The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents tens of thousands of crew members at American Airlines, is still selling ‘ready to strike’ merchandise despite the fact that labor relations with the Fort Worth-based carrier should be on the mend following the recent ratification of a five-year contract.
Some of the merchandise available to purchase on the union’s official website includes ‘Ready to Strike’ stickers, along with accessories like bright red ‘We Are Ready’ lanyards and bag tags that feature the outline of protesting flight attendants.
If it wasn’t already immediately apparent, the ‘We Are Ready’ slogan also spells out the word ‘WAR’ – the insinuation being that flight attendants were effectively at war with their employer as they fought for an updated contract.
But why would flight attendants need these accessories now that the ‘war’ is over – at least for the five-year duration of the contract?
Back in September, 95% of eligible flight attendants participated in the ballot for the contract, and 87% of those voted in favor of the agreement. Flight attendants secured an immediate pay raise of between 18% and 20.5%, along with smaller raises in the following years of the contract.
The agreement also included a number of other work and lifestyle improvements, but not all these will be implemented as quickly as the pay raises. In fact, some flight attendants fear that American Airlines will try to delay implementing some improvements for as long as possible.
That’s why it has been suggested that the ‘Ready to Strike’ merch is still necessary and will act as a reminder to AA’s leadership team that they need to make good all elements of the new contract.
Unlike some carriers, American Airlines allows flight attendants to display official union pin badges, including a bright red version of the APFA lapel pin, which represents the union’s ‘Ready to Strike’ stance – a snip at just $5.
There is also a bright red APFA logo t-shirt available, which was at the center of a dispute between the union and AA when senior managers tried to ban flight attendants from wearing the top to training sessions at the airline’s headquarters.
American Airlines tried to suggest that the union logo was akin to a slogan, and slogan t-shirts have long been banned during training sessions.
AA’s managing director of labor relations had described the t-shirts as “divisive” and said they could distract flight attendants during mandatory annual training, but eventually relented and lifted the ban on the APFA logo t-shirt.
Until then, I’ll still say that passengers need We Are Repulsed pins.