PSA Airlines flight attendants, who are members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, organized protests at the airline’s four hubs across the country March 26 — in Charlotte, North Carolina; Dayton, Ohio; Philadelphia; and Washington, D.C. PSA, a subsidiary of American Airlines, pays flight attendants 45% less than crews doing the same work for American.
“We’re doing the same job, and we deserve to be paid and compensated accordingly,” Keturah Johnson, a flight attendant from Washington, D.C., told the Charlotte Observer.
Flight attendants “can’t afford rent and apartments, they’re having to live with their families,” Rebecca Black, an AFA negotiating committee member, told WDTN TV News. During the first three years on the job, the majority of PSA flight attendants are locked into a pay rate of approximately $24,000 a year. American Airlines made $846 million in profits in 2024.
Flight attendants at American, after a long fight, voted up a new five-year contract last September. Along with wage increases and compensation for waits between flights, they became the first organized flight attendants to win pay during boarding time, a key demand in negotiations.
The company has dragged out negotiations at PSA for two years.