At the end of work trips, Nathan Miller goes home to a makeshift bedroom in his parents’ house in Virginia. The 29-year-old flight attendant is part of a PSA Airlines crew based in Philadelphia, but Miller says he can’t afford to live there.
He makes about $24,000 a year working full-time for the American Airlines subsidiary. Despite often staffing multiple flights a day, Miller commutes by plane between Virginia Beach and Philadelphia International Airport, a distance of about 215 miles.
“I've considered
finding a whole new job. It's not something that I want to do," Miller, who joined PSA two years ago, said. "But it's not sustainable.”
His situation isn't unique. Frustrations among flight attendants at both regional and legacy airlines have been building for years over paychecks that many of them say don't match the weight of what their jobs demand. Compounding the discontent over hourly wages is a long-standing airline practice of not paying attendants for the work they perform on the ground, like getting passengers on and off planes.
Air Canada's flight attendants put a public spotlight on these simmering issues when about 10,000 of them walked off the job last weekend, forcing the airline to cancel more than 3,000 flights. The strike ended Tuesday with a tentative deal that includes wage increases and, for the first time, pay for boarding passengers.
In the United States, however, the nearly century-old Railway Labor Act makes it far more difficult for union flight attendants like Miller, a member of the Association of Flight Attendants, to strike than most other American workers. Unlike the Boeing factory workers and Hollywood writers and actors who collectively stopped work in recent years, U.S. airline workers can only strike if federal mediators declare an impasse — and even then, the president or Congress can intervene.
For that reason, airline strikes are exceedingly rare. The last major one in the U.S. was over a decade ago by Spirit Airlines pilots, and most attempts since then have failed. American Airlines flight attendants tried in 2023 but were blocked by mediators.
Without the ultimate bargaining chip, airline labor unions have seen their power eroded in contract talks that now stretch far beyond historical norms, according to Sara Nelson, the international president of the AFA. Negotiations that once took between a year and 18 months now drag on for three years, sometimes more.
“The right to strike is fundamental to collective bargaining, but it has been chipped away," Nelson said. Her union represents 50,000 attendants, including the ones at United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and PSA Airlines.
On Monday, she joined PSA flight attendants in protest outside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, near where an airliner operated by PSA crashed into the Potomac River in January after colliding with an Army helicopter. All 67 people on the two aircraft were killed, including the plane's pilot, co-pilot and two flight attendants.
The airline's flight attendants also demonstrated outside three other U.S. airports. In a statement, PSA called the demonstrations "one of the important ways flight attendants express their desire to get a deal done — and we share the same goal.”
Flight attendants say their jobs have become more demanding in recent years. Planes are fuller, and faster turnaround times between flights are expected. Customers may see them mostly as uniforms that serve food and beverages, but the many hats attendants juggle include handling in-flight emergencies, deescalating conflicts and managing unruly passengers.
“We have to know how to put out a lithium battery fire while at 30,000 feet, or perform CPR on a passenger who's had a heart attack. We're trained to evacuate a plane in 90 seconds, and we're always the last ones off,” said Becky Black, a PSA flight attendant in Dayton, Ohio, who is part of the union's negotiating team.
And yet, Black says, their pay hasn't kept pace.
PSA flight attendants have been bargaining for over two years for better wages and boarding pay. Alaska flight attendants spent just as long in talks before reaching a deal in February. At American, flight attendants began negotiations on a new contract in 2020 but didn't get one until 2024.
Southwest Airlines attendants pushed even longer — over five years — before winning a new deal last year that delivered an immediate 22% wage hike and annual 3% increases through 2027.
“It was a great relief,” Alison Head, a longtime Southwest flight attendant based in Atlanta, said. “Coming out of COVID, where you saw prices were high and individuals struggling, it really meant something.”
The contract didn't include boarding pay but secured the industry's first paid maternity and parental leave, a historic win for the largely female workforce. A mother of two, Head said she returned to work “fairly quickly” after having her first child because she couldn't afford to stay home.
“Now, new parents don't have to make that same hard decision,” she said.
Many of her peers at other airlines are still waiting for their new contracts.
At United, attendants rejected a tentative agreement last month, with 71% voting no. The union is now surveying its members to understand why and plans to return to the bargaining table in December.
One major sticking point: boarding pay. While Delta became the first U.S. airline to offer it in 2022 — followed by American and Alaska — many flight attendants still aren't compensated during what they call the busiest part of their shift.
Back in Virginia Beach, Miller is still trying to make it work. On family vacations during his childhood, Miller said he was fascinated by flight attendants and their ability to make people feel comfortable and safe.
Now he's got his dream job, but he isn't sure he can afford to keep doing it.
