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Nearly a Year Into the Uniform Crisis, AA Slowly Changing Course

American Airlines has moved away from open defiance and is now embracing a new “transparency” policy when it comes to crew uniforms that are causing adverse reactions for thousands of employees.

When the controversy over American Airlines’ new frontline uniforms first started, employees complaining of serious health issues they attributed to their new work clothes were treated with suspicion and even ridicule by their employer. Nearly a year later, the legacy carrier has reversed course, now promising to involve employees in the search for new uniform suppliers, but some employees suffering the worst of the uniform-related health effects say that the move is too little, too late.

In December of last year, when American Airlines executives began to hear increasing complaints that the new crew uniforms were making employees sick, the company responded by declaring the outfits completely safe. Then Vice President of Flight Services Hector Adler even wore the uniform while in the office to both prove the uniform was not responsible for the slew of adverse health reactions and presumably to tweak the noses of union leaders and employees who were demanding a complete recall of the new crew gear.

“It’s insulting,” an Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) spokesperson said of the company’s sardonic response to the crisis. “Instead of acknowledging legitimate concerns of their employees, American Airlines management is pulling a publicity stunt.”

In the months since, more and more employees, including pilots, flight attendants and gate agents came forward to complain about serious skin and respiratory distress caused by the new workwear. American Airlines management took a series of increasing half-measures in an attempt to appease ailing rank-and-file workers, while navigating a growing public relations challenge.

By July of this year, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker was openly admitting that the uniform-related illnesses were “a huge problem.” Parker, however, ruled out the prospect of a complete recall. “It could take years to get a whole new line of uniforms ready to roll out,” Parker said at the time.

The company had, by this point, agreed to let crew members wear look-alike uniforms of their own choosing in some cases. Employees were to be partially reimbursed for the expense of replacing their work clothes. The move at first seemed like a fairly equitable solution; unfortunately, even the employees now wearing replacement uniforms were experiencing adverse health affects.

The APFA stuck to its guns – demanding nothing less than a total uniform recall. Union officials insisted that because of the close quarters and limited air circulation of passenger airplane cabins, employees would not be free from the effects of the toxic uniforms unless no employees wore the uniforms at all.

Perhaps this is why, when the company months later, finally agreed to a complete recall of the frontline uniforms, the decision was met with some skepticism. Paradoxically, American Airlines Management seems to now be saying and doing all the right things. As the airline searches for new vendors, the company says that employees will be involved in the entire decision process.

“We are fully committed to a successful rollout and know that transparency and a solid process are key,” the airline told employees in an internal communication obtained by The Chicago Business Journal.

American says, however, that some crew members could be wearing the potentially toxic uniforms while on duty for up to four more years before replacement uniforms are made available. This has left many employees at the world’s largest airline feeling as is nothing has really changed.

Flight attendant and best-selling author Heather Poole has been one of the most outspoken critics of both Twin Hill, the uniform manufacturer, and American Airlines management. For years, the celebrity flight attendant declined to identify the airline she worked for publicly. Faced with a growing threat to both the health of her colleagues and her own well-being, this year, Poole began to openly challenge her employer as the number of reported uniform-related illnesses continued to swell.

Poole left no doubt about her position on American Airlines’ gradual change of heart on the health concerns presented by her uniform. “The uniform crisis has been going on for almost a year,” she wrote in a Twitter post on Wednesday. “AA plans to switch vendors in 2020. 3 years from now! I won’t make it.”

[Photo: American Airlines]

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