American’s unions push contracts

Pilots and flight attendants want early starts to their negotiations.

Two of American Airlines’ largest workforces are looking to get a head start on negotiations for their next contracts, with unions representing pilots and flight attendants triggering early-opener clauses to initiate talks in December and January.

The requests set up a critical stretch for American as it negotiates a new round of contracts outside the shadow of its 2011 bankruptcy and 2013 merger with US Airways. Since the start of 2014 American has seen a record run of profits totaling $16.2 billion, but the carrier will have to balance higher employee wages and benefits with rising costs.

Leaders from the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 15,000 American pilots, delivered a letter to the company’s headquarters Monday formally requesting the start of negotiations a year before its contract becomes amendable in January 2020.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 27,000 American flight attendants and whose contract becomes amendable in December 2019, made a similar request this month.

Of particular focus for the unions will be work rules affecting everything from scheduling to sick leave to hotel accommodations on layovers.

American’s pilots and flight attendants have raised concerns in recent months about the company’s scheduling policies. Pilots have questioned increasingly frequent changes to their set schedules.

The pilots union told Bloomberg in a recent report that the schedule changes — which are allowed under the current contract — are causing more pilot fatigue and hurting morale.

Monday’s announcement by the Allied Pilots Association cited “improved schedule integrity” as one of the union’s top wishes in a new contract.

“We believe American Airlines can do better. We believe American Airlines can be better,” union president Dan Carey said in a statement. “We expect management’s thoughtful consideration of our suggestions for how to make mutually beneficial changes that will ensure we are the best airline with the best passenger experience.”

Flight attendants have also been grappling with scheduling issues following the integration of premerger American and US Airways onto a single operating platform in October. While the move is meant to improve scheduling flexibility and efficiency for American and the flight attendants, the union said the rollout has been hampered by technical problems.