Dear Council 70 Flying Partners,
By now you have read the
press releases blaming us, the US Airways Flight
Attendants for the holiday cancellation meltdown.
A
combination of things caused the cancellations;
weather, lack of management to give direction,
employee staffing shortages, and possibly some
illegitimate sick calls by flight attendants.
Regardless, it is all Flight Attendants that our
customers and the press are casting blame upon.
I
believe that the majority of those who called off sick
over the holiday were legitimately sick. That
does not change the fact that we are now all being
blamed for ruining Christmas for hundreds of our
passengers and their families. The e-mail I am
receiving from our passengers is filled with disgust
and ill-will.
The
blame is not all ours to take. Management may
never own up to the part they played in this fiasco
but fact is, someone in In-flight took their eye off
the ball and now we are taking all the heat in the
press.
Did
in-flight take into consideration that fewer than
one-third of those scheduled to return from a VF on
Dec. 2, actually did so? Did anyone in In-flight
notice that resignations and retirements have been on
the increase for months? I believe that if they
had, they would not have waited until December 25 to
offer VAC fly back. But rehashing this will not
help us out of this mess.
I
am receiving major complaints from customers
threatening never to fly us ever again. In all
my years doing this job, through all the concessions
and threats I have never received this kind of email
from our passengers. The messages are basically
the same....they have lost trust and compassion for
the Flight Attendants. All the years of going
above and beyond the call of duty have been wiped out
in one weekend. We cannot change the perception
of what was put in the press by merely saying it was
not us or at pointing a finger at others. We
need to all band together and show them what great
professionals we are at US Airways.
I
know your morale is down, I know you are frustrated,
me too. We give and give and give and it does
not seem to ever be enough for this management.
But we cannot forget that management comes and goes
but this is OUR Company. We grew up here, our
friends are here and the majority of us are here for
the long run.
We
must all ask ourselves this question...do we want US
Airways to survive? If yes, do your part, do
what you do best...service our passengers better than
any Flight Attendant group around.
As
I have said so many times before, Management comes and
management goes but we are the heart and soul of this
airline. This Management like the one before and
the one before that will take their walk through the
revolving door at Crystal City and move on. We
have invested too much to watch it be destroyed over
temporary frustration and low morale.
Management
got to the press and made sure that the employees
alone would take the 'black eye' for this mess.
Before we fall prey to their "spin" and
start beating each other up, you should know that sick
calls over the holiday weekend when compared with last
year were less on Christmas Eve and only 8 sick calls
more on Christmas Day.
Regardless,
we do not need to lose passenger confidence.
It's
going to take a lot of "Atta girls/boys" to
get our passengers back but I know the professionals
we are and I know we can do it, we still have the rest
of the Holiday to prove we are as good or better than
ever.
Happy
New Year,
Take
Care and Fly Safe,
Mollie
McCarthy
LEC President
Council 70 PHL
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