Inflight pilferage at American, what can be done?

AAquila

Senior
Sep 22, 2002
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In a related story ( read below ), how much do you think is lost by AMR yearly? What can be done about it, any suggestions?
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Thursday, January 16, 2003 – Page A9
Air Canada sent a team of corporate sleuths to scour garbage bins in a Paris hotel after finding the catering service on Flight 333 lacking, well, a little fizz.
Acting on a recent tip from an employee that beer and pop had gone missing from a drinks cart, the investigators entered hotel rooms occupied by Air Canada''s pilots and flight attendants, shortly after the crew checked out. The investigators searched the rooms and photographed the contents of the rubbish bins.
The airline took the action on the suspicion that an employee was stealing drinks and reselling them to a London shop, according to a source. Suspicions were aroused when drinks with labels in French as well as English were found in a British shop.
We''ve never seen them go into people''s rooms before . . . said Don Johnson, president of the Air Canada Pilots Association. Apparently, they''re taking it very seriously with the people who are involved.
Mr. Johnson said Air Canada usually confronts workers suspected of theft as they exit the aircraft. The pilots association said the search of hotel rooms is abusive.
There are no clear rules regarding an employer searching an employee''s private areas, such as lockers or hotel rooms, according to Michael Link, a professor specializing in labour law at the University of Western Ontario.
But when employers have good reason to suspect theft, they generally have some leeway to search private areas.
Fortunately or unfortunately, employees don''t have an absolute right to privacy. The kinds of rights you expect as a citizen don''t necessarily apply once you go in the office door.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents flight attendants, declined to comment on the case.
So did Air Canada. It''s an internal matter and we have no further comment on the case, spokeswoman Laura Cooke said.
But a company newsletter published in September warns workers that Air Canada was launching a program to protect the company from theft by employees.
Yves Duguay, Air Canada''s director of corporate security, says in the newsletter that Air Canada is in line with industry standards for employee theft, with as much as 9 per cent of the company''s office supplies and on-board products being taken each year by workers.
That works out to $9 per day for every employee in the company, Mr. Duguay said. And with about 38,000 workers, that amounts to $125-million a year pilfered by employees.
An employee decides to take a can of Coke, thinking, mistakenly, that it is a minor item that won''t be missed by a company the size of Air Canada, Mr. Duguay says in the newsletter.
If the can of Coke costs one dollar, not only did we lose the dollar, but if our profit margin is 10 per cent, then we must sell 10 more cans of Coke to offset the loss of one can.
If we have 1,000 cans of Coke taken each week, then we must sell 10,000 more to offset that loss.
 
I hear stories from passengers and crew, about our illustrious foreign nationals. The stories about selling ice cream sundies in coach on flights to South America. Heard stories of selling F/C table settings on the duty free carts. You haven't lived until you are walking thru a flea market in south America and see AA tableware forsale.
 
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On 1/16/2003 11:41:51 AM FA Mikey wrote:

You haven't lived until you are walking thru a flea market in south America and see AA tableware forsale.
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No need to go to SA, when you have Ebay.

At TWA, I remember hearing stories of FA's paying for meals and tipping hotel employees with in-flight liquor minis while overseas. But, I'm certain this doesn't occur at the largest airline in the world, with so many cost-conscious employees
 
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On 1/16/2003 11:35:13 AM FA Mikey wrote:

If they are paying a dollar for each can of coke. They are getting screwed. That's typical overstating by a company.
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Corporate-Speak: "If the can of Coke costs one dollar, not only did we lose the dollar, but if our profit margin is 10 per cent, then we must sell 10 more cans of Coke to offset the loss of one can."

Rough English Translation: "We charge our customers $1 for a can of Coke (although we only pay $0.50). From that $1 ~10% goes to management waste. Therefore, we must sell 10 more cans of Coke to offset the loss of that one can."
 
These are especially hard times for the Airlines, including AA, so with a single dollar profit $1.00 in 03, the bean counters at HQ would call that a profit, AMR would have a press conference lauding the profit, the media would then drop the 'financially unprofitable' prefix label for AA. Ultimately the employees win, when contracts are renegotiated. All this for the price of a soda.
 
why dont we just make it easy. Do not steal from the company, and turn in anyone you think or know that is stealing. Foriegn National Flight Attendants or APFA or anyone. If yoiu see a member of management asking for free minis tell them no. If you see anyone trying to take advantage of our kind and giving fl.ight attendants say no
 
A77IGW,
In theory, I can't/won't dispute your reasoning,
BUT,
I've got to tell ya', that you, and that movie "Pleasantville", have a lot in common.
I'm just wondering A77IGW, if in fact, have you EVER left pleasantville ????????

(Sadly), there is a REAL world out there.

NH/BB's
 
[blockquote]----------------On 1/17/2003 8:47:19 AM Winglet wrote: A perfect example of stepping on the ants while the the elephants run through the door.----------------[/blockquote]
Chasing down soda can theft, makes sense. If they fire someone for stealing a can of Pepsi, what will they do for someone who really goes for the big stuff?

I agree with the post questioning whether soda was all they were after. Customs in most countries is hell on wheels on liquor, and tobacco products etc. Anything with high duties.

If you get the fleas you may just eliminate the elephants, that was the logic that Guiliani's police chief in NYC used when he went after turnstyle jumpers and graffiti artists. It worked.
 
I guess I'll have to made sure that the snacks for the hotel room that I bring with me from home in my rollaboard are a different brand than that on the airplane . . . or we could allot another 10 minutes to have the customer service supervisor certify (in writing) that I had the stuff in my bag before I entered the airplane. The Captain wouldn't qualify becuase he's one of those thieving aircrew members too. I wouldn't want to be accused of stealing a 25 cent can of soda pop from the ship's stock. Come to think of it, I'll make sure I piss out anything I consume onboard before I leave the aircraft.
 
Hello,

I don't know what can be done about it, but I can tell you that many United crews have had a hayday stealing huge amounts of liquor off the plane, and I don't mean minis, either. Bottles of Dom Perignon, Pommery, Veuve Cliquot, Clos du Val, and second growth Bordeaux. One guy I knew did this on a habitual basis, bragged about it, and was caught after three years. The punishment? Well, since they caught him with orange juice, they placed him on probation for two years. The story goes, however, that he threatened to report those supervisors who had accepted bottles from him in the past. Personally, I would have fired him anyway. As for the Canadian crew in their hotel rooms, I wonder whether a union represents them. In the States, such an ambush without another union rep present would have been a serious violation of AFA contracts. I do not know how the U.S. pilots are protected under their contract, but I doubt whether management can do such a thing to them. Anyway, crews have been taking drinks off the plane since the advent of commercial aviation. I am not condoning it, but it is a reality. I wonder what managament takes from the company that we don't know.

Cheers,
 
So, do I gather that everyone who has spoken up finds it acceptable to take home stuff from their workplace??...

Sorry, but there's no excuse for theft. Anyone who gets caught deserves to have their as[span]s[/span] fired, even if it is a liquor mini worth less than a buck. Is it that trivial when it is a laser printer cartidge worth $50, or a ream of paper taken from the copy machine room worth $2.50?

I was told on day one of training that you don't eat food on the aircraft unless you're nonrevving and it is offered to you, and you certainly don't take it off the aircraft, even if it is offered to you by a working crew member.