lol, come on, is it really THAT bad?
Hula,
I believe you're on the west side, no?
If you had been on the east side:
since 9/11... half of your fleet would have been removed from the inventory.
... your once-pristine aircraft are now in shambles, both inside and out -- frayed seat covers, dirty bin doors, grafiti on tray tables, duct tape holding parts in the lavs, peeling paint, monitors removed from 737's -- the list goes on and on!
... half your co-workers are gone -- some temporarilly but sadly some forever!
... your showcase hub airport (PIT) is but a fraction of what it was -- it's vibrancy in gone... no more international flights, few transcons... empty gates, closed shops in the AirMall. Most flight attendants had their initial training in PIT, many (including myself) were hired right there in the airport inflight offices, we have fond memories of flying home after hour interviews, flying to training, meeting our IOE cadres and crew. But worst of all, with this downsizing went thousands of jobs! Crewmembers with seniority approaching 20 years are commuting to PHL, DCA, and CLT just to hold a line.
... the seniority of the most junior line-holder in most bases goes back to a 1989 hire date.
... the heart of this once-great airline, which was the darling of the industry in the mid-late '80s, has been ripped from thousands of employees, yet it was those employees who kept it beating all these years, especially the last four, so it could finally enter a triage unit and get the operation it so badly needs
... Through all of this, your once-industry-leading crewmember contracts have been ripped to shreds, not once or twice, but three times. So-called management teams have come, held guns to the employees' heads to give up more money and more work rules, only to leave the Crystal Palace with millions upon millions of dollars, usually followed by a trip to the bankruptcy court and more demands for more concessions.
So, for those of us on the east side, whether we have kept things going over the past several years or watched from the sidelines (fuloughees)... yet, it really
was that bad!
