Two American Airlines Flight Attendants Have Been Terminated After They Racked Up Huge Union Dues Arrears

It has been revealed that two American Airlines flight attendants were fired earlier this year after failing to clear huge union dues arrears, part of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants’ (APFAs) efforts to clear more than a million dollars in unpaid union dues.

Under the union shop agreement in place between American Airlines and APFA, flight attendants at the Dallas-based carrier must join the union and are required to pay dues whether they like it or not.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, APFA was staring into a financial blackhole as more and more of its members built up huge due arrears. By 2022, the union found itself trying to claw back $1.2 million in dues arrears from indebted flight attendants.

In the last three years, just over $362,000 of those arrears have been paid in full, while a further $369,000 is being progressively paid back through payment plans.

Nearly 600 flight attendants in dues arrears have also recently agreed to pay back over half a million dollars through payment plans, although 65 of those voluntary arrangements have defaulted.

Unfortunately, the union was unable to get two flight attendants to clear their dues arrears, and they were discharged as members earlier this year.

Unlike in some workplaces, the union contract at American Airlines requires APFA to tell HR that the flight attendant is no longer a union member, and the airline is required to fire them.

In some cases, flight attendants had amassed more than $10,000 each in dues arrears, and while these long-standing cases are now being cleared, APFA reports that the total number of flight attendants in arrears is actually increasing.

That’s not necessarily because some flight attendants are deliberately not paying their dues, but more because crew members who aren’t flying a lot or have taken leaves of absence might not have enough money in their paychecks for the dues to be cleared.

Running a union the size of APFA, which represents tens of thousands of flight attendants across the United States, is a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Each quarter, the union budgets to collect more than $7 million from its members, and arrears can quickly lead to budget shortfalls.

The union has warned its members that if it didn’t take such aggressive measures to clear dues arrears, then it would soon have to start making difficult choices, with cuts to workplace representatives one of the quickest ways to save cash – although with major ramifications for flight attendants desperately needing union help.

Matt’s take – Compulsory union membership is unique

The aviation industry is heavily unionized around the world, although the thought of compulsory union membership is pretty unique to some US airlines like American Airlines, as well as other major carriers like United Airlines.

As flight attendant contracts are governed under the federal Railway Labor Act, local ‘Right to Work’ statutes don’t generally apply, so as a flight attendant, you either join the union or you don’t work for the airline.

This isn’t a problem most of the time, although there are occasions where flight attendants take exception with the politics of their union.

Perhaps the most famous example of this is the case of a ‘pro-life’ Southwest Airlines flight attendant who disagreed with her union attending a Women’s March in Washington DC in 2017, because she believed the union was supporting abortion.

The flight attendant, Charlene Carter, ended up being fired when she sent Facebook messages to union leaders that the airline viewed as being disrespectful and harassing, but Carter prevailed in a highly publicized court battle with the airline and union.