American Airlines Flight Attendant Boasts, “I Don’t Do Pre-Departure Beverages Anymore”

As flight attendants at American Airlines continue to fight for a new contract, it appears that some are consciously engaging in “self-help” by deliberately denying pre-departure beverages to first class customers with the justification that they are insufficiently paid for their time.

Flight Attendants At American Airlines Skipping Pre-Departure Beverages In “Self-Help” Move

In the context of labor, self-help is a unilateral action by a party in a collective bargaining dispute to apply economic pressure to its collective bargaining counterpart as leverage in negotiations. For example, when mechanics deliberately take three times as long to fix planes or flight attendants, as is the case here, deliberately refuse to serve drinks onboard, the point is to disrupt operations

American Airlines and the union representing its flight attendants remained locked in a fierce negotiation for a new contract mediated by the federal National Mediation Board (NMB). While the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) has repeatedly sought to strike, the NMB has determined that the two sides are still not at an impasse.

But as contract negotiations drag on, some flight attendants seem to be taking matters into thier own hands. We’ve received multiple reports of flight attendants refusing to offer pre-departure beverages to first class guests onboard, but one passenger recently shared on Flyertalk of a rather blunt incident:

I’m on the ground right now about to leave on ORD-STL. I’m in 1B. We’re on time and will likely push early. Two FAs are chatting and one proudly declares, “I don’t do pre-departures any more because of the contract.” She went on to complain about an FA she worked with a few days earlier who did one, and she apparently didn’t like that.

I’ve suspected that FAs have been doing this lately, but it’s pretty amazing to hear them just outright declare it in front of pax. Interestingly neither of the FAs standing in the galley are wearing name tags. I assume that’s intentional too.

I know the FAs don’t care, and AA probably doesn’t care either, but that sure does make me mad. If I declared my unwillingness to do my job in front of customers, I’d certainly get fired.

I quite agree with that final statement. It is mind-boggling that a flight attendant can get away with not doing her job because she thinks she should be paid more to do it. That’s crazy and not how labor unions should work. Of course, the APFA has warned flight attendants not to engage in self-help, but this sort of toxic attitude  is not unique to this one rogue flight attendant.

Let’s not forget that the lack of boarding pay is something that the union negotiated (for the benefit of senior flight attendants) and something that American Airlines flight attendants agreed to. I personally don’t thnk it makes much sense to give up boarding pay in exchange for more pay once the doors are closed, but this was the deal the union negotiated and flight attendants ratified, so it’s a bit much to argue that American Airlines is doing something wrong here…

On the contrary, American Airlines is offering boarding pay and offered flight attendants an immediate 17% during contract negotiations, though union negotiators declined (holding out of something better even though the raise would not have precluded a new contract).

CONCLUSION

Flight attendants at American Airlines are understandably anxious about a new contract and upset that one has not been agreed upon. But taking matters into their own hands by refusing to do to their job (serving drinks) is a step too far and such flight attendants have no business being flight attendants…

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hat tip: PYOK