2000 Flight Attendants Call In Sick

B737NG

Member
Nov 30, 2002
51
1
ORD
Hi all..

I spoke to a flight attendant today at ORD... She was going to MCI...

According to her 2,000 Flight Attendants called in sick on Xmas Eve...

Is this true?

Merry Christmas to everyone... and God Bless...
 
CORRECTION

Today (24Dec) it's in the 1900 range.

I know, I know....1900....2000 what's the difference. :blink:

---------------------------------------------------------------

They did not all call in sick on xmas eve, but yes, at present there are over 2000 fa's on the sick list.
 
Too bad so many are sick causing the healthy flight attendants that were scheduled to get off today or tomorrow to be reassigned to cover the flights. :( Hope they brought enough clean underwear and food for a 5-6 day trip.
 
When will American Airlines learn respect will win over money and intiimidation? Merry Christmas All! (Not on Sick list)
 
Rembember when the company was giving away Ford Explorers for perfect attendance over the holidays? It didn't help the sick numbers any.
 
AAStew said:
When will American Airlines learn respect will win over money and intiimidation? Merry Christmas All! (Not on Sick list)
[post="231369"][/post]​


What kind of respect do you want? Sick lists have been through the roof for as long as I’ve been in Crew Skd. Hell, AA was handing out profit sharing and the sick list was through the roof.

People want to be off for the holidays so they call in sick. It’s selfish. Plain and simple. This has nothing to do with respect. This has everything to do with lack of respect for the folks who do show up and pick up the slack for the selfish, self centered idiot who think their life is more important than someone else’s. When people got hired to AA they asked if you were willing to work holidays, weekends and overtime. That did not just apply during probation. By the way, when AA said we were open 365 days, they did mean “in a rowâ€￾. That includes, X-mass, New years, your birthday, your kids birthday, graduation, briss, baptism, confirmation and every day that ends in the letter “Yâ€￾.

If you are fortunate to hold what ever day you need off, good for you and go enjoy your self. If not, hey, guess what? Get your ass to work.
 
If rumor is to be believed, there is another reason why the sick list is so high right now.

The APFA hotline said that about half the total sick list was from International which is less than half the total f/a corps--IMA and JFK most affected bases with LAXI and another base to be critical tomorrow.

This suggests to me that the rumor might be true of large numbers of senior f/as burning sick leave in preparation for retirement in the first quarter of 2005. Maybe the company should have thought twice about deciding not to credit f/as for accrued sick leave when they retire. There is no longer any incentive to keep sick leave if you know you are going to retire soon.

Just a thought.
 
It sounds easy that people should just be able to burn through the sick list. I have learned that if you are out on the sick list for a substantial period of time then you have to substantiate that time away from work. You can be fired for not substantiating your absence
 
What you need to do is compare the sick list at SWA or JB with those at the "financially troubled" airlines.

Being beaten down by management saps the resolve of many good workers. People who would normally have the motivation pride to suck it up and work on Christmas have had that motivation drained by contract cuts and years of contract abuse by management.

This year, Wall St. gave out an estimated $12 BILLION in bonuses. They didn't take a pay cut or have their working conditions degraded. They didn't work Christmas.

Calling in sick is the only way a unionized employee can recoup a minute part of what has been taken/given back to the company to compensate for management's inability to find a way to compete.

JMO.TC
 
If this were the first year that this happened I might say that you have a valid point, but it is not the first year.

The sick list has gone through the roof for the last 6 winters I have been with Crew Skd. It was high when profits were being made, high when raises were being given out. This has little if anything to do with moral or any other such “loftâ€￾ idea. It has to do with an entitlement mentality and a way to get a day off. No one cares about the long term effect. No one cares about the burden they are placing on their fellow employees who do show up for work. No one has come up with a way to solve the problems of the industry. Nah, they would just rather b!tch and moan. A lot of good that does. If you don’t like the job, or the conditions then fine a new vocation. If you are going to collect a pay check (regardless of size) then shut up and do the job you are being paid to do. No one has a gun to your head.

What the he!! does wall streets work schedule have to do with what we do? They are a 9-5 weekends and holidays off. We are in a service industry, we fly every day of the year (or did you miss that part of your training class?). If you want holidays and weekends off, get a desk job. I’m sure they were not too happy when they lost their shirt several years back. As I recall a few even committed suicide.
 
Garfield1966 said:
If this were the first year that this happened I might say that you have a valid point, but it is not the first year.

The sick list has gone through the roof for the last 6 winters I have been with Crew Skd. It was high when profits were being made, high when raises were being given out. This has little if anything to do with moral or any other such “loft” idea. It has to do with an entitlement mentality and a way to get a day off. No one cares about the long term effect. No one cares about the burden they are placing on their fellow employees who do show up for work. No one has come up with a way to solve the problems of the industry. Nah, they would just rather b!tch and moan. A lot of good that does. If you don’t like the job, or the conditions then fine a new vocation. If you are going to collect a pay check (regardless of size) then shut up and do the job you are being paid to do. No one has a gun to your head.

What the he!! does wall streets work schedule have to do with what we do? They are a 9-5 weekends and holidays off. We are in a service industry, we fly every day of the year (or did you miss that part of your training class?). If you want holidays and weekends off, get a desk job. I’m sure they were not too happy when they lost their shirt several years back. As I recall a few even committed suicide.
[post="232300"][/post]​
garfield, just wanted to wish you Happy Holidays. I was a TWA FA for 23 years and am now a crew scheduler at another airline. I don't have much to add to this post ( I actually do, but it would take days......), but I think you nailed it with the use of the word "entitlement". Anyway, thanks for putting up with us and I hope I get to call you at work someday soon. Mike
 
Actually, an aweful lot of people on Wall Street work well beyond 9-5 because that is what it takes to get ahead in that job.

I have heard of sick leave problems in the airline industry for years - well before massive cuts began to employee salaries and benefits. Nonetheless, one does have to wonder why management at several airlines make these changes at the end of the year when the effect is compounded. As I posted on the US site regarding their sick problem, AA management does have to assume a certain amount of responsibility for making such drastic changes at a time when the employees can so harm the company and when so many employees want to be off.

What is equally amazing is that AA has managed to run the airline in the midst of these kinds of sick numbers. Are some people just working themselves to the bone in order to keep the airline running?
 
WorldTraveler said:
Actually, an aweful lot of people on Wall Street work well beyond 9-5 because that is what it takes to get ahead in that job.

[post="232378"][/post]​

And the average bonus on Wall Street was $100,000.


You get what you pay for, the airlines have been getting a bargain for years.

Even the slaves had off on Christmas.

They should be glad that anyone showed up at all. Why should they sacrifice special times in their lives to an entity that for all intensive purposes is telling all their workers that there is no future in this industry if they want to be well paid? An entity that expects them to work more and more, give up all, while they pay less and less?
 
Actually 1,900 out of something like 19,000 (I don't know the real number) is not that far out of line. When you consider most people don't call themselves in well until the day before their next trip, the number of trips missed may well be much less than 10%. While that is too high on an ongoing basis, with the pressure of the holidays, it is not as bad as it originally sounds. Some of these people may actually be sick!
 

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