American Airlines has caved to flight attendant pressure and will finally let crew members wear bright red union t-shirts while attending courses at the carrier’s training center in Dallas, as well as when traveling off duty on AA flights.
The airline had attempted to ban flight attendants from wearing the t-shirts that are emblazoned with the logo of the official crew member union, with AA’s managing director of labor relations describing them as “divisive” and with the potential to distract flight attendants.
Flight attendants are generally allowed to wear their own clothes during training courses, but there are a few rules, so to enforce its controversial ban on the union t-shirts, American Airlines claimed the logo was effectively a slogan.
Slogan t-shirts are banned during training courses, and AA argued that union t-shirts should be banned as well.
With the threat of disciplinary action hanging over the head of any crew who dared to wear a union t-shirt to a training course, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) quickly filed a presidential grievance against the ban.
Lawyers representing the union even filed a cease and desist against the airline last October and threatened legal action if AA didn’t rescind the ban.
Since then, the dispute has been dragging on behind the scenes, and finally, the two sides have reached an agreement. American Airlines has admitted defeat and accepted that a logo is not a slogan, and, therefore, the union logo t-shirt cannot be banned.
The agreement only applies to simple logo t-shirts, and flight attendants won’t be allowed to wear union t-shirts with slogans like the ‘We Are Ready’ motto, which has been used by APFA in its continuing contract dispute with American Airlines.
The motto is often just shortened to WAR and describes the current level of tension between flight attendants and the company as pay talks continue with little progress to show.
The union has requested a release to strike, but the National Mediation Board (NMB) is yet to announce its decision because further negotiation sessions are penned in over the next month.
Pathetic bunch. It’s like wearing your school colors for a pep rally!!! That will make an impactful statement!
That pathetic bunch are a group of professionals who literally risked (while some gave) their lives to keep that airline in business during the COVID pandemic! Maybe you should give back your pay raises from the past five years and try to live in this economy the rethink how impactful that would be to you and your family!