Flight attendant pact has raises, no profit-sharing

A new five-year contract with flight attendants at American Airlines would provide annual raises but does not include profit-sharing, according to details of the tentative agreement released late Wednesday.

The deal, reached on Friday between management and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, includes immediate pay raises for flight attendants at both American and US Airways if it is approved by the union’s 24,500 members. It would be the first contract for the consolidated work group.

The union said the contract is “industry leading” and is $193 million higher than the combined value of the current contracts in place for American and US Airways flight attendants. If the contract is approved, the top of the pay scale increases 9.1 percent for American flight attendants and 12.4 percent for US Airways flight attendants.

All flight attendants would receive 2 percent raises in the second, third and fourth years of the contract and a 3 percent raise in the final year, the union said.

However, the agreement does not include a profit-sharing plan which the union had negotiated in its previous contract. The profit-sharing only paid out once, but with American reporting quarterly profits now, some flight attendants had wanted to see profit-sharing reinstated.

Union leaders negotiated away profit-sharing for 2.5 percent wage increases in 2013 based on then-US Airways chief executive Doug Parker and his management team’s projections for the company after American’s merger with US Airways closed. Parker, who is now American’s CEO, has previously said in employee meetings that he believes workers prefer fixed pay increases instead of uncertain annual payments tied to profitability.

The APFA said its executive committee voted unanimously to send the tentative agreement out for a ratification vote which will be held later this fall. Union leaders expect to visit all of the flight attendant bases at American to discuss the new contract prior to the vote.

If the contract is not ratified by the flight attendants, the economic terms of a new contract will be determined in binding arbitration, the union told its members.