New York
CNN
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America’s value of dwelling disaster has stung new flight attendants, a lot of whom haven’t had a possibility to renegotiate their contracts for the reason that inflation spiral started a number of years in the past.
An employment verification letter American Airways offers to some newly employed flight attendants documenting their wage has been circulating on Reddit, drawing consideration to their low wages.
The letter states {that a} new American Airways flight attendant can have a “projected annual wage [of] $27,315 per yr earlier than incentives and taxes” and concludes, “Any courtesy you’ll be able to present can be appreciated.”
The union representing American Airways employees, the Affiliation of Skilled Flight Attendants (APFA), verified the authenticity of the letter, which is given to potential landlords or for different companies the place attendants have to confirm their employment and revenue. The union represents 28,000 American Airways flight attendants, and it’s engaged on their first new contract in 5 years – a deal that stretches again earlier than the pandemic and the inflation disaster.
American Airways didn’t reply to CNN’s requests for remark.
Even as price increases are slowing down, the letter exhibits how, for some People, just a little inflation aid isn’t almost sufficient. The low wages for beginning flight attendants – a job as soon as seen as glitzy – underscores how many individuals are nonetheless struggling, regardless of what on paper seems like a powerful economic system and job market.
This wage is above the federal poverty line of $15,060 for a single-person family. However that’s a nationwide stage and doesn’t bear in mind regional value variations, together with in main metro areas the place the price of dwelling may be considerably larger.
In some states, equivalent to Massachusetts, new flight attendants would qualify for Supplemental Vitamin Help Program (SNAP) advantages, generally known as meals stamps. For a single-person household, Massachusetts residents incomes lower than $30,120 a yr are eligible for SNAP advantages.
The union says that flight attendants’ low salaries in comparison with high airline executives is a chief instance of “company greed.”
New flight attendants at American Airways begin at $27,000 per yr. Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airways, earned $31.4 million final yr — 1,162 occasions greater than a brand new attendant.
“We’ve flight attendants who’re sleeping of their automobiles,” APFA communications director Paul Hartshorn instructed CNN.
American Airways flight attendants haven’t gotten a elevate since 2019, and the union is escalating its push for a brand new contract to lift wages.
Flight attendants for United Airways, Alaska Airways and different carriers are additionally pushing for brand new contracts to lift wages. In response to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the imply annual wage for flight attendants in 2023 was $71,000.
Whereas being a flight attendant is a full-time job, many flight attendants solely get about 75 hours of hourly pay a month. For a lot of flight attendants, hourly pay principally begins when the aircraft’s door closes. They don’t receives a commission for the hours they must be on the airport or on the aircraft throughout boarding and deplaning.
APFA is proposing a 33% pay improve to high out at $91 an hour in the course of the first yr of a brand new contract and will increase of 5%, 4% and 4% for the remaining years of a four-year settlement. The union can be calling for full retroactive pay raises based mostly on how a lot attendants flew throughout 5 years of negotiations.
Beneath federal legislation, flight attendants can not go on strike with out permission from the federal government. The legislation, which is called the Railway Labor Act, requires union members at airways, amongst different sure industries, to stay on the job till after federal mediators declare an deadlock in talks.
However the union is looking on President Joe Biden and congressional leaders to induce the Nationwide Mediation Board to permit the union to pursue a possible strike. The Nationwide Mediation Board is a federal company that oversees labor-management relations within the US railroad and airline industries.
“American Airways is just not going to return to the desk with an financial proposal that meets our wants except they’ve the specter of a strike,” Hartshorn stated. “Administration wants the specter of a strike to maneuver within the route we’d like them to.”
Flight attendants at Southwest Airways final month ratified a brand new contract that features pay raises totaling greater than 33% over 4 years.
“We count on to be compensated alongside the strains of Southwest,” he stated.