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Dear
Council AFA-CWA Members,
I AM NOT A VENDING MACHINE!
 You
will shortly be receiving in the mail a gift from your local officers; we hope
that you will proudly display this immediately when you go on your next trip. It
is a sad day that US Airways has come to this point. The decision to sell sodas,
water and coffee on the aircraft by flight attendants highlights the fact that
Doug Parker, Scott Kirby and more specifically Sherri Shamblin have no idea what
they are doing when it comes to running an airline and customer service. You are
federally certified safety professionals! Your primary function on the airplane
is to provide safe transportation for our passengers, not a glorified vending
machine. While we recognize that rising fuel cost represent a real challenge for
the industry, the selling of sodas on the airplane will not offset the dramatic
rise in fuel cost. At most it would provide the company with 20 million dollars
according to their best estimates. That would keep the company in the air one
extra day in the worst case scenario. That is not a plan that anyone can believe
in. Instead of attacking the real problem that airfares need to increase to
offset the fuel cost, they want to throw you to the lions. The company plans to
embarrass you flight after flight after flight. To highlight how out of touch
the company is, Sherri Shamblin made the comment that "when you go to the movies
you don't get popcorn or a soda for free". When I go to the movies I am not
locked in the theater. I can leave when I want. I also don't go to the movies
and expect to arrive in Buffalo safely. This is how out of touch this woman is.
She may work one or two short flights a year but has absolutely no idea what is
going on in the real world and what it means to be a safety professional. It is
important that we begin to highlight the fact that this is not they way to run
an airline and that the company needs to seriously reverse this ridiculous
decision.
In Solidarity,
Alin Boswell
LEC President
Steve Schembs
LEC Vice President
Stephen Smith II
LEC Secretary
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