Flight attendants picket globally, demand pay for all work hours as travel peaks

AUSTIN (KEYE) — Thousands of flight attendants hit the picket lines at 30 airports across the world.

It comes as contract negotiations continue across the industry as summer travel ramps up.

At Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, about two dozen flight attendants hit the picket lines outside demanding change. Elizabeth Hibbard is president of the Association of Flight Attendants for Austin and Houston. She says 80,000 flight attendants from major airlines like American, United, and Alaskan are currently fighting at the bargaining table– and they’re tired of the corporate greed.

The corporate bonuses, all the executive bonuses, and we have flight attendants on food stamps,” Hibbard said. “And we’re all making the same demands of our corporations: that they bring us deals now.

Currently, these union flight attendants are only paid when the cabin door is closed, meaning they go unpaid during situations like the boarding process.

“And we do a lot of work on the ground, and we’re demanding to be paid for all our time at work,” Hibbard said.

Hibbard says this fight has been going on for too long.

“Flight attendants haven’t had a raise in years,” Hibbard said. “We’ve been waiting for years and they continue to drag their feet at the table.”

If nothing changes soon, the Railway Labor Act would permit a federal agency or even the President of the United States to step in to find a resolution. Both the House and Senate have already sent letters in support of flight attendants.

“Contact your airlines. Let them know that they need to be paying their flight attendants a fair wage,” Hibbard said. “They need to be paying their flight attendants for all of their time at work.”

The R.L.A. is designed to avoid interruptions to interstate commerce, and of course, now we’re in peak summer travel season. Despite the contract dispute dragging on, it remains unclear just what those impacts on travel would be.

Federal mediation can only happen after all other options have been exhausted and courts can put an end to the strikes if they aren’t.