An American Airlines 25 year veteran flight attendant who was assaulted by a passenger on a Charlotte – Las Vegas flight has been fired by the airline over the incident. As usual, the crewmember’s union has not been helpful.
There is a GoFundMe for flight attendant Tillman Robinson,
We are reaching out to support our dear friend, brother, and colleague, Tillman Robinson, a dedicated flight attendant whose job was terminated, allegedly after he defended himself against an aggressive passenger on board an aircraft. As a 26 year senority flight attendant, Tillman is facing an incredibly challenging time without a salary, putting him at risk of losing his home and struggling to care for his two elderly parents, who have serious health issues.
Tillman has always been a beloved member of our community and has maintained a spotless record throughout his career. His kindness and professionalism have touched the lives of many. The outpouring of support and concern he has received has left him feeling grateful and humbled.
The incident occurred December 31, 2023. The passenger attacked this flight attendant, was cited for assault, and completed an anger management course.
“He starts putting his finger in my face; he starts yelling expletives; then he pushes me, and then he starts taking swings,” Robinson recounted.
…“It starts with asking people to step back, move away, turn around, and walk away when they are trying to strike at you,” Robinson explained, emphasizing that he used the training provided by the airline to protect himself.
Robinson also voiced concerns about his future employment prospects, saying, “Now I’m worried about how I’m going to keep my house at 51; at 51, who’s going to hire me?”
According to American,
We take these matters incredibly seriously. After conducting a thorough internal investigation, it was determined the former team member acted in a manner inconsistent with our expectations and defined policies — prior to the altercation and throughout.
I’ve read several comments in flight attendants forums by crew that knew and worked with him that Robinson was an exemplary colleague and crewmember.
Perhaps the major takeaway here is that the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, for all its bluster, is toothless and unhelpful. Recall that the union never once complained in 2020 when American Airlines furloughed more flight attendants than any carrier in history. Even as Southwest and Delta chose not to furlough, there was no blame or aspersions at management over it. So while there’s a reputation for unions protecting substandard employees, where companies can’t get rid of them, that is.. not always the case.
There’s more to this story that we aren’t hearing…
There’s more to the story, I’m sure, but AAL is hardly a respectable company. Ditto for the union — they’re only efficient at collecting dues never defend their members.
Once again, the airline does not take the crew member’s side.
@Craig Jones may be right, in that that “There’s more to this story that we aren’t hearing”. It’s positively shocking that American Airlines would fire this exemplary employee for defending himself against the true perpetrator in this event. If in fact there isn’t more to the story, Robert Isom and the entire C-Suite need to go.
This is yet another reasons why unions matter—and help workers—so that they cannot be fired on a whim (like in at-will states without such protections). So, I don’t need to know the full story to know that I feel for this flight attendant, even if they weren’t perfect, because no one is, and I appreciate that they are getting some support, but they probably need even more help.
Given the way the world is going, I think we’re going to see much worse very soon, and it has a lot to do with leadership. The fish rots at the head.
@Craig Jones — You do often say that on here; it’s just about as helpful as saying ‘it is what it is,’ which is usually unhelpful because it diminishes what we can and should do to make things better for ourselves and others.
The key phrase seems to be “leading up to the incident”. Was the FA belligerent leading to the altercation?
Of course that doesn’t make swinging at anyone OK. And am isolated incident if being in a bad mood shouldn’t be a fireable offense after 25 years of employment.
But maybe the union doesn’t have his back because the termination is justified?
Would love to know what led up to the assault but this seems absurd on its face. And if we even have 50% of the story right, it’s embarrassing that the union isn’t fighting for this guy
Oh yeah, I’m sure this happened EXACTLY as he claims.
Obviously don’t know the circumstances, but either the union has looked at the case and determined that management is absolutely right in firing him or they are worthless toads who are focused on collecting member’s dues and sitting on their a$$es. Either way, we should be hearing from union leadership.
Unions care about the union first members second.
Agreed, there may be more to this story. But I’ll get on my soapbox again. Mentally ill, drunk/drugged out, toddler level maturity passengers are “the” threat to air safety. And so far this seems to be taken lightly. At worst it seems like they get arrested, let out on no or very little bond, put on probation, not fined and not put on a total Do Not Fly List.
