American Airlines Flight Attendants Handed out Pillow to Passengers

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants members handed out inflatable pillows to passengers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and three other major airports to try to win customer backing in the union's contract talks with American.

"As negotiations progress, we want passengers to be behind the flight attendants, let the company know that we do a hard job, that they know we're professionals, that they're glad we show up for work every day," union negotiator Diana Dunn said. The union wants passengers to help push American to give flight attendants a good contract with no concessions, Ms. Dunn said. The two sides began contract talks this summer.

The pillows, and the accompanying literature, carried the union's "PAX for PAX," or "Peace for Passengers," message, with PAX representing both the Latin word for peace and airline lingo for passenger. The company has complained that its labor costs are higher than those of many other U.S. airlines, the union is trying to win back major concessions in pay, benefits and work rules that employee groups gave American in 2003 to stay out of bankruptcy.

American expressed no unhappiness about Friday's demonstrations outside the airport terminals at D/FW, Miami, Los Angeles and New York LaGuardia. "We respect the rights of organized labor to conduct public demonstrations and to distribute information to customers and the public," American spokeswoman Tami McLallen said.

"We have great flight attendants who take excellent care of our customers, and we look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the APFA to construct a contract that addresses flight attendants' needs and positions the company for long-term success," she said. American is currently in talks with its three major unions – APFA, the Allied Pilots Association and Transport Workers Union.