AA Still Short Flight Attendants....

[kirkpatrick]

Whether or not AA is short flight attendants cannot be proved by the size of the sick list. The flight attendant group as a whole has already proven that when they choose not to work (holidays, weekends, birthdays, upcoming vacation, returning from vacation .. etc) they call in sick.

We all know that when the sick list goes up on holidays it's because SOME people call off sick when they're not. But to single out AA FA's as somehow different from other groups in this regard is ridiculous. It's a phenomenon that occurs in virtually every industry.

All the company can do is play "tough guy" and harass people, especially going after the heavy off duty people. This works to a certain extent, as there are those who don't want to be hassled and will go to work more often to prevent it, but in the end it's up to the company to recognize this fact and plan for it.

The fact of the matter is, people are pi$$ed off and this is how they're showing it. If the company had any brains at all, they would have said, let's see, we'll save $340 million by massive pay cuts and massive work rule changes, but then we'll lose 20 million of that because people will be mad and the sick list will increase. In the end we'll end up ahead. But nooooo, AA management doesn't have the foresight.

I'm not trying to justify any of this, but if I feel just a little bit out of sorts and I'm facing a 14 hour day followed by a short layover I'm more likely to just call off than if I faced an easier day with a more reasonable rest. The company needs to get a grip and recall some people if they want to run an airline. High sick use is here to stay, at least as long as morale is the way it is. Maybe proper staffing would alleviate the situation a bit and have a small effect on the number of sick calls.

MK

 

[galleyguy4u2]

All I can say as a TWA f/a is that we tried to tell you so. We knew what your working conditions would be like. We knew your 8hrs rest would not be behind the door. We offered the APFA advice. But who were we?? What WE had even under the most adverse conditions with the company, were work rules that FAR exceeded your present working environment. APFA is not a UNION and J.W. and the rest of the the thieves should be ashamed. We did warn you before the vote and I have copies of posts of people who voted yes and now are BITCHING and MOANING.

Now for all you SUE APFA people who have sent me e-mails and my fellow f/a's, I will tell you this. There is NO WAY that any of us will lend you support in this effort. None of you wanted us to begin with. We are fighting our own battle. Most of you dug your ditch and you will have to lay in it. Please do not expect us to help your cause or ask for money from us.

While you have your lousy RA and no rest and #### and moan, we at TWA are enjoying our nights in bed eating our own meals at home <for a change> and going on with life. Not to mention that we are taking care of our own people who need us. OUR culture is much different than yours. Even through adversity we still care about one another.

If I never work another day in my life as a f/a at AA. I truly hope that your pathetic union is busted. Your days as an independant union are about over. You have no clout with other unions.

 

[Garfield1966]

We all know that when the sick list goes up on holidays it's because SOME people call off sick when they're not.

Maybe proper staffing would alleviate the situation a bit and have a small effect on the number of sick calls.

Some would be oh, 5% or 10%. Every major holiday like clock work 50%. I did not mean to single out the FA's. It is every major work group that has job protection. In AA's case it is the unions. Low level management (like my self), agents (like I used to be) clerical and the like do not have the “luxury†of calling in sick “cough cough†when they don’t feel like going to work. If I called in sick half as many times as do a substantial amount of FA’s that I see I would be out on my butt so fast I would not have time to open the door on the way out. The same goes for the pilots and according to a ramp friend of mine the same goes for them as well.

If having proper staffing as you say would have little effect on the sick list why should we bother? As far as I am concerned your statement is an admission that it is not staffing related. Your pissed at the minimum lay over. Surprise, I agree with you that it sucks. Go talk to your representative, your senator and your president. They are the ones who say it is ok. AA is just tightening the belt. My mom always said complaining to the food server about the crappy food is not going to get you anything. Talk to the cook!

The Union, it seems to me, gave you up (as any union probably would since they want to protect their pockets not your a$$). I see so much waste that could have been given up but it would have cost the jobs of a lot more FA’s because we would not need the staffing numbers we have now. Probably would have be smaller pay cuts and the lay overs may not have had to be cut. Union does not want that because they loose revenue. I will never understand why people want unions. They have a huge conflict of interest. There are some many FA’s who only have qual’s on 1or 2 aircrafts. That’s insane. You work in ORD. You need to be qual’ed on every A/C in that base. No you probably don’t like that idea because we would not need a big chunk of you to work for AA. They would probably down size my dept then as well. Such is life. That’s just one example. We can easily cover all the flights with far fewer FA’s

By the way Kirkpatrick, before all this happened, when we were getting profit sharing checks. What was the reason for calling in sick then? Why on X-mass of 1999 did the sick list hit over 2000? Bitter then too? Lol That dog won’t hunt either.

