American Flight Attendants Have Delta to Thank for $13 Million Pay Bump

A last-minute raise for Delta’s flight attendants brought American flight attendants back to the negotiating table to ensure an industry-leading pay scale. 

When the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) announced a new tentative collective agreement with American Airlines on September 19, the union took pains to make clear that the agreement was “industry-leading.”

In a press release announcing the deal, APFA President Laura Glading stressed that union negotiators were expected to settle for nothing less, stating, “They proved to the company, in black and white, the value flight attendants bring to the new American. I couldn’t be more proud of their work. And to the company’s credit, they really stepped up in a way that puts the entire industry on notice.”

According to The Street, soon after settling on a tentative deal with American, APFA flight attendants learned that Delta flight attendants would be getting a 4 percent raise. The pay bump for Delta employees meant the union’s new pact with American would no longer be “industry-leading.”

So, only days after announcing a tentative contract agreement, the APFA went back to the negotiating table. “I went back and said, ‘We are no longer better than Delta, so I need some help,'” Glading told The Street. “And we got a match on Delta. The Delta raise is effective on April 1, but for us it is on December 1.”

The tentative deal was struck before the APFA sent the contract to members on Wednesday for ratification.

[Photo: American Airlines]