Flight attendant leaders Julie Hedrick and Sara Nelson speak at 2022 AFA convention in Las Vegas.
AFA
Late in June, the National Mediation Board released workers at Gate
Gate
Gourmet, the country’s largest airline catering company, into a cooling off period. The release meant the 8,000 workers, mostly members of United Here and the Teamsters, were free to strike on July 30th.
The two sides reached a deal a few days before the deadline. But the release was a signal that the Biden administration would empower labor to strike to secure better contracts, said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. And that enabled a favorable contract agreement, overwhelmingly approved last week, for American Airlines flight attendants, she said.
“The reason American Airlines moved was that the threat of release was made clear by this administration,” Nelson said Tuesday in an interview. “With Gate Gourmet, there was an actual strike deadline, which NMB set at the same time they were threatening American. That was proof that it was real.”
For flight attendants, such pressure “was dead for more than 20 years,” Nelson said. “Negotiations were done in bankruptcy and mergers and there was not a political will to stand up for the right to strike. It was 20 years of austerity and abnormal negotiations.”
Nelson credited Biden and two cabinet members, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, as well as NMB member Linda Puchala for working with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 28,000 American flight attendants, to get to a deal.
She added that labor rights are at risk in the current presidential election contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. “Everything is on the line,” she said. “Trump has said clearly that he wants to fire strikers. Joe Biden backed up the right to strike and Kamala Harris is out there showing she will continue that commitment. There is no collective bargaining without the right to strike: this administration gets that.”
In the American Airlines talks, the two cabinet members played differing roles. Buttigieg was in regular contact with CEO Robert Isom, while Su was in regular contact with APFA President Julie Hedrick. In a press release announcing the deal, Isom thanked Hedrick and Buttigieg, noting “I also wish to thank Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other partners in the administration for their support throughout this process.”
It is possible to conclude that while Buttigieg worked closely with the airline, Su worked closely with the union, and the two together worked to fashion a deal.
In a recent interview, Hedrick thanked Su. “Julie Su got very involved,” she said. “She was the key person in getting the agreement done. There were many late-night phone calls with us to help us plan our next move, and also she was pushing the company.
“Without her, we would still be negotiating,” Hedrick said.
Said Nelson, “It’s quite rare for the labor secretary to get involved in airline negotiations. The amount of time the administration spent on making the right to strike clear and supporting collective bargaining is unprecedented.” She noted that the labor department does not oversee the NMB, which has jurisdiction over Railway Labor Act negotiations.
The next steps in AFA labor talks involve United Airlines, Air Wisconsin, Omni Air and PSA Airlines. At the former three, flight attendants have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Flight attendants at PSA, an American subsidiary, are voting today on a strike authorization.
Nelson said the American contract “set a new framework” for the contract at United, also a global carrier. “That includes no concessions, getting paid for boarding and crystalizes that retro pay will be a part of a deal, which is something that has been missing over the last 20 years,” she said, adding that double digit wage increases are also a given.
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Publish date : 2024-09-17 03:36:00
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