American Airlines yesterday announced mid-contract pay increases for its pilot and flight attendant groups. The Company states its reasoning is that those two groups have fallen significantly behind their industry peers with long durations before their collective bargaining agreements are open for negotiations.
The TWU-IAM Association negotiated industry leading pay increases last fall for the membership at American. Those pay increases for Association represented employees are locked in and have benefited those employees for several months. It appears the Association action that kept its members from lagging behind the industry helped these other employee groups.
The difference between all the other American employee groups and the Association members is that, while industry best pay increases were already achieved, Association members will benefit from our current joint collective bargaining that will bring more pay and benefit improvements putting them even further ahead.
As previously reported, TWU-IAM Association negotiations have entered Executive level status with the objective of bringing those negotiations to conclusion so our members can reap the benefits of the improvements yet to come. Your patience and solidarity are needed while the critical final stages of our negotiations take place.
In Solidarity,
Sito Pantoja, Harry Lombardo
Association Director and Vice Director