It's Going To Be A Bumpy Ride

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Flyboy4u

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Oct 6, 2002
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TROUBLE IS BREWING AT AMERICAN AIRLINES
Sanders Leiberman September 25, 2003


American Airlines made history several months ago by signing large concession packages with all of its unionized work groups. The effort was a life raft in rough waters that the industry has been facing since 9/11/01.

These concessions saved American $1.8 billion in annual labor costs. However, red ink may be flowing fiercely if the flight attendants get their way.

I interviewed several flight attendants who claim that American has been abusing them even after their group finally agreed to the concession proposal. The flight attendants were the only group to hold out to the bitter end in the cost savings proposals. But now they feel that it was all a hoax. American used a bad situation and took advantage of the overall ailing industry by threatening bankruptcy.

The pilots had the most to lose in a bankruptcy court. They each retire with a $1 million pension fund. In bankruptcy, that perk could have been stripped as we saw with the US Airways pilots. As one flight attendant stated, "They (pilots) were like puddy in AMR's hands. They were not going to give up that hefty amount, and, as usual, could really care less what the flight attendants lost."

With American pushing for more productivity, they have "re-tooled" trip selections for the flight attendants, which now have them working record-breaking multi-flight trips each day, with usually up to 14 hours on duty per day. In addition, within such 14 hour duty-days, there is usually no time for flight attendants to grab even a fast-food burger in an airport terminal here or there. American does not supply a meal or snack in-flight for the flight attendants, while pilots are still catered with full-course meals during the course of their work days (per their union contract.) A young male flight attendant I spoke with said, "We usually hope there is just an extra bag of pretzels left over after a beverage service. And that truly is the maximum, since pretzels and beverages are all we serve passengers these days! It's pathetic! I used to be proud to fly for American Airlines, now I'm just embarrased." In the concession packages, their on-duty time was increased. And layovers are basically gone.

With productivity increased, sick calls have also increased to critical levels with many flights departing 2, 3, and 4 flight attendants short. Creating a harder workload on the crews. The exhaustion factor is creating quite a stir, even with the FAA who say that these are legal rest breaks for airline crews. However, the FAA is investigating the safety element of the increased productivity and minimum rest. A young female flight attendant said, "They expect me to be able to evacuate an aircraft when I am nodding off on my jumpseat. It is impossible. I have never been this physically and mentally exhausted on the job in my 8 years of flying. And I swear it gets worse every day. Somedays I just want to break down and cry. This isn't what I signed up for and this is not how it used to be. A little respect from American, the union, and even the passengers could go a long way. It's just not there anymore."

The flight attendants are literally fed up with the continued pressures and lack of support from American Management. "We complain continually, but American just turns their heads.....they have never treated us with any respect in my 24 years at this company," said another, more senior, flight attendant.

With the holidays fast approaching, there is an underground movement amongst the flight attendants. "They think the sick calls are high now....just wait until Thanksgiving and Christmas arrive. We will shut this airline down." The holidays have always been a cash cow for the industry, and American cannot afford any disruption in its holiday schedule, however, at the same time, American seems to be in a somewhat state of denial about the morale of its front-line employees and is apparently making no attempt to fix it. Eastern, Pan Am Braniff... when is the lesson learned?

Nevertheless, the flight attendant movement has been set in place. "We all know what we have to do." This is not a union backed tactic, and the APFA (Association of Professional Flight Attendants) will not place any stamp of approval on the sickout.

With Thanksgiving two months away, the traveling public should book their flights cautiously. The bad blood between American and its flight attendants has been boiling for some time now. The climax is near.
 
That's a lot of talk. I am not calling in sick over the holidays. No one I have talk to yet is even considering it.
 
Have fun flying Mikey, I will be on that sick list
puke.gif
come holiday time. I have spoke to hundreds of f/a's who will be out sick and that's just at my base. AA doesn't treat us with respect, so why should we give it back to them? Work on Turkey Day, Christmas or New Years with no holiday pay? Yeah right.

It's time AA gets a little of their own medicine!!
 
wrx said:
Have fun flying Mikey, I will be on that sick list
puke.gif
come holiday time. I have spoke to hundreds of f/a's who will be out sick and that's just at my base. AA doesn't treat us with respect, so why should we give it back to them? Work on Turkey Day, Christmas or New Years with no holiday pay? Yeah right.

It's time AA gets a little of their own medicine!!
Here primarily for my safety - my ass.

I'm glad my organization isn't staffed with such childish employees.

Won't AA simply run sufficient numbers of management personnel thru a FA refresher course in the next few weeks to make sure that widespread holiday chaos does not occur? They would if I were in charge.
 
FWAAA said:
Won't AA simply run sufficient numbers of management personnel thru a FA refresher course in the next few weeks to make sure that widespread holiday chaos does not occur? They would if I were in charge.
Gee, you must be one of those supremely naive outsiders who thinks AMR would consider having been a flight attendant to be a prerequisite for supervising/managing flight attendants. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the Flight Service Managers (1st line supervisors) I've run across at AA have never been a flight attendant or they were a flight attendant at another airline at some time in the distant past. A couple that I know came from crew scheduling (a group known for their warm, familial feelings toward flight attendants) to being supervisors of flight attendants. It's the AMR way.
 
