Association of Flight Attendants Update

Transcript

Sara NelsonSo the association of flight attendants is interested in bringing all flight attendants together to improve the conditions at work. That means bringing in the association of professional flight attendants at American Airlines to work together with us. It means organizing flight attendants at Delta and at SkyWest, and that is so that we can build both bargaining power and political power. Because today in aviation, as our cabins have gotten smaller, the seats have shrunk, we are dealing with more passengers than ever.

We need to address issues, like flight attendant staffing. Like proper pay and rest to be able to do our jobs, and we know that we can only do that if we have a stronger voice in the industry. We've taken a lot of steps in AFA to shorten bargaining, and that has been about narrowing the priorities that we have. In our first contracts, we have set very clear parameters about how those contracts get moving to the table much sooner, so that we can talk about the issues with the airline and resolve those disputes between the airline and their employees on the front line because everyone will benefit from having that contract in place so that there's labor peace, and the airlines can really execute on their plans for the airline moving forward.

The conditions on board today we really need to think about because there are more unruly passengers worldwide. In the US, those instances have gone down a little bit. We believe that that is due to the penalties and fines that have been implemented since 2003 and the reporting on that. So people have been held accountable, and they understand that if they act out on a plane, there's going to be consequences, however, there's fewer flight attendants than ever so staffing is down at minimum levels for the regulatory requirements. We're handling more passengers than ever. What we're finding is that when we come to work, most of the time what we're doing is we're de escalating conflict, and so we need more tools to be able to do that.

We need to address things like sexual harassment and make sure that there is a no tolerance zone at our airports and on our airplanes for any sexual harassment. We need to make sure that we have a management structure that is diverse, and understands the necessity of understanding the diverse needs of the people who are traveling with us, and the workers among our ranks. We also need to improve flight attendant staffing so that we can go and resolve those issues right away. More and more airlines are understanding that they need to give the tools to flight attendants to solve problems. If there's just more of us to be able to address those issues sooner, we're going to keep people a lot happier.

This is a small cost to pay for peace on our planes and a more enjoyable experience. There is plenty of capital within the US to maintain US Airlines. There's a lot of competition in the US to provide consumers a lot of choice. More people are traveling than ever before, and a strong, robust US aviation system is important for branching out to the rest of the world. So we need to connect the vast area within the US with all the small different markets to come into those hubs where many of the international carriers can also compete directly with US carriers, and that will make for a stronger aviation system throughout the world. This is no time to change foreign ownership and control rules in the US.

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