Flight attendants narrowly reject American Airlines contract

By the slimmest of margins, members of the union representing flight attendants at American Airlines Inc. and US Airways Inc. voted down a tentative agreement on a new contract Sunday. The dispute now goes to binding arbitration.

Members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants rejected the deal by 16 votes out of more than 16,000 cast. The “no” votes represented 50.05 percent of those casting ballots.

A negative vote by flight attendants at American outweighed a positive vote at smaller US Airways. At American, 52.2 percent voted “no,” while 53.4 percent of US Airways flight attendants voted “yes.”

“We are, of course, disappointed with today’s outcome,” American said in a statement. “This tentative agreement included industry-leading pay and benefits and would have provided considerably more economic value and much better work rules than the contract that will be determined by arbitration.”

American and US Airways merged Dec. 9, 2013, to create the world’s largest air carrier. However, the two airlines will continue to operate separately for some time.

The proposed five-year contract had come under sharp criticism by many flight attendants who didn’t like various parts of the deal worked out by management and union negotiators.

But the union had argued that the deal provided $193 million in added value to the flight attendants of the two airlines beyond what their current contracts gave them. Arbitration would cap the maximum value at $111 million, the union said.

The $111 million represents how much more, on average, the flight-attendant contracts of competing carriers — Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and its Continental Airlines unit — are worth than the existing American and US Airways contracts.

A “memorandum of understanding” signed before the 2013 merger said that a joint agreement would give flight attendants an industry-standard contract. The $111 million represents what the two sides had calculated was needed to make a joint contract comparable to those at the other airlines.

Arbitration

The airline, APFA and the union that had represented US Airways flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants, had agreed to a “protocol” that set up what would happen if a contract was rejected.

The union said that as provided in the protocol agreement, “the outstanding issues [those issues reached in the final days of bargaining] shall be submitted for binding arbitration. Our first date for arbitration is Wednesday, Dec. 3.”

The schedule calls for the last arbitration hearing to be held Dec. 30. Post-hearing briefs must be submitted by Jan. 26. The arbitrators will issue a decision as soon as possible after that.

American said the joint collective bargaining agreement that will come out of the arbitration hearings “will be imposed without ratification — meaning flight attendants won’t have any say in the process.”

It said it will “meet with the APFA to prepare for that arbitration process.” APFA said that until the new contract comes out of arbitration, US Airways and American Airlines flight attendants will continue to work under their existing contracts.

Immediate criticism

Almost as soon as the tentative agreement was announced Sept. 19, APFA leadership and the union’s joint negotiating team from the two airlines came under fire from flight attendants who didn’t like various parts of the contract.

On Tuesday, the joint negotiating team issued a letter defending the proposal. The negotiators warned that the flight attendants wouldn’t get a better deal by rejecting the contract.

The negotiators “squeezed every possible dollar from this company, compromised only when absolutely necessary, and achieved the best contract possible. We have no doubt that ratification of this tentative agreement is the best course for flight attendants at the new American Airlines,” the union said.

“Rumors abound that there will be more negotiations or that by voting ‘no’ we can miraculously retain profit sharing or somehow force the company to abandon the implementation of a single medical plan for 120,000 employees at the new American. As the flight attendants directly involved in bargaining, we can tell you this is not the case,” they stated.

“Voting ‘no’ will simply result in at least $82 million annually in cuts to the [tentative agreement]. The arbitration will focus on whether the cuts should come out of areas such as wages, vacation days or 401(k) contributions. That is a predicament we strongly urge you to avoid,” the letter said.

In a message late Sunday to flight attendants, APFA president Laura Glading said the union will now prepare to submit the outstanding contractual issues to binding arbitration.

“Like many of you, I was devastated by the results of the [tentative agreement] balloting today. It is extremely disappointing to see the improvements our membership was set to receive rejected by such a narrow margin,” Glading said. “However, the APFA is above all a democratic organization and the will of the membership is paramount.”

Pilots proposal

The rejection comes just two days before American Airlines management is scheduled to present a contract proposal to the Allied Pilots Association. Like the flight attendants, the pilots union is working on a joint contract covering both American and US Airways pilots.

American also will negotiate a contract jointly with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents a number of US Airways employees, and the Transport Workers Union, which represents many American ground employees. The TWU and IAM have agreed to jointly represent those employees, which include mechanics, baggage handlers and other ground employees.

American Airlines spokesman Paul Flaningan declined to speculate how the flight attendants’ rejection might affect the carrier’s talks with the other labor groups.

“We’re of course going to review what happened today,” he said. “But we have every intention of moving forward with our pilot negotiations. We’re committed to reaching agreements with all our labor groups.”

On Twitter:
 @tmaxon