Flight attendants at American Airlines’ regional carrier Piedmont approved a new contract Wednesday with pay raises after threatening to strike last year.
The deal is with a relatively small group of flight attendants, just 300 at American’s wholly-owned regional carrier Piedmont based in Maryland. But it could set the stage for other contract negotiations with nearly half of the company’s overall employees.
The flight attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA gave 87% approval to the contract, which gives immediate $1,800 signing bonuses, an increase in personal days, more money for per diems and wage increases that will total 24% to 56% over the four-year life of the contract.
Piedmont flight attendants threatened to strike last year after a stall in contract talks following three years of negotiations. Flight attendants had authorized the strike, but would still need approval from labor regulators before even being allowed to walk off the job, a process that could take months or years.
“Our flight attendants are the most professional in the industry and we continue to be a leader in safety and performance because of them,” Piedmont spokeswoman Crystal Byrd said in a statement. “The company and the AFA-CWA worked hard on behalf of our crew members to get this new contract completed, especially given the constraints of the current environment.”
It also comes as pressure grows on airlines to hire flight attendants, pilots and other workers amid increasing labor shortages across the country in nearly all industries.
“The attrition rate at Piedmont is high and other carriers are hiring and flight attendants are jumping ship,” said AFA Piedmont President Keturah Johnson. “This is good because they need to hire flight attendants right now.”
The union had complained that wages for flight attendants at regional airlines were far lower than those at their mainline counterparts and in many cases were below poverty levels. Before the new contract, the average starting flight attendant would make just $17,000 a year and those with 10 years of experience would make about $28,000.
“A lot of our flight attendants commute to their jobs and it’s been hard to commute on the wages that we’re being paid,” Johnson said. “We are going to continue to raise the bar.”
Airlines also have been under pressure to raise wages. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which does not use regional carriers, raised its starting wage to $17 an hour recently, the second increase in a year.
The new contract also gives pay protections for flight attendants for cancellations during peak holiday flight periods.
American Airlines is deep in negotiations with flight attendants for the mainline carrier, a group with about 22,000 members represented by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. American reached a deal with 1,700 flight attendants at Dallas-based regional carrier Envoy in April 2021.
