Flight Attendants, Management at New American Reach Agreement on Bargaining

WASHINGTON and FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The unions representing each pre-merger Flight Attendant group at the new American Airlines reached an unprecedented agreement with Company management last week on bargaining for a joint contract. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA represents the pre-merger US Airways workgroup while the Association of Professional Flight Attendants represents the pre-merger American workgroup.

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"Flight Attendants at the new American Airlines deserve a contract which reflects our contributions in making this merger possible," said Roger Holmin, MEC President, AFA. "We look forward to joining with our flying partners at American and fighting for the contract we deserve."  

"Flight Attendants have proven once again that hard work and cooperation pay big dividends," said APFA President Laura Glading. "Throughout American's bankruptcy and this merger, Flight Attendants worked together to blaze our own trail. At the end of the trail is the joint contract that represents how hard we've worked and how successful the new American will be. Today, that end is in sight."

The final agreement is based on the deal AFA and APFA reached in December. The unions will be negotiating with the Company to finally achieve the great contract we deserve. Under the accelerated timeline in the agreement, all of the Flight Attendants at the new American will be reaping the merger's benefits by February 2015 at the latest – an unprecedented timetable in airline mergers.

The agreement between AFA and APFA also provides that pre-merger US Airways Flight Attendants will become APFA members. Therefore, that agreement will need to be ratified by a vote of the pre-merger US Airways Flight Attendants. In that same balloting, those Flight Attendants also will be voting to approve the negotiations procedures that AFA, APFA and the Company have agreed upon. Balloting will begin within 10 days and conclude within 40 days.

Following ratification, negotiations with management will follow an expedited timeline and the combined Flight Attendant group will have a new joint agreement within a year.

The Association of Flight Attendants is the world's largest Flight Attendant union. Focused 100 percent on Flight Attendant issues, AFA has been the leader in advancing the Flight Attendant profession for 68 years. Serving as the voice for Flight Attendants in the workplace, in the aviation industry, in the media and on Capitol Hill, AFA has transformed the Flight Attendant profession by raising wages, benefits and working conditions. Nearly 60,000 Flight Attendants come together to form AFA, part of the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America (CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.afacwa.org.

SOURCE Association of Flight Attendants