Maybe this flight attendant didn’t handle the situation correctly and made it worst. But I highly, highly doubt he just picked a fight with a passenger because.
@1990, you often have comments on here I agree wholeheartedly with, but I must confess my thoughts on reading this post aligned with @Craig Jones’. We hear so often on Gary’s blog of the airlines banning passengers for daring to do anything but bend the knee to airline personnel, and of tyrannical behavior by flight and gate attendants which the airlines back to the hilt. Against that background, that this employee would be terminated instead of backed by the airline suggests there is indeed “more to the story.” In addition, while oblique, the airline’s statement that an internal investigation turned up misbehavior by the flight attendant supports the thesis. Of course they aren’t going to come right out and tell us what was done or said by the former employee, or what airline policies were contravened, much as we’d all like to know. Airplanes, unfortunately, are often a fishbowl of pressure packed situations, and everyone who puts themselves in that setting – including and especially flight attendants – has an obligation to be aware of that, and always act in a way likely to diffuse tensions and deescalate temper-infused situations. Some flight attendants do that really well. Some do not. And it may even be that this particular flight attendant usually was good at this aspect of his job, and just slipped in this particular scenario. It is sad that we are sometimes judged on our worst day, and that the consequences can be severe. But as the airlines constantly remind us, flight attendants have vital safety functions, and they need to bring their “A game” all the time. And most of all, when tempers flare.
I also think that there is a lot more to this story that will come out over time. What is American Airlines policy on a flight attendant using self defense? Grappling is ok but hitting is not? What did the flight attendant do in self defense and did he try to walk away? Was he defending a passenger? What happened prior to the altercation as referenced in the American Airlines statement? American Airlines has liability at stake if they allow their employees to hit passengers and they may not want to start a trend. If American Airlines properly invoked their published policy and Mr. Robinson was not following it, the union has a choice as to defend a person not following the policy or to save ammunition for another day. As a union member, I came to realize that there are three parties to consider, yourself and your interests, the company and it’s interests and the union and it’s interests. If the union has no clear benefit, it may not defend you. If you have a case, get a lawyer. Just not any lawyer, but one specialized in employment law in this case.
So flight crew are not supposed to defend themselves? That’s ridiculous.
It really feels like there’s some missing information here.
Union was no help probably means the arbitration was decided in the company’s favor, of course the employee won’t say that. I wish unemployment on no one, but sometimes people get fired for their actions, and I would expect an automatic arbitration hearing for a termination for cause
I would be very interested in knowing how this unfolds, particularly if there is more to the story. Key words are regarding the FA actions “…leading up to…” the event.
Yes, whatever the FA may have done does not justify violence and the passenger should be permanently banned. But if a flight attendant creates the groundwork for a problem or escalates a situation, then from a business perspective THAT is also a problem. A different problem, but a problem nonetheless. No company needs customer-facing employees who create, facilitate, or escalate problems. Again, I’m not saying it’s the employee’s fault, but if you can’t take it and instead escalate (or create the situation to begin with), you need to find another job. It’s just not the right job for you.
1990,
and yet the union didn’t or couldn’t do a thing. It was entirely worthless.
AA did its internal investigation and the only way to know if they came to the right conclusion is for an outside party – such as the US legal system – to make their assessment. Given the guy is fighting to retain basic needs, he probably has nowhere near the resources to get into a nasty legal fight – but I hope someone does take up his cause. There are plenty of government agencies that provide worker protection.
He might have been exemplary 99.9% of his multi-decade career but if he loses it one time, that is all it takes.
The bigger story is that AA continues to have one of the worst track records w/ their employees being able to de-escalate situations. DL and WN employees don’t seem to get in anywhere near the passenger confrontations that AA employees have -and I doubt seriously that DL and WN’s passengers are any better behaved.
I suspect that AA’s endless confrontation w/ its employees and unions translates into a confrontational approach between employees and customers.
I wish the guy well.
Look, it’s Tim Dunn.
Worked for AA f isor twelve years was fired for something absolutely false.
Twenty years later there never has been an official termination hearing.
The unions are useless and bought out.
and are we to believe you are really an Eskimo?
think you could comment on the story here and not other users?
