American Airlines CEO Robert Isom has been widely criticized in recent times, due to the extent to which the carrier lags competitors Delta and United. This is true in terms of profitability, and it’s also true in terms of passenger experience.

American’s labor groups haven’t been happy either, with the flight attendant union issuing a vote of no confidence in Isom, and the pilot union demanding decisive change. Isom has essentially responded to this criticism by claiming that everything is fine and moving in the right direction.

We’ve seen a Yale academic come out in support of Isom, in what can only be described as a bizarre opinion piece. However, here’s something that may seem a bit strange, at least on the surface — the world’s most powerful flight attendant has also come out in support of Isom. What exactly is going on here?!

Sara Nelson praises Robert Isom’s leadership

Sara Nelson is the President of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), the largest flight attendant union in the world. She’s referred to as the world’s most powerful flight attendant, based on the fact that she has a high level role where she’s often in Washington lobbying for what’s in the best interests of flight attendants.

The AFA represents flight attendants at PSA, a wholly owned regional subsidiary of American. Meanwhile American mainline flight attendants are represented by a rival union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA).

Anyway, PSA flight attendants have just reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, which is said to add 30-50% in total compensation. The three-year agreement includes an immediate 10% wage increase, boarding pay that adds an additional 15-16% compensation on average, retro pay, additional wage scale raises, scheduling improvements, increased flexibility, and more.

I’m happy to hear they’re getting a new contract, as that’s good news. But what I find most interesting and unusual here is how Nelson puts out a statement that’s primarily about praising Isom:

“PSA Flight Attendants need these improvements and we fought hard to get them in their hands for a ratification vote. Although it was extremely difficult bargaining with PSA, American CEO Robert Isom demonstrated his longstanding commitment to recognize the work of frontline employees who make it possible for American to fly. We appreciate his direct engagement to make this agreement possible. That stands in stark contrast to other carriers who are succeeding on the backs of their underpaid workers. It is also extremely notable that American agreed to a shorter term contract that ensures workers can continue to bargain for their fair share of the profits they help create.”

Wait, how do we make sense of this praise?

What should we make of Nelson’s praise for Isom? What makes this odd on the surface is that even if a carrier’s management is among the better for labor negotiations, it’s unheard of to see a contract announcement primarily centered around praising the CEO. I don’t remember ever seeing such an announcement in the past.

So what’s going on here? As I see it, there are probably a few factors:

• The biggest airline represented by Nelson’s AFA union is United, and the new flight attendant contract there has been drawn out to no end, and there’s a lot of bad blood between the union and management; Nelson knows exactly what she’s doing, and I imagine an announcement praising Isom is intentionally intended to get under the skin of United CEO Scott Kirby
• To the credit of American’s management (both Isom and previous CEO Parker), they have actually been more labor friendly than management at carriers like United, and Parker has even long talked about how he thinks unions are necessary to counteract corporate greed, and make sure everyone gets their fair share
• With the AFA not actually representing mainline American flight attendants, I have to imagine that there’s some element of just wanting to counter the “rival” union, on principle

No matter how you slice it, this is all unusual. I’ve never seen a union praise an airline CEO in the context of a tentative agreement. But yeah, my theory is that can mostly be explained by the first bullet above — get under Kirby’s skin.

Bottom line

AFA President Sara Nelson has come out in support of American CEO Robert Isom, in what can only be described as a very unusual statement. Flight attendants at American’s wholly owned regional subsidiary have a new tentative contract, and Nelson’s statement primarily centers around Isom’s “longstanding commitment” to employees.

I have to imagine this is primarily motivated by getting under the skin of United CEO Scott Kirby, given that the AFA represents flight attendants there, and they still don’t have a contract.

What do you make of Nelson’s comments about Isom?