Well if you really want to put it that way, I can go to an accellerated flight program get my commercial and 300 hours and be in the left seat at a regional in 12-15 weeks. But thats not how I or many other look at things, I know that Delta is now the largest airline in the world...and will have some of the most qualified and professional employees. So if you choose to look at your F/As as unskilled labor, then thats all you are going to see. However, if you look at them as people who have an essential role in this undustry and as co-workers...then you would realize that they too should have the same right as you do, and thats the right to have a voice! Airlines primary source of revenue is ticket sales...F/As spend more time trying to make those passengers happy than any other person in the company. Also, you may forget that we are there primarily for your safety and must be able to evacuate an aircraft quickly, we handle medical emergencies, we are babysitters at times, and we do our best to accomodate YOUR needs! Now do you need a bouncer at an establishment? Well last time I checked there is no government regulation that says a certain amount of bouncers must be in the establishment for any customer to come in. So you might want to rethink your position...

Can anyone be a pilot? Yes. Can anyone be a good pilot? No.
Can anyone be a F/A? Yes. Can anyone be a good F/A? No.


I know HR works hard at DL to hire the best pilots that apply, and I know HR works hard to hire the best F/As that apply. So we consider ourself professional, just like you do. Earlier this year DL hired about 1500 F/As, DL had received more than 80000 applications, so about 4% of those that applied were hired...I would say we aren't ANYONE.


Here is what a fellow F/A wrote...
As a professional, our employer depends on us to take on important safety responsibilities. We have unique skills and training to take on complex and sensitive roles. Our work is usually self-directed and requires that we direct and manage passengers. Often our decisions and actions affect the security and well being of others. We follow a professional code, and do what it takes to get the job done right. Which makes it hard to understand why we don’t always get the respect we deserve in the workplace. Senior management has to run the place, that’s true. But shouldn’t they also listen to the flight attendants [safety specialists] who have the expertise to get the work done?

Flight Attendants who do not have a union face many employment problems every day:
• Lack of job security
• Lack of salary protection
• Inconsistent treatment
• Lack of say in scheduling
• No coherent voice in dealing with the employer
• No impartial process for resolving complaints
• No protection against unfair treatment

The workplace has become increasingly more demanding and tenuous a place for professional flight attendants. How did this come about, particularly at a time when “professional workers” are supposed to be gaining importance in our economy?

The Professional Workplace Has Changed
Flight Attendants have faced unique problems during the restructuring of work over the last decade. Many professional positions have disappeared either through lay-off or attrition as management has used bankruptcy as a means to destroy collective bargaining. Flight Attendants who remain in the workplace have seen their workloads skyrocket with full flights and minimum crew and a decrease in their wages, benefits and retirement.

“Despite the trends, some Delta and NWA flight attendants still believe that individual or collegial relations with the employer are most appropriate to professional values. Those values include personal responsibility for work and assignments, independence of action and judgment, and an abiding commitment to a professional code and duties. Unionism is dismissed as a mode of relations that emphasizes collective action rather than individual responsibility, replaces independent judgment with executive or mass decision making, and sacrifices professional responsibility to the picket line.”

Unions Complement Professional Values
“Having a union can address these problems and enhance professional values in the workplace. The core principles of unionism are consistent with professionalism. Both movements can trace part of their histories to the guild movements where workers with particular sets of skills in common joined together both to protect their control over those skills and to protect their economic position. Many professional codes, for instance, indicate that members have a duty to see that they are adequately compensated for their work.”

Rather than being contrary to professional values, a union offers a strong alliance to those values. A union makes it possible for professionals to come together to represent their own interests to their employers, to talk about the unique issues professional flight attendants face, and to deal with the problems that arise in a constantly changing workplace. A professional union allows flight attendants to gain a say in their workplace through negotiation with management. It also allows flight attendants to determine how that say will be expressed. A union is the only guarantee that flight attendants will have a voice in their workplace and that they’ll be regarded as equals in setting the terms and conditions of their work.

Joining a union is the only legal guarantee that the employer will consult and negotiate over workplace issues. It’s the only guarantee that the agreements reached with the employer can be enforced quickly and easily. It’s the only guarantee of an impartial process for resolving problems that arise between the employer and professional employees.

Individuals alone hold little power, but together their strength and influence will flourish. This is the reason AFA is so important – we give our members strength; we give our members bargaining power; we give our members support; we give our members industry-leading advise, training and advocacy; we give our members a VOICE…

DESTINATION: REPRESENTATION