F/a Sick List

[av8trxx]

... on top of that all 7 of the flight attendants had to split 2 salads on one leg because the agents would not let us get food. so we went with a 14 hour duty day with only a part of a salad. yet the cockpit ate almost every leg.

[post="230247"][/post]​

That is just unacceptable. That's when your Capt has to take a stand and call "CREW MEAL BREAK!" The crew can't function starving & with low blood sugar. What if there were a real emergency?! If the pilots were unaware, then you need to tell them you need one. The fact they ate all day, without even offering to get you guys something is appaling. Do not accept this. The agents have no control over whether you get food. Take the delay and get a CREW MEAL. Period. Let AMR deal with that as a result of their poor planning. Call your inflight supervisor and tell them you were faint from low blood sugar and are taking a crew meal break for 15 minutes because you have not eaten in 7 hours. It's a safety of flight issue in the FM1. Do what you have to do and be damn sure your pilots are in the know and back you up. I have taken a few delays for crew meals on six leg days. It happens. Just do what you need to do and eat.

 

[Winglet]

Ditto. You are violating FAA regulations if you fly when you are sick from lack of food. You cannot be expected to make snap judgements in an emergency unless you have proper nutrition. This is NOT YOUR problem. It's the company's problem. I'd call the supervisor and tell them you're either given time to get something to eat, or you cannot continue the sequence due to safety concerns. And BTW, your Captain should initiate it.

 

[AAStew]

I flew 42 hours aloft in 5 days recerve this past week. On the 5th day we hit severe turbulance and 4 of us got knocked over by carts and slammed into the galley wall. I am up to 77 hous reserve flying with 5 good days left to go. I have been to see the dr, I have a slightly sprained ankle. and a very bruised hip, and my right arm is bruised up also. I have filed an IOD report but have not called in yet. I will wait it out and see what crap they are going to pull on me this week before I decide whether to sit at home or not. If I feel better I will even Option II for my choice of trips, but if they do not honor my request, as I am highest on the reserve flying, I will make use of my IOD status. I am waiting for my supervisor to call me and give me hell for getting injured!

 

[AAStew]

That is just unacceptable. That's when your Capt has to take a stand and call "CREW MEAL BREAK!" The crew can't function starving & with low blood sugar. What if there were a real emergency?! If the pilots were unaware, then you need to tell them you need one. The fact they ate all day, without even offering to get you guys something is appaling. Do not accept this. The agents have no control over whether you get food. Take the delay and get a CREW MEAL. Period. Let AMR deal with that as a result of their poor planning. Call your inflight supervisor and tell them you were faint from low blood sugar and are taking a crew meal break for 15 minutes because you have not eaten in 7 hours. It's a safety of flight issue in the FM1. Do what you have to do and be damn sure your pilots are in the know and back you up. I have taken a few delays for crew meals on six leg days. It happens. Just do what you need to do and eat.

[post="231462"][/post]​

The majority of our Captains don't give a rat's Ass about us. As long as their stomach is full, life is good! I experienced the same BS with the freakin' Airbus this week. We did not have one of the 11 flights I flew operate as scheduled due to aircraft malfunctions and one day they did not fuel enough so we diverted during crappy weather!

 

[Mach85ER]

The majority of our Captains don't give a rat's Ass about us. As long as their stomach is full, life is good!

[post="231504"][/post]​

AAStew,

Just an observation from the cockpit side of things. First, you guys voted to give up meals, deal with it. Our schedules generally don't match up, most of the time we get a whole new cabin crew each leg, and don't have a clue what your day was like. When we usually meet, it's less than 40 minutes before departure and we are generally wrapped up with flight planning/preflight/sec briefs to question another group if they're hungry like a bunch of kids on a preschool field trip 😉
The way to address the problem is have the #1 FA assess the food situation well before departure and brief your onboard supervisor, the Captain and the second in command, the First Officer. You're still going to have a few Captains that care less, but the majority will catch on real quick that you've dropped a real liability problem in their laps, and is now legally responsible if a few pax airdrop onto the ramp through a door left unarmed by a low blood sugar FA. Same goes for the FO's, they're liable too.
I'm on your side, at departure time I've had the pleasure of telling agents that our flight will depart after the crew meals get onboard and not before.

Merry Xmas

 

[AAStew]

Mach83er,
I am talking aebout off schedule operations. I am more than aware that WE gave up our meals. This week though, our cockpit was not scheduled for meals on one of our legs and they sure made time to order crew meals for themselves, while we were being hustled by the agents to hurry things up.
I will keep in mind the liability issue, but then again if they order meals for us and we take an additional delay, we will be called in for causing the entire delay, since it is so much easier to blame the f/a's/
If you read my post up above speaking about Captasins and THEIR responsibilities, the SEVERE TURBULANCE was not called in by our captain. Therefore any F/A who called in on her IOD will NOT get paid! Even though we each asked him personally to please call it in. I am sorry, I still have to say the MAJORITY oif you don't give a crap what happens to us in the back even if that majority is 51%.
You may not be one of those si I wish you well.
Merry Christmas.

