Regional flight attendants vote to authorize a strike. How it may impact CLT airport
Flight attendants associated with American Airlines overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote and are threatening to go on strike if their demands are not met for more pay and other benefits, according to union representatives.
The Association of Flight Attendants-Communications Workers of America is negotiating for employees at American Eagle’s PSA Airlines, the union said Tuesday. Almost all of the members voted to authorize a strike after months of proposals from PSA management during contract negotiations.
PSA Airlines is a subsidiary of American Airlines operating 500 daily flights to nearly 100 destinations.
PSA is aware of the flight attendants’ strike authorization vote, and that vote will not have an impact on operations, according to spokesman Joe Horvath. Management is making progress in negotiations with AFA-CWA, and PSA is looking forward to reaching an agreement, Horvath added.
“A strike authorization vote is one of the important ways flight attendants express their desire to get a deal done,” Horvath said, “and the results don’t change our commitment or distract us from working expeditiously to reach an agreement.”
AFA-CWA represents more than 1,300 PSA flight attendants. Close to 650 flight attendants are based at Charlotte Douglas International Airport for American Eagle, and the airport is a hub for American.
Negotiations will continue next week with oversight from the National Mediation Board, a federal agency that works to find resolutions for labor-management disputes in the rail and airline industries.
“We can’t afford to wait any longer,” stated Lee Wilkes, president of the PSA chapter of AFA-CWA, in a news release.
Strikes will start if a resolution is not found, according to the union, which said that could impact the entire system or a single flight.
What the flight attendants want
Some of the demands from the PSA flight attendants union include double-digit pay increases, more money for time at work, including for passenger boarding.
The flight attendants filed for federal mediation in January. But after seven months management came back with “insulting” wage increases that fell short of the cost of living and increases at mainline carriers, the AFA-CWA said.
“Flight attendants at PSA and other regional airlines across the industry fly the same routes and provide the same service as mainline flight attendants,” said Sara Nelson, international president of AFA-CWA. “It’s time they get paid like it.”
After the strike vote, the union could ask NMB to declare that negotiations are deadlocked and release both parties into a 30-day “cooling off” period, which would lead to a strike deadline.
“To be clear: we are not on strike at this time, we encourage people to continue to fly our airline,” AFA-CWA spokeswoman Taylor Garland stated to The Charlotte Observer.
American Airlines accounts for about 87% of the flights at CLT. Charlotte Douglas is the second-largest hub for the Fort Worth, Texas-based company.
