FORT WORTH, Texas — In a June 30 negotiations update, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) indicated that talks were continuing between the union and American Airlines management at the offices of the National Mediation Board (NMB) in Washington, D.C. The APFA represents the 27,000 flight attendants of American Airlines.
“On behalf of the 16,000 American Airlines pilots the Allied Pilots Association represents, I want our fellow union members at the APFA to know that APA wholeheartedly supports their efforts to secure a fair contract,” said APA President CA Ed Sicher. “We know from firsthand experience in our own protracted Section 6 negotiations that management intransigence is the culprit for the predicament American Airlines now finds itself in during the peak summer travel period.
“We urge management to consider carefully how they choose to respond. Unfortunately, we are not especially optimistic they will choose the correct course. Management’s handling — or more precisely, mishandling — of negotiations with the APFA is yet another example of what we view as a concerning trend at American Airlines,” CA Sicher said. “From management’s myopic focus on short-haul domestic travel at the expense of lucrative long-haul international travel, to alienating key corporate clients, to turmoil in the senior management ranks, it is clear to us that a course change is past due.
“If the NMB declares a 30-day cooling-off period and starts the clock on a potential flight attendant strike, it would have an adverse impact on the airline’s bottom line as passengers take their business elsewhere to avoid the risk of disruption in their travel plans — and a strike would be tremendously costly,” he said. “A negotiated solution is always the preferred outcome in Section 6, and we urge management to rethink its approach to bargaining with the APFA before it’s too late.”
