Tag Archives for union.
Houston-based Avelo is a startup. They’re scheduled to operate 630 flights this month, an average of just 21 a day, using 8 Boeing 737s. The same number of flight attendants voted to form a union as Avelo has planes.
Alcohol is about to return to American Airlines coach on Monday, and the carrier’s flight attendants union – the Association of Professional Flight Attendants – has demanded that a two drink limit be imposed on passengers.
This past weekend American’s operation melted down, along with other airlines including Southwest, Delta, and JetBlue. Once again the flight attendants union reports that crew had no hotels, and even worse that the airline – which was cancelling flights due to lack of crew – didn’t even keep track of where their flight attendants were to reassign them to trips to get customers home.
It’s particularly galling to send flight attendants to collections and threaten termination over their dues within days of reporting to those same flight attendants that their former union president misappropriated their dues for personal gain. And doubly so since the union flight attendants are paying for is so weak.
Former American Airlines flight attendants union head Bob Ross has been barred from serving in any leadership position of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants for life by an arbitrator for misappropriating member dues. Ross was President of the union from April 2016 until March 2018.
The arbitrator found he improperly had the union lease him an apartment and rent him a luxury car for months, and – it appears – pay for personal meals and expenses as mundane as toilet paper.
An American Airlines flight attendant new hire was caught snoozing (supposedly for a few moments) on a training flight while properly seated in a passenger seat. A working crewmember photographed the trainee and sent it in to management.
The new hire, a foreign-language speaker, was fired just a couple of days before graduation. And this has been highly controversial among American Airlines flight attendants who say it brief naps happen all the time.
Sara Nelson, head of the AFA-CWA flight attendants union, is an influential labor leader with juice in the Democratic Party. While she was instrumental in securing bailouts for the airline industry, she doesn’t always get what she wants – Nelson was an advocate for a ban on leisure travel during the pandemic.
Nonetheless, Nelson’s AFA-CWA is pushing for an extension of the federal transportation mask mandate which currently runs through March 18. And she’s joined by the union representing cabin crew at American Airlines.
When you work in a union shop, ratting out your colleagues usually doesn’t end well for you. That was a lesson the union leaders tried to teach this flight attendant, it seems. They lost their job. But life probably is still going to be rough for the flight attendant who reported them.
The American Airlines flight attendants union asked the airline to cut service levels for passengers because they don’t want to work because they’re concerned about the spread of Covid-19.
Needless to say, starting mid-next week, on your next American Airlines flight in back you may be thirsty. Plan accordingly.
They want single tray service in international business (and first) class and reduced beverage service in coach on all flights. And they say this is to keep flight attendants safe.
Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to award incentives to employees for getting exemption from vaccination requirements.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