 

[operaations]

Those posts by garfield are well put. I can not believe not one flight attendant out there can at least admit that if the sick list drops that would add flight attendants to the line wich would mean less re assigning. It is simple math. And when and if the sick list ever drops and we still can not cover trips...Than I will agree and say lets us call some flight attendants back. Hopefully we will be able to look at their past sick records and call the good ones back. But until then I only see what is staring at me....a growing sick list and more and more flight attendants being re assigned. Seems to me like the more and more you try to screw the company you end up screwing your own co worker.

And something my mom always said....with freinds like that who needs enemies

 

[Fly]

I can not believe not one flight attendant out there can at least admit that if the sick list drops that would add flight attendants to the line wich would mean less re assigning.

And I can not believe not one person in management sees the correlation between working 14 hour days with 8 hours (not behind doors) rest, day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day and not getting sick. Geez, where did you people go to school? :blink:

If the trips were built right, people wouldn't get sick. If people don't get sick, sick list goes down. It's pretty simple stuff.

 

[FA Mikey]

I can not believe not one flight attendant out there can at least admit that if the sick list drops that would add flight attendants to the line wich would mean less re assigning. It is simple math.

The simple math? there is no such thing here. I have seen AA spend dollars to save pennies. When you point out the obvious they either lie straight to your face. or tell you, your not seeing the big picture. Show them something isn't working. They tell you there is a policy and procedure all ready in place. Never taking note that a report of a problem continuing shows the policy or procedure is not working or being done. No I do not believe that if the sick list was lower we would see the return of people from furlough. AA has a corporate culture that will continue down the wrong path, just to try to prove the point they didn't screw up and cut to deep. That the schedules are wrecking havoc on lives and the running the airline its self.

 

[FA Mikey]

Hopefully we will be able to look at their past sick records and call the good ones back.

Of course yopu know that is not the case. Everyone will be called back in seniority order.

 

[FA Mikey]

They wonder why we go sick. I had a flight the other day, we were forced to take a kid with CONJUNCTIVITIS (Pink Eye). Highly contagious and easy to spread. Cant work if you have it. The anwser from CCRO was, well if you get it, It will be a IOD. Yea AA really cares about the sick list and my health.

 

[AC AA LA FA]

AA cares about numbers only...your health...well being..pax well being mean nothing when brought up to the bottom line..In this cash crunch..AA cant see beyond its nose, so the situation is magnified...

Its mgmts job to manage..it seems they are failing and can only blame themselves..
given the circumstances..kudos to F/As working the line right now...Our DOT customer complaints were 2nd of the big 10 ..just behind Delta..
this shows our profesionalism and integerity as a group that has the most customer contact..true profesionals with compasion..

 

[kirkpatrick]

By the way Kirkpatrick, before all this happened, when we were getting profit sharing checks. What was the reason for calling in sick then? Why on X-mass of 1999 did the sick list hit over 2000? Bitter then too? Lol That dog won’t hunt either.

I was at TWA in 1999 so I can't speak for that. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say a couple of years without a new contract might have something to do with attitude and morale.

Let's face it. Sick leave goes up on holidays. Live with it, and plan staffing around it. Calling off sick is an individual action, and only the individual can "do" anything about it. This is not a union orchestrated sickout, so let's stop yelling at flight attendants as a group.

MK

 

[s80dude]

People were also freaked out about Y2K. Remember they gave two 300.00 bonuses if we flew the last few hours of 99, first few hours of 2000. It didn't alleviate the sick calls though

 

[jimntx]

They wonder why we go sick. I had a flight the other day, we were forced to take a kid with CONJUNCTIVITIS (Pink Eye). Highly contagious and easy to spread. Cant work if you have it. The anwser from CCRO was, well if you get it, It will be a IOD. Yea AA really cares about the sick list and my health.

Last Spring during the midst of the SARS epidemic, we were forced to accept a passenger on an LAX-DFW flight who was running a fever of 104! Did I mention that said passenger was connecting from a flight from Hong Kong?!!! The gate supervisor's position was that since she was a f/c passenger and since passenger SAID that she felt well enough to travel, she would be boarded. Passenger coughed, hacked, and barfed all the way to DFW. I was really, really grateful that I was #2 on S80 and could stay in the back.

Only someone who has never done the job of f/a sees the logic behind deciding IN ADVANCE what is an acceptable number of sick calls during a 12 month period for an employee who spends every working day shut up in aluminum tubes with every sick person in North America!

The AMR management war cry...MY MIND IS MADE UP. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CONFUSE ME WITH FACTS!

