American Airlines Offers 17% Wage Hike Amidst Strike Talks

American Airlines continues to face a myriad of woes as the threat of a flight attendant’s strike looms heavily over the embattled airline.

According to CNBC, the company proposed a 17% wage increase to flight attendants on Wednesday, June 5, but the proposal was immediately rejected by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, who claim that the flight attendants they represent haven’t received a pay raise since the pandemic began.

“We have made progress in a number of key areas, but there is still a good deal of work to be done,” said CEO Robert Isom, adding that the two sides continue to negotiate without a deal, further lending credence to a potential strike.

“So, to get you more money now, we presented APFA with a proposal that offers immediate wage increases of 17% and a new formula that would increase your profit sharing,” he continued. “This means we’ve offered increased pay for all flight attendants and are not asking your union for anything in return. This is unusual, but these are unusual times.”

American Airlines and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants are set to resume talks next week. The talks are considered “last-ditch” efforts, and flight attendants have reportedly been told to prepare for a strike.

If a strike is, indeed, triggered, federal mediators would grant the release, which would take several weeks to get the flight attendants off the planes and onto the picket lines.

This is just the latest fight that American Airlines is facing. Back in April, the pilot’s union went public with its concerns over safety at the airline.

The airline has also been facing a myriad of lawsuits. Last month, American Airlines came under fire when its attorney, who has since been fired and replaced with a new legal team, blamed a 9-year-old girl for being allegedly filmed in an airplane bathroom in a legal filing that caused outrage when it went public.

“Instead of taking responsibility for this awful event, American Airlines is actually blaming our daughter for being filmed. How in good conscience could they even make such a suggestion? It both shocks and angers us. American Airlines has no shame,” the girl’s family said in a statement released to NBC Boston.

Additionally, last week, three Black men — Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal — filed a racial discrimination suit against the airline after they alleged that they, and five other Black men who did not join the lawsuit, faced discrimination on an American Airlines flight from Phoenix to New York back in January.