As you may recall, Bonnie and I are in Minneapolis because I took a job with Northwest Airlines in their marketing department, domestic yield management to be exact. Anyway, before I started I was informed that I had been selected to go through flight attendant training. It was something that other incoming MBA recruits would be going through with several other people in management. Knowing that the airline industry is an intense union environment, where union leaders and upper management often fight it out to the finish, I thought that this was a program designed to help management get a better understanding of what it would be like to work on the “front lines.” WRONG. The mechanics union were in the middle of there negotiations and things weren’t going well (something I already knew), but the flight attendants were the one union that was likely to support the mechanics, potentially calling in sick en mass and/or striking themselves (something I didn’t know). So, as it turns out I was asked to be nothing other than a scab. When I started work on July 18 I spent my first week doing computer-based training in preparation for two weeks in the classroom. I have one week left in the classroom, and so far, other than the actual thought of working a flight, things have gone pretty good. We’ve jumped down the escape slide, played in the rafts, and of course mastered the safety demonstration. For our “final exam”, we will actually work a flight from Minneapolis to somewhere on the west coast. If it weren’t for the 55 year-old fat Midwestern guys with hearing aids who can barely turn around in the isles, I’m sure no one would notice anything odd.
Today I found out, that I am being stationed in Washington DC on Aug 18 and be on call for probably a week. On the 19th the mechanics are free to strike, but most people seem to think that it won’t come to that and if it does, the flight attendants won’t do anything in support. Thought you’d enjoy the update.
Prepare doors for departure and crosscheck,
Rough
This was a couple weeks before the strike actually happened, and the
flight attendants did support the mechanics. Fly safe, Rough!