 

[extwacaptain]

People were also freaked out about Y2K. Remember they gave two 300.00 bonuses if we flew the last few hours of 99, first few hours of 2000. It didn't alleviate the sick calls though

You really are kidding about those bonuses for flying during the Y2K, aren’t you? I do not remember hearing about our TWA F/As receiving a similar offer for flying during such a “frightfulâ€￾ period of time.

Did the mechanics and agents also receive a bonus for working during those same hours? Certainly, whatever great “fear of the unknownâ€￾ existed, not just on board airplanes. Did management give each other another bonus for flying their desks during that same period? Who knows, maybe their elevators might have gone “crazyâ€￾ on the way to the cafeteria.

Maybe the passengers should have gotten the 300 bucks.
Maybe no one should have gotten a penny extra for merely doing his or her job.

Or, even better, maybe every one of those bonus dollars would have been better spent in providing your fellow F/As with a little furlough pay.


Randy Kramer

 

[meechy36]

You really are kidding about those bonuses for flying during the Y2K, aren’t you? I do not remember hearing about our TWA F/As receiving a similar offer for flying during such a “frightfulâ€￾ period of time.

Did the mechanics and agents also receive a bonus for working during those same hours? Certainly, whatever great “fear of the unknownâ€￾ existed, not just on board airplanes. Did management give each other another bonus for flying their desks during that same period? Who knows, maybe their elevators might have gone “crazyâ€￾ on the way to the cafeteria.

Maybe the passengers should have gotten the 300 bucks.
Maybe no one should have gotten a penny extra for merely doing his or her job.

Or, even better, maybe every one of those bonus dollars would have been better spent in providing your fellow F/As with a little furlough pay.


Randy Kramer

Yes, it was a fact that AMR did pay us to fly on New Years Eve and Day. I got in from Paris on 12/31 at 1940 so didn't qualify for it and went to London at 1900 01/01 so didn't qualify again. You know what, I couldn't have cared less, I wasn't freaked out about Y2. The last day of the century was beautiful in Paris, the clock on the Eiffel Tower was counting down and the city was buzzing getting ready for that night. I was in good health so why should I call in sick.

As for the TWA flight attendants getting bonuses, you'd have to ask them. None of you were a part of AMR at that point and was up to TWA to pay whatever they could afford. Remember in 99 we were making Billion dollar profits, that's with a B, what was TWA pulling in then? <_< I don't know about the other workgroups with the exception of the pilots who DID receive the bonuses. I am sure the last thing on AMR and APFA's mind at the end of 1999 was TWA and the rock around our neck they would become. If only we had a crystal ball to tell us what the events of 2001 would bring, do you really think AMR would have purchased TWA the way they did or perhaps just the pieces of the carcass that were left on Sept 12, 2001?

Now, fast forward to 2003. The trips are constructed so poorly that people ARE getting sick just by trying to fly their schedule. After a couple trips of the LA turns, I have the runs no matter what I eat, I went to the doctor anafter listening to my job description thinks that it is because my body clock can't right itself. I got an intermittent family leave that allows me to call in sick twice a month for the next 6 months. Before I would suck it up, go to the hotel and sleep it off, now, I just call in sick. 3 trips a month is my max. I still have plenty of sick time to burn through and am going to because that is what the company wanted me to do, get a family leave. I don't know if every work group or just the flight attendants get this, but when we call in sick, we get a letter in our mailbox urging us to get a family leave if we think that this illness will be covered by one. It is the biggest scam AA is using now. I know at least 40% of the reserve list in my base is on one type or another of family leave, so how do you think that is going to play out come December?

What surprises me about AMR is how out of touch with reality they are, did they really think most people were going to be loyal to this company, I have only flown with one Pollyanna who thinks the company is doing a good job. I don't care about this company one way or another, it is nothing but a paycheck to me until my sick time is gone and then so am I. To me that is my severance pay.

I do feel bad for crew scheduling because they are the ones that have to pick up after managements mess. However, I won't make excuses for my workgroup. Let Lauri whatever and the head of crew planning go out and cover the trips that are open because of sick calls. It's like the end of an abusive relationship, you reach a point where you say, enough is enough, I am mad and I'm not going to take it anymore. When people are having anxiety attacks at the mere thought of going to work, there is something wrong in the scheme of things. The way this company is heading I will be surprised if there is an AMR in a few years, no one seems to care and that isn't the way to right a listing ship.

Mike-BOS

 

[AC AA LA FA]

With AA pushing the family leave thing so hard.....there must be some incentive to the company to have abs. coded this way...Anybody know if there are kick backs/credits to a company w/ employees..or a certian % of employees taking FAMLV for time off??