American Flight Attendants Strike, 20 years later.

[1AA]

Tuesday November 19, 2013 will mark the 20 year anniversary of the Flight Attendant strike of Thanksgiving holiday week of 1993. What has changed since then for the Flight Attendants. Have things improved or not? Was the strike successful? What are your recollections of that five day strike?
 
 
http://tech.mit.edu/V113/N59/american.59w.html
 
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/19/business/a-strike-at-american-airlines-disrupts-travel-of-thousands.html
 
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-26/local/me-60956_1_american-airlines
 
http://www.apfa.org/images/remember_november/videos_main.html

 

[bigjets]

My recollections are, the TWU said go to work, and work OT if you want. I remember the Pilots showing up for work, and the flights leaving on time. The FA's did it on their own.
 
Was the strike good, YES ! 
 
The APFA calling for a 10 day strike was a great idea, what FA can't give up ten days of work.
 
For 19 years until bankruptcy the FA paid half of what the TWU did for health insurance with the same coverage. the TWU being the largest union on property. "Strength in numbers" F**k you. 
With the MOU the FA's are getting a 9.9% match to 401k, (the TWU 5.5% match) and getting a lot of things back that they lost in bk contract. 
 
So yes the effects of a strike helped the FA's for the past 2 decades. 

 

[IORFA]

I will point out that the 9.9% contribution is only for the F/A's that are over 50. It is lower if you are younger, all the way down to 5.5% for those under 40. Again, it is a CONTRIBUTION, not a match.

 

[Bob Owens]

I will point out that the 9.9% contribution is only for the F/A's that are over 50. It is lower if you are younger, all the way down to 5.5% for those under 40. Again, it is a CONTRIBUTION, not a match.

That's even better.

Like us (MX) not too many under 50.

 

[Bob Owens]

Relatively speaking the FA who struck 20 years ago are much better off compared to mechanics who have not struck since 1969. Their placement among their peers is better than ours and they didn't lose nearly as much as we did, as has been pointed out their Pension blows ours away as well. They have a Contribution while we have a match, so one way to look at it is they get up to 9.9% more than we do in the future without losing any pay today, we on the other hand have to take another 5% paycut to get a match to fund the pension that Flight Attendants get with no out of pocket today.

 

[1AA]

And the pilots currently get a 14% contribution and will go up to 16% when the merger is complete. The two common denominator here are strike and craft union. The strike of 1993 definitely had its progress towards future improvements or less concessions that we (TWU) gave away.

 

[Bob Owens]

Its unfortunate that we have been stuck with unaccountable people like Videtich, Gless, Little et all who would constantly preach that we had to give everything away. People like Overspeed who say "live to fight another day", well when you give away Pay, benefits, Holidays, Vacations, workrules and even the pension whats left to fight for? He would say "a job", well working at Walmart is a Job, never in my life did I ever have to fight for a job and I got this one on my own, in fact spent most of my life working two. There are plenty of crappy jobs out there, we should have fought to keep this a good one. Yes the damage is done and we have to live with what they did for many more years but who knows, the IAM/USAIR situation may present an opportunity to fight back, its certainly more promising than than any hopes that we can improve our situation substantially through "harmonization" as there is nothing pressing the company to deal, those are not section six talks so there is no threat of a strike. Sadly the best shot we have at seeing an improvement lies with helping the guys at US get a good deal. Maybe if we stood with our brothers at US and shut the place down we might just earn a little of the respect that the company has for other workgroups at AA that they obviously do not have for us in Maint.

Both the pilots and Flight attendants have fared better, but then again so did Stores, Sim Tech, Dispatch and even Fleet. None of those contract groups were as divided up or gave up as much as Maint , none of them had Videtich either.

 

[Bob Owens]

duplicate

 

[Hatu]

Hard to believe it was twenty years ago.  I had only been a flight attendant since May 1991 but I was ready to strike if one was called.
 
Reply to bigjets:  Yes a ten day strike was smart, especially calling for it to occur over the busy Thanksgiving travel period.  The main reason for calling a ten day strike, if I remember, is that at eleven or more days striking, the company could start hiring replacement workers.  So a ten day strike meant American could not hire replacement workers.
 
Some memories of the strike (based MIA):
1.  Why did they call for the strike at 6am central (7am eastern)?  The RDU flight left at 6:15 from MIA and my flight signed in at 6:30  (7am board, 7:30 departure).  A 5am central strike would mean the MIA flight attendants working the RDU flight would not have been stranded in RDU and instead of going to MIA to sign in and go on aircraft to ready for a boarding that would not happen I could have slept in! 
2.  Union said be sure you sign in and go to aircraft as usual and just walk off at 7am.  We waited until 7:02 to walk off just in case our watches were fast (if walked off before 7am could have been fired). We were way down the D concourse like gate D18.  I remember walking off the aircraft and the agent had the pax lined up for boarding and as we walked past them I heard one say to another, " I guess we aren't going."  Looked down the concourse toward the exit and saw no other flight attendants and thought "really, we are the only ones!"  But as we neared the exit I looked back and saw a flood of flight attendants exiting the gate areas and heading for the exit.  It really was quite a sight to see.  Still gives me goose bumps.
3.  Union reps met us just on the other side of security and lead us to the picket lines.  I was at the picket line everyday and, even with all the uncertainty, it was a very exciting time.
4.  Of course, just as my luck would have it I was scheduled to work the first flight out of FLL the day after the strike ended. 
5.   While on the picket line we got a lot of grief from stranded pax, on board the first flight out of FLL they were very supportive.  Funny, most grief we received was from the curbside baggage check in handlers as they kept complaining the picket line was blocking them from bag checking pax.
 

 

[1AA]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/flight-attendants-american-remember-strike-143000465.html

 

[737823]

Thanks for bringing this up. In November 2008 I was at MIA during the pax4pax 15 year anniversary where the MIA/IMA FAs were handing out pillows and literature. Any plans for similar action this year?

Josh

 

[Ms Tree]

I remember being a supervisor in reservations talking to a woman who was trying to get her family together for their last Thanks Giving with their dad. He had terminal cancer and was not expected to survive much longer. I had to route family members all over kingdome come to get them their. Some folks were going to be late due to overnight stays because I had to take what seats I could find on other carriers. She was not a happy camper but greatful for what I could do.

Fun times in res. We definitly earned our pay durring that party.

 

[1AA]

A blast from the past.
 
A A

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

I was only eight years old when the strike occurred so all I have to appreciate it are videos like this, posted on the LGA APFA Facebook page:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9lyHr1qjoY
 
It looks like it would have been a scary but exciting time… quick question: could management fire new hire/probationary flight attendants for striking?

 

[john john]

I remember being a supervisor in reservations talking to a woman who was trying to get her family together for their last Thanks Giving with their dad. He had terminal cancer and was not expected to survive much longer. I had to route family members all over kingdome come to get them their. Some folks were going to be late due to overnight stays because I had to take what seats I could find on other carriers. She was not a happy camper but greatful for what I could do.

Fun times in res. We definitly earned our pay durring that party.

And you are going to vote HOW? In the next union election