Originally Posted by
United737522
I would pick your battles. FA's have worse work rules and hours than RJ pilots, and that's bad...
/agree on pick ones battles, but if one were a complainer, this would be at the top of the list. Most people complain about semi-trival cosmetic or service issues. This is a safety issue. Flight attendants DON'T evacuate planes in the air, they do it on the ground. On the ground is where people die, not in the air (in most cases, short of catastrophic hull rupture at altitude.) Aircraft to aircraft incursions (i.e.Tenerife, the largest aviation accident in history not DIRECTLY a consequence of terrorism was this type and the single largest aviation accident that counts only passengers (sept 11 exceed it only by counting those on the ground) almost always occur (for non-military aircraft) on the ground. The Pan Am plane was taxiing. You can google "Dorothy Kelly" who was the Sr Pan Am flight attendant who heroically performed her duties with both a broken arm and fractured scull obtained during the evacuation. BTW, she became a UA flight attendant upon the Pan Am collapse.
As someone else pointed out, their primary purpose is for our safety.
One of my close friends ahd to evactuate a CRJ as a passenger when an airport bus rammed (actually, the other way around, but the aircraft had the right of way) a taxiing CRJ in 2002. The flight attendant was knocked silly, and my friend (an ex flight attendant) performed the evacuation.
Which is worse, a non-functioning IFE, a FA talking to her friends during cruise phase of an aircraft, or a flight attendant unable to perform his/her duties of safety during the most critical time?
737, u are an ex flight attendant, correct? This behavior is egregious and I am betting is spelled out in her company manual as behavior warranting termination (and I bet the AFA has accepted this as the policy.)
I know for a fact it is in ALL of UA's rules "Sleeping or the appearance of.....up to and including termination." but in this position, it is far worse. I mean the NW (or were they DL) pilots that were "discussing their bidding schedule" last month were at least (per them) awake, the flight was in cruise phase and the aircraft on auto. Their is no "auto" switch for a flight attendant. They need to be awake and alert at all times.
Like so many hear have said when employees complain of loss of benefits "We realize you have a choice in careers..." well, it is far better to have crews that at least perform the required safety functions of their safety job, then to have a seat back that fully reclines, yet one should complain about one and not the other? Yes, their schedules can be brutal,, but that is no surprise to them. They know this from day #1 of training.
What would happen if the person in row 1 was a) a company employee, b) representative of her mgmt, c) a FAA inspector, or d) a person needing her assistance due to an emergency. The person would be in serious trouble. Why wait for it to get to the point of d?