Regional airline flight attendants take strike vote. What it means for NC, SC travelers
Almost 300 Piedmont Airlines flight attendants — including 130 based in Charlotte — are voting this month on whether to authorize a strike.
Piedmont Airlines is operating an average of 66 daily flights out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport in October, according to the airline. Piedmont is a subsidiary of American Airlines, the dominant carrier at CLT.
And the airline operates nearly 400 daily flights across the eastern United States to more than 55 cities under the American Eagle brand.
The flight attendant vote comes as reports of unruly passengers reach an all-time high. More than 4,700 incidents with unruly passenger have been reported to the Federal Aviation Administration, including more than 3,400 incidents involving face masks.
And the FAA has opened 882 investigations into unruly passengers this year, compared to just 183 in 2020 and 146 in 2019.
Amid rising tensions in air travel, the union representing Piedmont Airlines flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, says workers aren’t paid enough.
A strike could disrupt just one or multiple flights — and travelers wouldn’t get advance warning, according to the union.
The voting closes at noon on Oct. 21. The vote doesn’t mean flight attendants will immediately strike, but gives the union the authority to call for a strike if a majority agree.
CLT is one of Piedmont’s two crew bases, along with Philadelphia.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA says contract negotiations between the airline and Piedmont flight attendants have stalled over three years, as the airline proposes “minimal pay increase that do not provide a living wage.”
“We kept the planes flying throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and saved Piedmont and the entire American Airlines Group through the (federal) Payroll Support Program which helped American with billions of dollars in labor costs,” AFA Piedmont President Keturah Johnson said in a statement.
“The thanks we get is management demanding concessions. This must stop. Piedmont Flight Attendants cannot afford to work at Piedmont,” Johnson said.
The AFA said it uses a strike strategy called CHAOS — Create Havoc Around Our System. That means a strike could affect the entire system, or a single flight. Strikes will occur without notice to management or passengers.
“Piedmont values the work that our more than 350 flight attendants do to take care of our customers and each other every day,” Piedmont Airlines said in a statement to the Observer. “We are actively engaged in contract conversations with the AFA to ensure that our team members feel supported and valued and look forward to continuing our negotiations.”
Where does Piedmont Airlines fly?
Piedmont Airlines flies to 14 cities in the Carolinas, including Greensboro, Asheville, Fayetteville, Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston and Hilton Head, S.C.
Piedmont flies to a number of destinations non-stop from CLT, including: Greensboro, Asheville, Jacksonville and Greenville in North Carolina; Florence and Columbia in South Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; Knoxville and Chattanooga in Tennessee; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Rochester and Ithaca in New York; Lexington, Kentucky; Evansville, Indiana; Roanoke, Virginia; and Quebec City in Quebec, Canada.
And Piedmont Airlines operates an average of 17 flights a day out of six other N.C. airports: Asheville Regional Airport, Piedmont Triad International Airport, Pitt-Greenville Airport, Fayetteville Regional Airport, Wilmington International Airport and Albert J. Ellis Airport near Jacksonville.
The airline operates less than a dozen flights out of five South Carolina airports: Columbia Metropolitan Airport, Charleston International Airport, Florence Regional Airport, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and Myrtle Beach International Airport.
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 6:35 AM with the headline "Regional airline flight attendants take strike vote. What it means for NC, SC travelers."
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