What does a direct relationship really mean?

LIFE AT DELTA AIR LINES

SLC had an ATL turn which sits for about 2 hours. It is on a 767-400. About the second week of Nov., a seven person crew flew it into ATL. During the flight one of the flight attendants was picking up newspapers and magazines in the cabin and a passenger gave the f/a Brad, a magazine (NOV Real Simple). In it, as the passenger pointed out was an ad from Yellowtail wine that consisted of a card like the kind you get for B-days with music and lights. The pax said,” Isn’t this cool?”

Brad proceeded to take the card apart, to see how it worked. Being the curious one he is, he got it down to the little battery at some little wires. He stuck it on the cabin light panel in the aft of the aircraft. During the flight, off and on, they played the tune and lights.
When they got off the plane in ATL, Brad forgot to take the gadget down.

They went to their next gate. The Flight Leader, George, got a call on his cell phone from the OCC (Operation Control Center) to come back to the gate w/others. They were met by the FBI and IFS supvs. They were told that they had to evacuate the aircraft and call the bomb sniffing dogs. (In reality, they only had two or three pax on board when then had to “evacuate”). The FBI discussed the situation and decided that they were not going to file charges. The flight attendants were all warned and told not to do something stupid like this again. That should have been the end of it…but Delta wanted to make an example of these 7 flight attendants.

The 7 flight attendants were all taken downstairs to individual supv. rooms and told to write a statement and sign it as to what happened. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think they can do that anywhere but here at Delta without having representation of some sort. So there they sat in a room by themselves writing what they thought was their side of the story. They were then put back in a group and yelled at by an ATL ex-police woman who is now an IFS supv. in ATL.
They were not “talked” to but yelled at. It was demeaning and unprofessional. After all of this, they had been pulled off of their return flight home and had missed the last flight to SLC that evening. They would be given rooms and were told they would deadhead out the next morning (with no pay).

The next morning, they were met at the aircraft by ATL IFS supervisors who checked off each f/a as they boarded the aircraft. There was no deviation allowed. They were required to be on that aircraft. The reason is that they were met by SLC IFS Human Resource supervisors and Base Manager in SLC.

They were all escorted to the supervisor’s offices, where they were individually talked to about the offense…even those who had not even seen the gadget. They were each told that they would have to surrender their badges and parking cards and they would be escorted individually off the premises and suspended without pay until further notice. When asked when that further notice might be, they were told that it was pending on the FBI’s decision to file charges. (Since the FBI had already stated that they were not going to file charges…it was apparently not the truth, they already knew that the FBI was not going to press charges. They had no idea how long they would be suspended. Most were also told not to talk about this since it would only hurt their case.

This is the month before Christmas, so Christmas was looking pretty dismal at this point. If you have ever been in this position, you realize that you really don’t know if you will or will not have a job in a few weeks/months.

About 10 days later, the Magnificent 7 were all individually scheduled to meet with management. When several of them asked if they could bring a lawyer, close friend, husband or another flight attendant into the room for the discussion, they were all told “no”. They could not tape the discussion either.

They were individually disciplined most with permanent warning letters in their files. Two were placed on 6 months probation with final warning for those 6 months and then a warning notice for four years. George, the flight leader was one of these two…just because he was the flight leader. Now doesn’t that want to make you embrace this Flight Leader program?
Brad was given a final warning notice. He can make no mistakes in the remainder of his 30 year career (if he stays that long). He was suspended though the remainder of Nov. without pay. No formal charges were filed by the FBI or other Government agencies involved.

And just in case you think there is actually a “policy” that states how long a “warning” letter can stay in your file…there isn’t. They will pull out letters from 10 years ago to make a case for termination against you. The rules change at management’s whim.

Not to excuse the severity of the situation, but…these were all great flight attendants who were having fun. They all had 25+ years of service. They never thought that they would ever be called into the office for anything. They are just good workers. They have hundreds of customer compliments letters. None of them thought that the actions of another flight attendant would have any bearing on their behavior or work record.

Anyway the punishment should fit the crime.

Could you have been a commuter on this flight and also been found responsible since you didn’t say anything or see the gadget? Maybe there was a commuter on the 4R jumpseat.

The moral of this story is; you are guilty just by being on the aircraft. Even the f/a in f/c who never even made it to the back of the plane was suspended.

If we had had representation, they would have never been able to even question them without a union rep present. There is no “unpaid suspension”. It is paid, which then requires the company to expedite the investigation. Warning letters can be purged. The list goes on.


Want a union now?