“ which is the equivalent to $2,200 a month”. I was an F/A in 91. First year I grossed $17K. Weight restrictions were still being fought and it was because they listened to the men who were weight lifters with low body fat and heavier and certainly who you’d want to carry you out of the burning wreckage that they actually capitulated. Hotels were still shite compared to the pilots (again mostly male).
Long duty days were not unusual (14 hours) and sometimes they’d ask you to waive your duty day. It was understood that you just waved to them. Sharing rooms was also a “thing” the old girls would tell us about. Rooming with someone you’ve never met in your met I your life. Imagine that.
Honestly I don’t see how anyone stays that long at that job. The extreme rudeness of passengers (and honestly F/A’s) made 3 years enough for me. God bless those who stick with it.
I’m so glad they’re CWA. So was my daddy and the union was responsible for putting me and my daughter through college (at different times) when they negotiated the right for employees to buy stock options.
Semi-related and getting it all off my chest. I had to fly cross-country in May of 2020 due to a close family member being in intensive care (not with Covid but, he was not expected to survive). I had purchased a seat in Economy Plus (with more legroom) as is my habit. But my seat was reassigned to regular economy and not only that, was given a seat exactly behind another passenger, even though there were only maybe 5 passengers in the entire plane of I'm guessing 150+ seats. I think I said that I wanted to be moved up to my original seat several rows ahead, in Economy Plus, because "no one was up there". I did eventually get to move, when I told the flight attendant why I was flying. (We ended up having a long conversation about ill family members and how Covid was complicating everything.) But later I saw that people (not me, I swear!) were saying "no one" as if flight attendants were not people. I didn't realize that - it was certainly not my intent! Flight Attendants are people too!
(But if I had, I would have said that if it's not fair to ask flight attendants to get that close to passengers, then why the f*** is it fair to ask two random passengers to sit that close together? On that day I didn't care whether they moved me up or back or sideways. (Except that I had actually PAID for more legroom and if they weren't going to give it to me I wanted the money back. But I digress.
ETA: The woman in the seat in front of me was Black and I hope that she understood that I did not want to be moved because she was Black but rather because of Covid. I shouldn't have been seated that closely to ANYBODY. ))
I used to provide mental health services to the staff of multiple domestic and international airlines, and I can say that flight attendants work HARD, and to this day are still underpaid and, dare I say it, victims of wage theft simply because the time clock starts when the plane door locks. SIGH. The more things change the more things stay the same, apparently, since this was an issue eighty years ago. Other things to consider when thinking about the needs of FA's: their exposure to trauma. When the area around the Taj Mahal in India was bombed years ago, FA's on layovers were traumatized. So, too, were FA's on the tarmac in Brazil a few years back when Bolsinaro (ptoey) was campaigning for the presidency; apparently they (and everyone in the airport) saw the assassination of a rival candidate. In other words, FAs are witnesses to history whether they want to be or not. They need more money and more support.
Thank you! You are correct. Your flight may be 8-5 but wide bodies require 1 hour check in. Takes 1/2 to deplane but your pay stops when you arrive at the gate. Starts when they push back. NOT when the door closes. IF there is a delay and the crew is about to go over duty day, remember folks that is why they keep you on the tarmac. Easier to give a 2 for 1 rest than find another flight crew at 1AM. Another dirty airline trick.
I remember a particularly loud group of passengers that would not be quiet during the safety talk. I was being attentive (dad was a teacher). After the review was over, she said "I'm here if they want a diet coke but I'm not helping them in an emergency. I'll push them out first so we have something to land on." Ha!
I am just going to be a 74-year-old male pig and say that those 2 women are very beautiful.
I don't have anything to say, just testing to see if I can comment (just did the whole sign-in process yadda yadda)
weird...I'd never seen that picture of Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern before
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a5477c79de336ff2ec72157fb36fd8be9f8a99fab4a548f1042f3fde0ccea40.jpg
“ which is the equivalent to $2,200 a month”. I was an F/A in 91. First year I grossed $17K. Weight restrictions were still being fought and it was because they listened to the men who were weight lifters with low body fat and heavier and certainly who you’d want to carry you out of the burning wreckage that they actually capitulated. Hotels were still shite compared to the pilots (again mostly male).