 

[Mach85ER]

Mach83er,
If you read my post up above speaking about Captasins and THEIR responsibilities, the SEVERE TURBULANCE was not called in by our captain. Therefore any F/A who called in on her IOD will NOT get paid!

[post="231532"][/post]​

AAStew,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a FA contract or AA company issue of whether or not an FA gets paid for an IOD due to turbulence?

The problem is that FA's can get injured in the back in turbulence that is classified as moderate and what that is goes way beyond our AA contracts and benefits in affecting every other airplane around and involving the FAR's. Although it has happened only a few times in my pilot career at AA, every time it has occurred with turb that was only moderate. The FA's may think "so what?", just log it as severe so they get paid. The big problem is that there is a big difference between moderate and severe even though the FA's can get hurt with both of them. With a "moderate" report, we call ATC and change altitudes to try to get out of it. As soon as "severe" is reported, immediate company calls have to be made, a report to ATC may result in hundreds of aircraft deviating around the reported area (you can't fly into a reported to be "severe"), a logbook entry done, and a lengthy maintenance inspection after arrival, maybe even a Flt data recorder download. By applying the "severe" defintion to anytime a FA gets injured, you can have 3 FA's hurt over NY,PA and WV and literally have to shut down airline travel for hours. See the picture?

It doesn't matter how nice or persuasive is when FA's "personally" ask a Captain to code something as "severe" turbulence. Solving the problem as an APFA/AA benefits issue is a far easier thing to than change the result of 70 years of FAR regs. I'm with you guys on this, (a turb IOD should be treated the same no matter what), but please understand what we our dealing with behind the front door.

Cheers

 

[NAPAUS]

AAStew,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a FA contract or AA company issue of whether or not an FA gets paid for an IOD due to turbulence?

The problem is that FA's can get injured in the back in turbulence that is classified as moderate and what that is goes way beyond our AA contracts and benefits in affecting every other airplane around and involving the FAR's. Although it has happened only a few times in my pilot career at AA, every time it has occurred with turb that was only moderate. The FA's may think "so what?", just log it as severe so they get paid. The big problem is that there is a big difference between moderate and severe even though the FA's can get hurt with both of them. With a "moderate" report, we call ATC and change altitudes to try to get out of it. As soon as "severe" is reported, immediate company calls have to be made, a report to ATC may result in hundreds of aircraft deviating around the reported area (you can't fly into a reported to be "severe"), a logbook entry done, and a lengthy maintenance inspection after arrival, maybe even a Flt data recorder download. By applying the "severe" defintion to anytime a FA gets injured, you can have 3 FA's hurt over NY,PA and WV and literally have to shut down airline travel for hours. See the picture?

It doesn't matter how nice or persuasive is when FA's "personally" ask a Captain to code something as "severe" turbulence. Solving the problem as an APFA/AA benefits issue is a far easier thing to than change the result of 70 years of FAR regs. I'm with you guys on this, (a turb IOD should be treated the same no matter what), but please understand what we our dealing with behind the front door.

Cheers

[post="231882"][/post]​

:down: :down: :down: blah Blah Blah!!! U missed the whole point. U dont REALLY care if a f/a gets injuired do U? U and the f/o are strapped in and the f/as are holding on, many cases stuck in the asile with a heavy cart..yes in moderate turbulence-how often does the cockpit EVER notify the f/as its getting rough. come on now..have some empathy for gods sake....Sorry to say buddy, BUT TYPICAL PILOT RESPONSE!!!!

 

[Garfield1966]

How is flying more flights and earning MORE MONEY being punished?Did you not become F/A's because you wanted to travel?Look at the positive,the F/A's that call in sick give the remaining F/A's more travel and the chance to earn more money at Christmas time.[can you say Christmas bonus?]

[post="230094"][/post]​

I'll be sure to tell that to the FA I reassign who had a 2 day turn into a 4 day over his days off. I'll let him know next time I speak with him that he should feel fortunate to have the honor of flying extra time that someone else did not feel like flying. I'm sure he will be happy to know that he was angry for no good reason.

 

[Garfield1966]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
operations,
"GIVE US A FRIGGIN" BREAK, WILL YA".

Every year at this time you march out that OLD tired BULL#### sing song sarcastic rhetoric against F/a's using a COMPANY agreed upon benifit (with APFA), sick time..
When you get your medical degree, then you can start giving MANDATORY physicals to F/A's that use their sick time. "Oh forgive me, I forgot that NO ONE can mandatorily examine a F/a if they produce a valid DR's note for an absense. ("something about ORGANIZED labor") !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND,

As far as a F/A who gets assigned another trip, before being allowed to go home to get clean undies, well should THEY take ILL, simply refuse the trip, because of sickness, and immediately head for their doctor, so they can get an unfit -to-fly note, due to being sick !! (Which by the way, AA indirectly pays for the DR. note)

When will you EVER learn that that "TEXAS, MORALITY, Holy-er-than -thou" attitude WILL NOT FLY !!!

