February 26, 2010 - Determined to achieve a contract, American Airlines Flight Attendants will turn up the heat on the airline with a series of activities as they begin five days of “lockdown” negotiations with American Airlines at the National Mediation Board (NMB) in Washington on Saturday, February 27.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) and American have been mired in contract negotiations for more than 21 months with little movement on key issues. The company continues to put contracts on the table that increase the more than $2 billion in concessions Flight Attendants have given up since 2003. If no agreement is reached during this session, APFA will ask the NMB to initiate a 30-day cooling-off period – the final step before employees can resort to job actions under the Railway Labor Act.

“We still believe we can achieve a deal and we remain committed to the process,” said APFA President Laura Glading. “However, the process includes the responsibility of both sides to bargain fairly. The company simply has not lived up to its part of the bargain. Unless there is a dramatic change, we are poised to do whatever is necessary to get a contract Flight Attendants deserve.”

The company claims American’s Flight Attendants are among the highest paid in the industry. The industry standard measure of productivity and cost is “cost per available seat mile” (CASM), but American is using “expense per hour,” which artificially inflates American’s Flight Attendants’ cost. 

CASM for American’s domestic operation is very competitive with other airlines. Any higher international CASM arises in large part from American's marketing decision to have, unlike its competitors, three-class service. With these higher service levels, American realizes the highest international passenger revenue per ASM in the industry.

When American Airlines found itself in financial trouble back in 2003, the Flight Attendants bailed out the company with significant concessions to keep the company out of bankruptcy, providing $340 million annually in cost savings. Since then, the Flight Attendants’ benefits and pay have shrunk by 33 percent. In this six-year span the airline’s top five executives have taken bonuses averaging $11.4 million, more than 2,500 times the average amount received by a Flight Attendant.

“It’s clear management has the financial resources to negotiate a ratifiable agreement,” said Glading. “We’ve worked hard to narrow the outstanding issues in these negotiations. With this round of talks, it’s time for the company to put some real money on the table so we can reach an agreement that recognizes the sacrifices and hard work of Flight Attendants.” APFA is the nation's largest independent Flight Attendant union representing nearly 18,000 American Airlines Flight Attendants.