• COMPANY RESPONDS TO FLIGHT ATTENDANTS REGARDING BAPS YOUTH CONVENTION CBS MESSAGE

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COMPANY RESPONDS TO FLIGHT ATTENDANTS REGARDING BAPS YOUTH CONVENTION CBS MESSAGE

Vice President of Inflight, Sherri Shamblin sent the following letter to me and AFA Council 66 MEC President Gary Richardson last night.

Mike Flores
President
The US Airways Master Executive Council
AFA-CWA

Gary Richardson
President
US Airways Master Executive Council 66
AFA-CWA

Dear Mike and Gary,

Thanks for providing feedback regarding the Must Read, dated July 03, 2007 regarding the Company's communication of the BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam) Convention in Jacksonville, FL. I want to clarify that memo as well as the Company's position on this matter.

First, in hindsight, that Must Read could have and should have communicated this unique situation much better. I am sorry that it offended our team and can understand how it did. Please know that when this information came into our company, we simply felt that communicating to our flight attendants and educating them about this group was the right thing to do. In no way did we intend to communicate this as instruction to our flight attendants; nor as an endorsement of BAPS' views. We only intended to educate our people so that if they encountered someone with this belief who acted in a way contrary to our culture, they might have a better understanding of their rationale. What we didn't want to happen was have a misunderstanding during boarding or during a flight with a crew who deserved to have information that we had not given them.

I also fear that the wording of our Must Read may have unduly characterized these individuals and their views. There are a select few individuals who have taken a vow of celibacy that includes refraining from speaking to or making physical contact with women. These individuals travel with male escorts that help them to keep this vow and they humbly requested that we inform our airline personnel of those vows. Groups such as the TSA were considering staffing certain security lines with all male agents - we simply chose to inform our employees of their presence and their request, but made no commitment to abide by their request.

Earlier today we sent a note to BAPS informing them that we cannot guarantee that their attendees will be able to avoid contact with our female employees in the manner that they have requested. We offered to refund their tickets if that was not acceptable to them. A copy of that note is attached.

In summary, I am very sorry that we communicated this matter in a way that offended our flight attendants or made them feel less than respected. Flight attendants should continue to do their job as they are trained to do and we never meant to imply anything different than that. I hope this explains the situation better. We promise to do a better job of communicating on issues like these when they arise in the future.

Sincerely,


Sherri


As Ms. Shamblin notes in her letter the Company also sent a letter to the CEO of BAPS Swaminarayan Santha, Inc.

Below is an excerpt from that letter:

I am sure you can appreciate, however, that your requests concerning how our female employees should interact with some attendees runs counter to American cultural norms. Also, your requests would require US Airways to deviate from its policies concerning equal treatment for all of its employees.

I believe the Company has recognized that in an effort to provide education the wrong message was sent. The Company must abide by its own policy of equal treatment for all of it employees.

Thank you,

Mike Flores, President
The US Airways Master Executive Council
AFA-CWA

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AFA Local Numbers

Council 40 PIT 724-695-3329
Council 41 DCA 703-212-8090
Council 69 BOS 781-289-8454
Council 70 PHL 215-492-0840
Council 82 LGA 315-736-3483
Council 89 CLT 704-527-0325

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