Something Spiteful in the Air

Notwithstanding reports that a deal is at hand, the Allied Pilots Association (APA), the labor union by which American Airlines pilots are represented, has authorized a strike in the wake of protracted contract talks with the air-carrier.

By the metrics of number of passengers carried and overall revenue, American Airlines is the world’s second-largest airline; by the metric of fleet size it is the largest.

The authorizing of a strike is the first in a long and complex succession of prerequisites that must be met prior to American Airlines pilots walking off the job. By making such an authorization in the weeks prior to the onset of the frantic and profitable summer travel season, the Allied Pilots Association exerts considerable pressure on American Airlines’ management to assume a more cooperative tenor at the negotiation table.

In November 2022, the APA rejected a contract proposal that would have secured American Airlines’ flight-crew personnel nearly twenty-percent in raises over the coming two-years. The 15–5 vote by which the union’s board rejected the air-carrier’s proposal instantiated the umbrage with which the airline industry is currently rife and spoke to the acrimony of a pilot workforce largely excluded from the record earnings racked up by air-carriers during the post-COVID travel boom.

Of the 96-percent of American Airlines pilots that participated in the strike authorization vote, all but one-percent opted in favor of an eventual walk-out.

Allied Pilots Association president Captain Ed Sicher stated: “The summer travel season is almost here, and we’re all wondering whether this will be another summer of uncertainty for American Airlines. Fortunately, there is an alternative. By embracing the win-win scheduling and work rule improvements APA has presented at the bargaining table, management can take steps to improve the airline’s operational reliability and efficiency.”

A strike authorization vote doesn’t guarantee a labor stoppage. Rather, it demonstrates the collective resolve of American Airlines pilots to strike at the union’s directive to do so. The threat of a strike—and the compounding tragedies of lost revenue, public acrimony, and customer desertion occasioned thereby—is intended to speed up contract talks stretched almost beyond belief into their third year.

The Railway Labor Act, to which the airline industry is beholden, does not allow pilots and other workers deemed essential to national transportation infrastructure to walk off their jobs until federal regulators—called in at the 11th hour—confirm that the two opposing sides of a labor dispute have arrived at an impasse likely to be months or even years in the resolution.

American Airlines spokeswoman Sarah Jantz set forth the air-carrier remains confident an agreement is within reach, stating in an email: “The finish line is in sight. We understand that a strike authorization vote is one of the important ways pilots express their desire to get a deal done and we respect the message of voting results. Importantly, the results don’t change our commitment or distract us from working expeditiously to complete a deal. We remain focused on completing the handful of matters necessary to reach an agreement our pilots deserve.”

Allied Pilots Association will presently host informational pickets at ten American Airlines hubs—including DFW, where the air-carrier is headquartered.

Vowing the union “will strike if necessary,” Captain Sicher asserted: “The strike authorization vote is one of several steps APA has taken to prepare for any eventuality and use all legal avenues available to us for contract improvement and resolution.

Sicher added: “The best outcome is for APA and management to agree on an industry-leading contract achieved through good-faith bargaining—benefiting our pilots, American Airlines, and the passengers we serve.”

In a March 2023 video message to the company’s pilots, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom committed to boosting air-crew pay $8-billion over four-years. The overture was refused.

FMI: www.alliedpilots.org