To put it mildly, if a F/A CAREFULLY use's her/his sick time wisely, avoiding AA's half a$$ "abuse of sick time traps", then their sicktime becomes an unofficial PERK.

Do you think PERKS are unfair ? Might YOU like to taste a PERK or two ??

THAN VOTE IN A UNION !!!!!!!!!!!

Remember that old AMEX commercial, "Membership HAS it's privilages", well the same goes for the high seniority F/A's flyin' large INTL "iron"
"SENIORITY HAS IT'S PRIVILEGES" !!!

NH/BB's

ps,
AA medical should have seen to it, that it had amply flu-shots available for all customer contact employees !!!!!!!!!!!!!

MERRY (cough) Christmas !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[post="230163"][/post]​

Oh please. Sick time is there for you to use when you are sick. Not when you just want tome off because you do not feel like working. When I signed on I was fully aware that we were open everyday of the year. If I wanted weekend and holidays of, I would have gone for a desk job.

For those of you who got reassigned, you can thank the people with Bears mentality and work ethic for your added work.

I have been with AA for close to 20 years and this is the first time I will have new years off. It's is what I sign up for and I am not bitching. If I am sick, I will call in sick, that's what it's there for.

Don't think you are hurting us. The bottom line will be modestly affected (as of yet there have been only a few cancellations). We manage to get the flights out s the revenue is still there. I get the feeling most passengers know what to expect during the holidays. Management does not know what goes on since crew skd is very good at what we do and we get it covered. The only people I can think of that it effects is your co workers who have their holidays screwed up, and have to work that much harder to cover their lazy, selfish coworkers.

Yea, we have to work a little harder during our 8 hour days but guess what, we go home after 8 hours.

 

[Mach85ER]

blah Blah Blah!!! U missed the whole point. U dont REALLY care if a f/a gets injuired do U?

[post="231912"][/post]​

Actually, even as an FO I care about my fellow co-workers getting hurt

U and the f/o are strapped in and the f/as are holding on, many cases stuck in the asile with a heavy cart..yes in moderate turbulence-how often does the cockpit EVER notify the f/as its getting rough.

[post="231912"][/post]​

Actually, if there is any visible sign such as thunderstorms or reports from ATC, I've always warned the FA's to sit down. It's also become a part of our recurrent training to get our FA's strapped in to prevent injuries. We aren't clairvoyant, so many times we're just as suprised as you are when most bumps hit

come on now..have some empathy for gods sake....Sorry to say buddy, BUT TYPICAL PILOT RESPONSE!!!!

[post="231912"][/post]​

Sorry, I have the empathy, but group hugs while sharing a pot of comfort tea won't change the fact that the main issue is a corporate/union/benefits problem and "pencil whipped" logbook write ups along with inaccurate pilot reports can affect many other planes than the plane involved.

Merry Xmas

 

[Garfield1966]

....

 

[Bob Owens]

Going 14 hrs with a little bit of salad is "patently unreasonable".

But if you allow it to happen then you deserve what you get.

If I were in your place (I'm not a flight attendant, I'm a mechanic) I would have informed the Captain what was going on. It has been my experience that most Captains take the fact that they are responsible for the well being of all those they carry seriously. More than likely, despite what some say, he would have responded positively. If not then tell him that you and the other flight attendants had to eat, and simply go and do it at the most expediant pace you could. Choose the closet source of acceptable food that can provide you the quickest service, eat it and return right away to your post. If they get a delay, so what? As long as you make every effort to minimize the delay, short of exposing yourself to harm, then you have acted reasonably. Do you think the flight would leave for a 14 hour trip without a meal for the passengers and cockpit crew?

Could you imagine what this would sound like in arbitration? That the company was requiring you to work 14 hours without a meal!
Okay maybe they dont have to provide you with a meal but if you're on a 5 day trip, what are you supposed to do pack your carry on with groceries? Even if you could, would it be an adequate diet?

 

[AAStew]

We DID inform the Captain, he knew very well what was going on.In fact we diverted that day because of the weather.
Mach88 I still stand by my thoughts, but I will elaborate, only those of you whjo are married to or screwing a flight attendant are sympathetic to us in the back.
This is why there is so much Unity in our workplace, boy what great company culture.
Happy New Year

 

[FA Mikey]

You would think people trained to handle any type of emergency from hijacking to heart attract from fire and smoke to ditching in the water. They would have more sense, then they seem to.

What f/a is not smart enough to stop on a connection and get something to eat? What f/a who knows there is no food for them on board is not smart enough to carry something's in there bag? Even if it is snack chips soup or candy bars. There is no excuse for f/as to be in such a situation that they are hungry and have nothing to eat.

I bring food I make and freeze for the first day of a trip. I have a stash of candy bars just in case in my luggage. A couple small cans of soup, and a can of chips. If on a connection short or long, I stop and get food to go. You can get a sandwich on the run and not be more than a few steps behind the rest of the crew.

I have no sympathy for the people who whine about not eating. You are an adult act like one and be prepared.