At 51, with his experience, he’s the perfect age and candidate to apply to the FAA for one of the many Cabin Safety Inspector (CSI) positions that are open. He’ll start in the area of $77K and if he can make it through the one year probation he’s set with benefits, salary, and pension for life.
Come on to the “Dark Side”.
Quoting.Robinson (the FA):
“…“It starts with asking people to step back, move away, turn around, and walk away when they are trying to strike at you,” Robinson explained…”
WRONG!
If you are trying to de-escalate from the point where someone trying to punch you on the face, you had already screwed up big time leading up to that point. It might depend on how friendly, professionally or condescendingly you asked someone to step back and step away….
So in spite of his claim that he “used the training provided by the airline to protect himself”, the airline (American Airlines) is alledging: “the former team member acted in a manner inconsistent with our expectations and defined policies — prior to the altercation and throughout.”
The Union is not defending him…
Easy conclusion: He was fired for just cause. Regardless of whether the passenger was charged, fined or had to attend anger management classes.
Where is his union??
Gary, I will leave the speculation to others about whether AA or the flight attendant (and his union) is in the right or wrong on this. I just came to ask you to please dial back your inaccurate, clickbait headline. Nowhere, in any of the quoted material you published does it flatly state per your headline that the flight attendant is “losing his home.” Yes, there are several comments about how that might happen, all of which are logical possibilities after a job loss, i.e. the GoFundMe quote says the action is “putting him at risk of losing his home”, and the flight attendant himself only says “I’m worried about how I’m going to keep my house at 51.” Why would you take an already unfortunate set of circumstances and make them worse by publishing a statement that is just not true, at least not according to anything you wrote? Please fix the headline and leave the clickbait to others.
The passenger seems to have gotten off with a slap on the wrist. This circumstantially suggests that the FA may have provoked the passenger, thus leading to the light punishment. We just don’t have enough info to judge who was right.
This is awful. If AA feels like an employee should allow a passenger to continue assaulting them and not defend themselves, I’ll take my business elsewhere.
Unions have a role to play, and some do so, and some do not. Gary is anti airline unions. Some airline unions do great to help their members. AAL is known for being shitty and its union is the same.
None of that makes this story make sense. I’ve read the previous comments and agree — there’s a lot more to this story — like what happened BEFORE the “altercation.”
We can have dashcams and phone cams and red-light cams and speed-limit cams and YET in-cabin cams is a no-no because FAs don’t want to be pictured… and then there’s always that “dangerous” OPSEC of how the blinky flashlights are mounted or how the jumpseats work. /s
Also what is this word: “senority”??? Maybe when that’s explained try explaining this word: “Editor” and also “proofreader.”
There’s also Self Defense and “self defense”. If someone swings at you, you can probably punch them in the face and legally claim self defense.
But if you’re an employee, and a customer takes a swing at you, your company may consider restraining the customer to be self defense, but not at all consider punching the customer in the face self-defense.
OK, we have your riff. Now, can you tap your sources to get the whole story before I can riff?
Realizing the dream of punching an AA flight attendant is totally worth a lifetime ban.
If a 25 year employee broke a rule, retrain don’t fire. But maybe he’s in a pension program and cheaper to fire and hire younger person
Former airline employee and all around service industry person here. For the most part, big corporations like American do not back up their employees. We get harassed and abused by customers and we largely just have to take it for fear of losing our jobs if we do the slightest thing halfway reasonable to try and stop the abuse. People rag on Spirit and Frontier for being the “Greyhounds of the sky” full of unruly passengers always getting denied boarding. But I have to wonder if that’s just because those airlines don’t put up with nearly so much abuse than the bigger names?
I’m betting nearly 100% of the anti-union/anti-worker comments are from individuals who do not belong to a union. But such individuals are labor and union “experts” from the outside looking in.
Separately, very disappointing how this event has played out for the flight attendant in question.
flight attendants , cops , and umpires abuse their powers so bad , they get what they deserve sometimes
@ bill ganas. Wow. It appears you didn’t have a good time flying out to PHX and negotiating traffic while attempting to get to the Scottsdale Stadium to watch a Spring Training baseball game.