Oh no, I agree that the company abuses our contract. Believe me, I realize there are grievances out there. But I believe that there are certain things that they simply cannot abuse, unless the FA simply does not know the contract. For instance, (and these are JUST made up examples..)if we negotiate a maximum, say, 12 hour flight time on a transcon turn, then that can't be violated. If we negotiate, say, a maximum 16 hour duty day, that can't be violated. If we negotiate a maximum of, say 3 legs in any day scheduled over 8 hours of flight time, that can't be violated. If we negotiate, say, a minimum pay per day of 5+15, including splits, that can't be violated. If we negotiate, say, a %age of transcon turns per base, per day, that can't be violated. The only way it could be violated is if a flight attendant allowed the company to violate.
Unfortunately, there will always be grievances, and the Union will always interpret certain parts of the contract differently (Just look to the pilots and LOA93 in a few months-- each party reads it differently). This is not a valid reason for not splitting from our pilots. If the work rules are not negotiated in black and white, then obviously that would be a concern. Simply stating that splitting would not work because of what the company "could" do is shortsighted. Again, every other major airline that splits has a MUCH more complex and larger route system than US, and they seem to function productively.
