EULESS, Texas — American Airlines flight attendants are in the middle of negotiating a new contract. Still, they're sending a clear message from their union headquarters in Euless that they are ready to strike if necessary.
Julie Hedrick serves as the president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. She stressed its way past time for flight attendants to get a raise, especially after working through the pandemic and longer workdays than normal since then.
"We have not had a raise in five years," Hedrick said.
As president of APFA, Hedrick has gotten calls about colleagues struggling to make ends meet. She shared that flight attendants often can't afford to live in some of the major metropolitan cities where American Airlines flies every day. Hedrick says the calls she gets are shocking.
"I just had a call about a flight attendant last week, and she told me many in her class are living in their cars at employee lofts across this country because they cannot afford rent," said Julie Hedrick.
An American Airlines spokesperson responded with a message from American Airlines CEO Robert Isom. The airline leader sent the same message in a video recording to flight attendants containing the same information.
Part of Isom's video statement includes: "A proposal of an immediate wage increase of 17% and a new formula that would increase your 2024 profit sharing."
But union leaders argue that's not enough. They're preparing for the worst and just opened their strike command center in Euless. It includes a hotline to give flight attendants updates on contract talks and even picket line signs already printed.
Aviation expert Richard Levy said he doubts a strike would happen at American Airlines especially since it's one of the country's leading travel companies. But Levy warns if a strike would happen, the ripple effect would be felt around the world.
"For the traveling public, they're going to be riding with the competition," said Levy. "There's no other choice. People have to get on their vacation, and they've got cruise ships and businesspeople would have to get to their meetings around the country and abroad like in Asia and Europe."
For a strike to happen, current negotiations between American Airlines and the union would have to break down. If the national mediation board can't help, then there would be a 30-day cooling period before the union could seek federal approval to strike.
So, for now, the union president is giving flight attendants who she says have mostly agreed to strike as much assurance as possible.
"I tell them to hang in there," Hedrick said. "We are going to get this done."