Gee, you must be one of those supremely naive outsiders who thinks AMR would consider having been a flight attendant to be a prerequisite for supervising/managing flight attendants. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the Flight Service Managers (1st line supervisors) I've run across at AA have never been a flight attendant or they were a flight attendant at another airline at some time in the distant past. A couple that I know came from crew scheduling (a group known for their warm, familial feelings toward flight attendants) to being supervisors of flight attendants. It's the AMR way.

Does the Job of a FSM require previous flight attendant expierence. Probably not the person hired only need to know how to look after a work grtoup and run reports. Not too hard.

Have fun flying Mikey, I will be on that sick list come holiday time. I have spoke to hundreds of f/a's who will be out sick and that's just at my base. AA doesn't treat us with respect, so why should we give it back to them? Work on Turkey Day, Christmas or New Years with no holiday pay? Yeah right.

It's time AA gets a little of their own medicine!!

When I read posts like this I feel sorry for the hard working flight attendants on the line. I can believe they have co workers who dis respect them so much to put them through the tough holiday season alone. And yet wrx...you are probably the first one to want the other Flight Attendants to stand by you on a picket line. But yet you let them down in a buisy time of need. WRX if you want something changed be a man or woman about it not a child, And go to court...lobby congress...get things changed. Or better yet take your ball, bottle , and blanket and sit in the corner and act like a spoiled child.
 
I agree transworld. Lets bring back some professionals. Can we compromise..half now half after the holidays. lol
 
This article is very interesting. Is it an editorial? Did an organization other than the APFA write it? Was it published anywhere?

It's obviously not an AP story or something like that. At first, I thought it was written by the APFA. However, the article encourages a sick-out but states that APFA is not organizing a sick-out (or maybe they are but won't admit it).
 
FA Mikey you're kidding right? The sick list is at 1,300 right now. I will put the mortgage for my house on the line and bet you the sick list will clear 3,000.

WRX. Holiday pay? That has been tried but did not work. You want holiday pay, become an agent. You want holidays off? Go get a desk job. I have not been off for the holidays for close to 20 years. I have not spent the holidays with my family for close to 20 years. I have never called in sick over the holidays close to 20 years. I have never, ever called in sick when I was not sick. I am operational. I have been so for close to 20 years by choice. I have done so because I like the jobs I have had, I like the flexibility they offer. I was aware when I signed up that I was going to work for an airline that flew EVRY day of the year. I was aware when I took my operational job that I might have to work grave yard shifts, weekends, nights, holidays … etc. I agreed to those rules. Did you miss that part of your job application?
 
wrx said:
Have fun flying Mikey, I will be on that sick list
puke.gif
come holiday time.
If you think that your true identity is secret, it is time to review the USAviation Rules, Policies And Etiquette For Forums

We at USaviation.com also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

Who do you think has deeper pockets to pay for legal action, American Airlines or USAviation?
 
What is so ironic is the F/As blaming AA for these woes. I sat in Federal court in Brooklyn listening to J. Ward and a APFA negotiator talk about the concessions they made. AA F/As had lots of choices but their negotiating team came up with this package when lots of different items in the contract could have been used for concessions. Then they voted Yes to accept these concessions. This is NOT an AA problem, it is an APFA problem!!!!!!!!!! As some AAers were fond of replying to TWAers, QUIT if you don't like it!
 
l10ret sorry for the earlier remarks by me...I am emotional when it comes to the company i work for and do not like the statements that the f/a make all the time.
 
Posting in advance that they are going to call in sick over the Hollidays is really foolish. It also penalizes one's peers who suffer from the lack of consideration for their peers and having to cover for thoseb childishly acting out their own mental illness. Making your peers suffer because you have a #### is the hallmark of immaturity.
 
operaations said:
[/QUOTEWhen I read posts like this I feel sorry for the hard working flight attendants on the line. I can believe they have co workers who dis respect them so much to put them through the tough holiday season alone. And yet wrx...you are probably the first one to want the other Flight Attendants to stand by you on a picket line. But yet you let them down in a buisy time of need. WRX if you want something changed be a man or woman about it not a child, And go to court...lobby congress...get things changed. Or better yet take your ball, bottle , and blanket and sit in the corner and act like a spoiled child.

operaations,

Typical comment from a crew scheduler. Are you getting stressed already? This is one of the reasons f/a's and schedulers never get along. We're doing something about it. The FAA is looking into raising the FAA min crew rest due to f/a's and pilots claiming fatigued and flying DEAD TIRED all the time. AA has never given a you know what about its employees. See the deal is AA can't do anything about if say 3,000-5,000 f/a's are on the sick list. This will not be sanctioned by the APFA, they're not dumb enough to do that. It's against the law for any company to fire you or discipline you in anyway for calling in sick for work. As a scheduler yourself, you can't even ask us what's wrong. The only thing you can ask is "when is your planned clear date?" It should be a very interesting holiday period for AA!
 
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