American Airlines Employees to Get 4 Percent Pay Raises; Pilot Contract Goes to Binding Arbitration

American Airlines Inc. employees will get 4 percent across-the-board pay raises, including unionized employees if their union has a joint contract covering both American and US Airways employees.

At the same time, American announced that it is sending its pilot contract to binding arbitration after more than a month of negotiations with the Allied Pilots Association.

Included in the group getting the 4 percent raise are American’s flight attendants, who will get that increase on top of the higher wages included in a joint contract finalized last week.

It will not include unionized employees who do not yet have joint contracts covering the two airlines’ employees, such as pilots. Nor will managers above a certain level be covered in the across-the-board increase.

American President Scott Kirby informed the carrier’s pilots that the pilot contract is going to binding arbitration. The carrier’s management and Allied Pilots Association negotiators have not agreed on terms of a joint contract covering American and US Airways pilots.

In a separate letter to employees, American Chairman and CEO Doug Parker noted the company’s success in its first full year after the Dec. 9, 2013 merger of American and US Airways.

“In celebration of that success, today we are announcing a pay increase of 4 percentage points for represented workgroups with ratified joint contracts and for non-contract employees below the director level,” Parker said.

This article appeared in print in the December 24th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.