NewHampshire Black Bears said:
I am not saying that there is no abuse of the sick policy; however, the work environment does put the flight attendants at a higher risk of getting sick.
Garfield/ops,
TWAnr's post, IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU 2 "REFUSE"(VIA DENIAL) TO ACKNOWLEGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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NHBB, go back and read Gar's post. He never said that flight attendants should be or are less sick than their counterparts. What he said was that the sick list doubles a couple of days before Christmas, July 4th, Thanksgiving, you name it, and then goes back down the day after.
TWAnr, as a flight attendant, one of my major rants has always been regarding the "attendance managers"--which, by the way, are being eliminated. When I had just about a year on the line, I said to Jane Allen at a Town Hall meeting that it seemed to skirt the boundaries of legality to grant a benefit to an employee group and then harass them when they availed themselves of the benefit.
However, I said, and I still say, if you are too sick to work--particularly, if you are sick with a viral/bacterial infection picked up from your passengers--YOU ARE TOO SICK TO FLY NON-REV.
Hotel, we are not talking about people who get sick during a trip and need to get home. We are talking about people who year after year call in sick during holidays because they don't have the seniority to hold a line which gives them the day off. It's just wrong and you know it. Is the purpose of our union to do nothing more than protect the jobs of people who
don't like coming to work?
And some of the people are not even bidding. They PLAN to call in sick at Christmas. I'm one of those rare birds who got DFW right out of training. I held Christmas Day off from the very first year because I bid very carefully. I know of one flight attendant who--fortunately for the company and the traveling public and her fellow flight attendants--is now furloughed, who never bid a single time during the 3 years she flew. She said that she got better relief lines than she could bid. Maybe, maybe not. What I do know is that during the 3 years we flew, she called in sick EVERY Christmas. And, then would have a miraculous recovery immediately afterward.
In the two years, 10 months I flew, I was off sick twice. The first time in early December, 2000 with the flu caught from a passenger. I got a Z-pack (can't remember the name of the antibiotic, but it comes in a Z-pack) from my doctor and was back on the line 4 days later. In April, 2001, I was off for several days by order of AA Medical due to blocked ears--and that's a long story that can still make me steam over the total incompetence of AA Medical. From 12Apr01 until 28JUN03 (last day to fly), I was there for every flight and every reserve day I was assigned. Being a flight attendant is just not that hard of a job.
From what I've seen, there are a LOT of flight attendants who would not last a year at most jobs in the real world because of their total lack of a work ethic. I take that back, they have a work ethic--it's "I'll go to work as long as I don't have something better to do." And, don't get your knickers in a twist. I didn't say ALL flight attendants, I said a LOT of them.