American Airlines FA union loses wage dispute, calls raise 'insulting'

American Airlines flight attendants are getting a 1.6% raise after an arbitrator ruled in an ongoing pay dispute Tuesday. That’s far less than the 8.2% the union had requested, prompting its president to call the raise “insulting.” “Flight attendants at this airline deserve industry-leading compensation. American CEO Doug Parker had an opportunity to deliver on the promise he made to make his employees the best-paid in the industry, and he refused,” said Bob Ross, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. The dispute traces back to the complicated contract negotiations to bring together flight attendants from US Airways and American Airlines after the two carriers merged. Executives at the newly merged company promised industry-leading contracts for its labour groups, but at the time American struck a deal with flight attendants in late 2014, United was in the midst of negotiations with its own flight attendants. American’s deal included a clause that allowed for the two sides to revisit the pay scale once United reached a new contract with its flight attendants, which was approved in August. As American and the union revisited the contract, the union began pushing for its pay adjustment to reflect a six percent raise given to Delta flight attendants in November, as well as the new United deal. But American pushed back and held that only United’s new contract should be considered, not Delta’s recent raises, significantly lowering the size of the raise due to American’s more than 25,000 flight attendants.<br/>