American Airlines flight attendants will have a chance soon to vote on a new contract that its union says is the best in the industry.
The executive committee of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants voted Wednesday to send the proposed deal, announced last week, to flight attendants this fall. The APFA board of directors supported that decision, the union said in a Wednesday night hotline to its members.
It said that the tentative agreement offered “industry leading total economic value combined with the best work rules in the industry,” worth “$193 million over the combined value of our current contracts.”
The deal, if approved by the flight attendants, would replace separate contracts for American and US Airways flight attendants. American and US Airways merged last December, although they still operate as separate airlines and separate brands.
The “top of scale” pay will go to $53.52 an hour, up from $49.05 for AA flight attendants and $47.62 for US Airways flight attendants. It’ll hit $58.50 for domestic flight attendants and $62.25 for international flight attendants by the contract’s final year.
The hotline doesn’t spell out the contract’s length. But we’re told it’s a five-year contract. With an anticipated date-of-signing of Dec. 1, that would indicate an amendable date of 2019.
The proposal has 2 percent pay raises for years 2, 3 and 4 and a 3 percent hike for the final year of the contract. Also, the pay ladder has been shortened from 15 years to 13 years, meaning that flight attendants will get to the top pay rate quicker. Of course, the flight attendant corps is very senior, meaning that many are already at that step.
The tentative agreement has improvements for vacation, holiday pay, per diem pay, training pay, deadheading pay and other particulars.
In some cases, the proposal handles AA and US flight attendants differently so that the deal won’t move them backwards, such as on health insurance.
What happens if flight attendants reject the tentative agreement during the upcoming vote this fall? Says the APFA:
Should the T/A fail a ratification vote, the economic terms of our contract (wages, premiums, sick, vacation, medical and 401(k)) will be decided in final and binding arbitration. As the Negotiations Protocol Agreement states, the arbitration panel will be required to establish a contract that is at least equal in value to the current LUS and LAA CBAs – “the floor” – and is market-based in the aggregate (defined by United, Continental, and Delta) – “the ceiling.” To reach the ceiling, the current combined costs of the LAA and LUS contracts would have to be increased by $111 million. The total value of the T/A is $193 million. The difference – $82 million – is the negotiated premium above what could be achieved in arbitration.
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