Even as contract talks between American Airlines and its flight attendants appear to be moving towards a conclusion, another round of important talks is looming.
“The Association” is a group of 35,000 workers jointly represented by the Transport Workers Union and the International Association of Machinists. The group works under seven different contracts: about two thirds of the members are fleet service workers.
The current contract becomes amendable in March 2025. Normally talks would begin six months early, in March, but the parties have agreed to start on Aug. 27th and 28th.
“We’re going to be demanding significant wage increases and also protection of our work,” said TWU President John Samuelsen. “But we’re not looking for a fight.
“We’re looking to have a productive negotiation to a fast settlement, not turn it into a massive confrontation like last time,” he said. “We hope to have negotiations where American Airlines isn’t going to try to destroy our livelihoods.”
An American spokeswoman said Wednesday, “We look forward to beginning negotiations with the TWU-IAM Association next month to reach an agreement for the more than 35,000 American team members represented by The Association.”
The last round of negotiations was both lengthy and bitter, leading to a work slowdown and a court battle and contributing – along with the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX – to American’s extremely poor summer operating performance in 2019.
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