Dear Flying Partners,
Yesterday, Flight Attendants across the world showed up in unprecedented numbers to demonstrate in solidarity that we are against United’s announced plans to cut staffing. United AFA Flight Attendants are standing together with a unified message, and our solidarity spoke volumes to United management. Our passengers deserve better. Flight Attendants deserve better. We must continue to lead in this industry, giving our passengers the service they deserve instead of following others in a race to the bottom.
We showed a unified front against United’s Wall Street driven corporate greed. We are no longer a fractured, pre-merger workforce. We are all AFA United Flight Attendants strong in numbers across the system and even stronger by standing together. By speaking in one voice, we are unified in our message. Until now, management has been hearing only one voice – that was the voice of Wall Street. Management is now hearing our collective voice addressing our concerns for the comfort, safety and the quality of service delivered to our passengers.
Our experience on the picket line on Thursday gave us the opportunity to hear directly from you and we heard you echoing the very concerns that we have expressed to management. Pre-plating food is not a replacement for a Flight Attendant. Working the galley position is hard work and we’re confused about how to respond to our passengers who have come to expect better, to expect more. Beyond that, the reduction in staffing leaves no room for error when we are called upon to respond to the unexpected with the stretched resources on the aircraft.
What we accomplished yesterday, we could not have done alone. Whether you attended a picket line or wore your red AFA pin proudly on your uniform, your individual efforts supported our collective cause. We are United Flight Attendants. We stand proudly together in providing the best onboard safety and service. It is by our example of showing pride in our work, care for the passengers with whom we fly that management will come to recognize the truth. That is, by succumbing to the pressure of Wall Street to lower our historic standards the reduced standards of Delta and American, they are ceding our corporate advantage of a highly trained, professional Flight Attendant group dedicated to the passengers on whom we all rely for our continued success.
We are extremely proud to stand with each of you as we share our committed message of pride in our company and our profession as we ensure that management knows we’re watching what they are doing and that we expect more in their leadership.
On behalf of the entire United Master Executive Council and all United Flight Attendants, we acknowledge the support from numerous Union groups including ALPA, Unite Here, CWA, International Association of Fire Fighters, Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), IBT, TWU 556, Teamsters, UMWA, SEIU-USWW and LAPPL and thank them for the commitment of their time and solidarity in standing with us.
We are stronger together, better together!
In Solidarity,
Ken Diaz
United AFA MEC President