On-Going Pay Cuts.

The latest discussion around the proverbial watercooler dealt with the ongoing wage reduction cuts that the company's flight attendants have yet to take. Currently the company and the flight attendants are in federal mediation to try and reach an amicable agreement that is fair to the company, to the flight attendants, and to the other work groups that have already taken pay cuts.

personally, i believe, that several high seniority flight attendants will either quit or retire once they are forced into taking the reduction. one of my co-workers asked me why i held such a belief, and i related how i have already had a few flight attendant friends who have quit already, due to the fact that the company even asked for pay reductions.

being a flight attendant is not as easy a job as most people tend to think. true, during the average course of a flight, the most they have to do is pass out drinks and stale sandwiches, but the hour to hour and a half they have to report to work and actually "work" they are unpaid. they also spend several days away from home, from friends and family. the question i ask myself, would i take a job where i'm away from my family for extended periods of time, in a position that if you have less than five years with the company i would make roughly 20,000 a year. it's not that appealing to me.

the few flight attendants i've talked with have given me various reasons for voting down the aggreement back in april.

1. the company has 1.5 billion dollars in the bank. there is no need.
2. i would rather our company be smaller and profitable, than larger and turning a loss
3. the company-union reps will see a 50% raise in salary while i take a cut
4. the company wants us to work an additional 10 flight hours a month (extra 3 days)

i understand their complaints and reasons for not taking the pay cuts, but it seems to me that with pay cuts coming there way as it is, you might as well take the best offer the company and union can agree too, or else look for an employer who will offer you the pay and benefits you want.

i noticed there was an aritcle in Business Week about airline/aviation stocks and how they've been outperforming the S&P 500 index these past 4 weeks. most of the information in it is old news. mainly saying that though the airline industry is still battling an uphill war to profitability that the majors have been able to push through some fare increases and make them stick. even with Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines both entered into bankruptcy on the same day. though with both airlines in bankruptcy protection, i'm sure they will be furloughing thousands of employees, and forcing more pay cuts on their respective employees.

it appears that the 5 major airlines in this country are racing to the bottom to see who can offer the cheapest service and product, at the expense of the hard working employees who actually make these companies run. my biggest nightmare is that in the future all the employees will be making Wal-Mart wages, and the flying public will be the worse for it.