American Airlines flight attendants and the Fort Worth-based carrier are filing for federal help from National Mediation Board to move contract negotiations forward.

The 25,000-member Association of Professional Flight Attendants and American Airlines will continue bargaining for a contract while a federal mediator is assigned and scheduled.

Julie Hedrick, national president of the association of professional flight attendants, said the organization is entering a critical period in bargaining for a new contract.

“We have bargained over all the non-economic sections of the agreement and will soon pass our economic proposals across the table,” Hendrick said in a statement. “Although we have substantive disagreements on many important issues, we have had productive discussions at the bargaining table.”

China’s government has set this year’s economic growth target at “around 5%” as it tries to rebuild business activity following the end of anti-virus controls that kept millions of people at home.

Premier Li Keqiang, the top economic official, announced the target on Sunday in a report on government plans to the ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress.

“We should give priority to the recovery and expansion of consumption,” Li said in a speech on government plans before the ceremonial National People’s Congress in the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said earlier that this year’s official priority is an economic revival based on consumer spending after growth sank to 3% last year, its second-lowest level since at least the 1970s.