Understanding Unions and Flight Attendant Careers

Understanding Unions and Flight Attendant Careers Understanding Unions and Flight Attendant Careers The two major reasons a union forms are to negotiate better working conditions and pay, on the one hand, and to resolve disputes on the other. In situations in which a flight attendant is accused of violating some rule - excessive use of sick time without medical documentation, mouthing off to a supervisor or passenger, stealing from the airplane - the union will in most cases file a grievance to protect the flight attendant from false accusations or from unfair punishment. In a case in which a company tried to fire a flight attendant for taking a carton of milk off the plane, the attendant's union was able to demonstrate that the milk was perishable and could not be used on future flights, but it was still theft, and one month unpaid leave would be more appropriate punishment. Union work can be either part-time or full-time, at the local or national level. Local base officers might represent employees with discipline problems or in termination hearings, or work with the company on improving the bid sheet or on specific issues that affect a certain base. Locally, in addition to the Base Chairperson, there are scheduling representatives, health reps, and various council officers. One of the most useful local departments is Professional Standards. If a flight attendant accuses another of anything from harassment to stealing, the accused can retaliate, saying the other provoked him. Once a flight attendant writes up another flight attendant and turns him into management, the company is obliged to take some kind of action, which almost always gets blown out of proportion. For example, taking a bottle of water or a yogurt from the aircraft is technically not allowed under any circumstances, and if handled through the airline, could lead to termination. But handled through Professional Standards, the union can try to warn the offending flight attendant that this kind of behavior risks his or her job. The airlines have employee assistance programs if worker s have emotional problems, drug or alcohol addiction, or even kleptomania. But employee assistance only works if you go to the company before they get to you. If you fail a drug test before going to employee assistance, you lose your job. If you've gone to employee assistance and fail a drug test, you're put on probation, but get a second chance (don't try this at home!). If another flight attendant turns you in, and the company puts a ghost rider (a manager from a different base who masquerades as a regular passenger), and you get busted (drinking, stealing, violating allowable crew rest periods), there's almost no recourse from getting fired. By using professional standards reps at the union, you can help a co-worker going through a tough time as well as save yourself the headache of potentially getting ghost ridden should the guilty party try to turn the tables on you. National union officers work on much larger issues that affect flight attendants system-wide. A president, vice president, secretary and treasurer are elected by the membership, along with national officers dealing with safety, scheduling, hotels, contract, negotiations and communications. The union puts together strike preparedness plans, along with negotiating a new contract every four to 10 years. Almost every aspect of a flight attendant's work day is specified in the contract, from the number of flights an attendant can work per day, to number of vacation days to pay scale to uniforms. Additionally, the national officers might work to dispute company policies that are overly punitive, such as requiring anyone who calls in sick in December to have a medical certificate (doctor's note) before returning to work. Or they may fight staffing changes when a company cuts the number of flight attendants on some flights. Besides a typically adversarial relationship with the company (the belief is that the company tries to push things to the limit and increase utilization, while the union pressures the company to resist scheduling 18-hour work days with three vacation days per year), the unions also spend time and resources to lobby congress. The airlines didn't voluntarily get rid of age and weight standards because it was the right thing to do. The unions went to the U.S. government to force these changes. After September 11th, important issues include getting airlines to hold mandatory defense training, to specify maximum work days and ensure greater minimum rest. National officers and local representatives are paid in a rather unique way. Rather than being on salary, many hold a regular schedule from their airline and are removed from their trips by the company. The union then reimburses the company for removing the union worker. Thus, a union officer's pay is still tied to their seniority. The big drawback is that if you'd normally pick up a few extra trips, you can't go over a certain number of hours, even though many union officers work 25 to 28 days p er month. Flight attendants will literally call from around the globe at all hours, waking a base chair up at 5 a.m. because the company didn't give them enough milk to serve breakfast. The officers work endless hours and it's often a thankless job. Most union officers get into union work due to an intense sense of duty or because they're just tired of complaining about things and want to help enact change. Since there are no mandatory local base union meetings for the general membership, most of the union's work is hands-on-dealing with problems and trying to fix them. Not all airlines have unions, however. Delta Airlines strives to offer its flight attendants generous work conditions (compared to the industry average) to discourage their flight attendants from organizing a union. In 2002, the AFA (representing flight attendants at United and several other airlines) spent several thousand dollars to help unionize the Delta group, but they did not attain the majority vote of flight attendants required to bring the union in.