Over 120,000 airline employees need raises as earnings rise for 10th yr

U.S. airways are headed for his or her 10th consecutive yr of profitability and their workers, from pilots to catering workers, are demanding larger wages and higher advantages.

Subsequent yr, main U.S. carriers can be negotiating labor agreements with greater than 120,000 unionized workers, a course of that’s set so as to add to their bills. American can be negotiating with most of its unionized workforce, together with pilots, flight attendants and upkeep employees.

Labor prices are airways’ greatest expense and so they have develop into a bigger portion of general prices. Final yr, labor prices ate up 28% of U.S. airways’ $187 billion in income, up from a 21% share in 2008, as airways employed extra employees and compensation rose, based on information from commerce group Airways for America.

“There are merely extra funds to get and employees are cognizant they’re turning out extra worth,” stated Sara Nelson, worldwide president of the Affiliation of Flight Attendants, which represents some 50,000 cabin crew members at 20 airways together with United. The AFA just lately launched a marketing campaign to unionize flight attendants at Delta, whose cabin crews don’t belong to a union, an outlier among the many huge 4 U.S. carriers.

A decade in the past,…