The flight attendants are fighting for double-digit base pay increases, increased pay for time at work, sick leave, work rule improvements, and more. At the same time, they say that management has awarded themselves massive pay increases even as they attempt to lowball their employees and keep their wages stagnant.

In a press release from AFA-CWA, Lee Wilkes, president of the PSA chapter of AFA said, “Life at PSA is unsustainable for flight attendants without significant improvements,” and went on to say, “The cost of living has skyrocketed while our pay remains delayed. We can’t afford to wait any longer. We’re ready to show PSA and American management that we will do whatever it takes to get our contract.”

The strike vote comes after the flight attendants filed for federal mediation in January but have continued to see no progress from management around their demands in the eight months since. Even after filing for mediation management took seven months to return a contract proposal to the flight attendants and, when it came, the proposal included base wage increases which the flight attendants say are insulting and do not keep up with increases seen at major carriers in the industry. They say that these proposals would not allow them to keep up with rising costs of living, let alone move forward.

The strike vote will begin on August 21, when over 1300 flight attendants will be sent ballots to vote on whether to authorize a strike. The vote will end on September 17 with ballots counted soon after. This vote will come soon after flight attendants at some other airlines have taken similar votes which propelled bargaining forward.

Sara Nelson is the international president of AFA-CWA, which represents around 55,00 flight attendants across 20 airlines. Nelson said, “Flight Attendants at PSA and other regional airlines across the industry are fighting to end tiers in aviation.” Nelson also said that “PSA flight attendants wear the same uniforms, fly the same routes, and perform the same service as mainline flight attendants. But airlines leave them behind in compensation and benefits.”

Flight attendants with AFA have used a strategy in the past called CHAOS which stands for “Create Havoc Around Our Systems.” In the event of a strike, the flight attendants could choose to use the CHAOS approach, which allows a strike at one smaller carrier to affect airline traffic across all carriers. The flight attendants do not need to give notice to management or to passengers when they strike as long as they have first met a 30-day cooling off period. After that, CHAOS could be employed to ground a single flight or in ways that would ripple out across entire airports and systems.

With ballots going out in less than a week and being counted in just over a month, this is a developing story and Fight Back! will continue to bring coverage of it in coming weeks and months as the situation develops.

#Labor #FlightAttendants #AFACWA