Long duty days were not unusual (14 hours) and sometimes they’d ask you to waive your duty day. It was understood that you just waved to them. Sharing rooms was also a “thing” the old girls would tell us about. Rooming with someone you’ve never met in your met I your life. Imagine that.
Honestly I don’t see how anyone stays that long at that job. The extreme rudeness of passengers (and honestly F/A’s) made 3 years enough for me. God bless those who stick with it.
I’m so glad they’re CWA. So was my daddy and the union was responsible for putting me and my daughter through college (at different times) when they negotiated the right for employees to buy stock options.
$26,000 a year was a lot of money back in 1944.
Those are 26,000 today dollars, the actual pay was $1500/year.
Ah, thank you. That wasn’t clear from the article.
Semi-related and getting it all off my chest. I had to fly cross-country in May of 2020 due to a close family member being in intensive care (not with Covid but, he was not expected to survive). I had purchased a seat in Economy Plus (with more legroom) as is my habit. But my seat was reassigned to regular economy and not only that, was given a seat exactly behind another passenger, even though there were only maybe 5 passengers in the entire plane of I'm guessing 150+ seats. I think I said that I wanted to be moved up to my original seat several rows ahead, in Economy Plus, because "no one was up there". I did eventually get to move, when I told the flight attendant why I was flying. (We ended up having a long conversation about ill family members and how Covid was complicating everything.) But later I saw that people (not me, I swear!) were saying "no one" as if flight attendants were not people. I didn't realize that - it was certainly not my intent! Flight Attendants are people too!
(But if I had, I would have said that if it's not fair to ask flight attendants to get that close to passengers, then why the f*** is it fair to ask two random passengers to sit that close together? On that day I didn't care whether they moved me up or back or sideways. (Except that I had actually PAID for more legroom and if they weren't going to give it to me I wanted the money back. But I digress.
ETA: The woman in the seat in front of me was Black and I hope that she understood that I did not want to be moved because she was Black but rather because of Covid. I shouldn't have been seated that closely to ANYBODY. ))
Excellent post and shows how civil rights, union rights and women's rights are all connected....
Oh Yah. GENERAL STRIKE!!!
Maybe flight attendants can nip Chip Roy's shut down of the government in the bud.
That picture shows a very unsafe place to dead head....
So if the R's want another shutdown, we need to get the air traffic controllers involved again.
I thought that too, but I don't read down before posting.
"Sanitation expert and a maintenance engineer
Garbage man, a janitor and you my dear
A real union flight attendant, my oh my"
I used to provide mental health services to the staff of multiple domestic and international airlines, and I can say that flight attendants work HARD, and to this day are still underpaid and, dare I say it, victims of wage theft simply because the time clock starts when the plane door locks. SIGH. The more things change the more things stay the same, apparently, since this was an issue eighty years ago. Other things to consider when thinking about the needs of FA's: their exposure to trauma. When the area around the Taj Mahal in India was bombed years ago, FA's on layovers were traumatized. So, too, were FA's on the tarmac in Brazil a few years back when Bolsinaro (ptoey) was campaigning for the presidency; apparently they (and everyone in the airport) saw the assassination of a rival candidate. In other words, FAs are witnesses to history whether they want to be or not. They need more money and more support.
Thank you! You are correct. Your flight may be 8-5 but wide bodies require 1 hour check in. Takes 1/2 to deplane but your pay stops when you arrive at the gate. Starts when they push back. NOT when the door closes. IF there is a delay and the crew is about to go over duty day, remember folks that is why they keep you on the tarmac. Easier to give a 2 for 1 rest than find another flight crew at 1AM. Another dirty airline trick.
I remember a particularly loud group of passengers that would not be quiet during the safety talk. I was being attentive (dad was a teacher). After the review was over, she said "I'm here if they want a diet coke but I'm not helping them in an emergency. I'll push them out first so we have something to land on." Ha!
I love these labor articles.