An elite American Airlines frequent flyer says he was barred from entering one of the carrier’s Admirals Club airport lounge at Chicago O’Hare because he was wearing a pro-union pin badge on his lapel and the agent only relented when she discovered he was a regular passenger.
Josh Perkins shared his story on Reddit in a recent post in which he described the American Airlines employee who tried to bar him entry to the lounge as a ‘line crosser’.
The pin that Josh was wearing is from the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) which represents AA crew members.
As part of its longwinded effort to secure a new contract for AA flight attendants, the union produced pin badges that spell out ‘WAR’.
The word is, of course, symbolic in its own right but WAR actually spells out an acronym which stands for ‘We Are Ready’.
We are ready has a double meaning: we are ready for a new contract and we are ready to go on strike.
Although Josh isn’t an American Airlines employee, his best friend is a flight attendant for the Fort Worth-based carrier and he wants to see the airline offer a decent contract for its flight attendants.
Josh says he simply wants to show solidarity with AA flight attendants by wearing the WAR pin.
Almost denied lounge access because I was wearing a war pin. (I’m EP, not an employee) RANT
“The lady checking me into the lounge told me I had to remove my pin before entry.
This is absolutely ridiculous, I am not an employee of AA, simply wearing it in solidarity with a APFA,” Josh wrote on Reddit.
“I told her I was not an employee and she shut up real quick… Line crosser!! Did I agree to anything saying I can’t wear anything displaying a union when I signed up for club access 9 years ago? Doubt it.”
What the encounter seems to suggest is that agent would have an issue with an Aa employee trying to access a lounge with a union pin despite these wearing of these pins being federally protected.
This isn’t the first time, however, that APFA symbols have caused issues between flight attendants and the airline’s management.
Last October, the airline threatened flight attendants with discipline if they worse bright red t-shirts emblazoned with the APFA logo while at training school or on flights to training.
American Airlines argued that the logo represented a slogan and slogan t-shirts and prohibited to be worn by flight attendants at training school.
The union threatened to sue and in the end, American Airlines backed down and acknowledged that a logo isn’t a slogan and that pro-union t-shirts could be worn on company premises.
Further negotiations between APFA and AA are set to get underway this week in a bid to secure a contract which could include bumper pay increases after years of stagnant wages.
The union has requested a release to go on strike but with American Airlines making small but incremental increases to its offer, the National Mediation Board has so far refused to declare an impasse.
AA employees are allowed to use the Admirals Club lounge when traveling outside of work. The caveat is that they have to remove all uniform items so as to not appear to be an employee. AA does not want their lounges to appear to be an employee break room. Wearing the pin gave the impression that Mr. Perkins was an employee using the lounge without having removed all uniform items, or employee identifiable items. A simple mistake easily and quickly corrected. Mr. Perkins was not barred from entering the lounge as the title of this article suggests.
Absolutely 100% correct. And also very rare that a passenger who isn’t affiliated with AA would wear such a pin so I can see where the lounge agent would make the assumption. Sounds like a lot of false outrage, or a reaction that the passenger hoped to provoke.
I’d wear a WAR pin. We Are Repulsed – by the general disregard for job duties by flight attendants at AA, lack of service on board (since you know, CLT-LGA is too short a flight to serve a beverage), and customer unfriendly policies.
The title of the article call out is so appropriate.
Recently I read that a former NFL player was removed from a DENSNA flight – being removed means he didn’t get to fly, the plane flew the entire leg, he wasn’t removed. Secondly same article – he was “removed” for requesting a cup of ice. He wasn’t “removed” for asking – he was arrested for physically assaulting the FA for “lightly” tapping them (his words). Both these items were displayed in the article’s headline similar to this one. In the words of Regina Green, “STOP TRYING TO MAKE FETCH HAPPEN”