deano said:
F/A Article
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Was this article well written? I think we can all agree that it wasn’t.
Was it inflammatory to airline labor? I think we can all agree that it was.
Who was the main audience he was trying to reach? Definitely NOT airline labor.
What point was the author trying to make? If you believe that the author’s purpose for writing the article was to portray F/A’s as flying waitresses, I think your wrong. I think everyone needs to look at this article from a different perspective. While I believe he used overly demeaning tones and was completely disrespectful of the F/A profession, I think his purpose was this:
If all the AFA represented F/A’s were to strike, what would happen? Would life turn to utter chaos? Would people die? The answers are, of course, NO and NO. All that would happen is that a lot of people would be seriously inconvenienced in their travel plans as the airline industry in this country would come to a screeching halt for a while. The point, I believe Heyl is trying to make is “Big deal. I don’t care ‘cause it won’t happen.†(His Reagan reference infers that he believes the government will step in and stop any strike)
Let’s look at some different industries for a minute:
In the electrical transmission, distribution, and generation industry, a large number of organized labor is represented by the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) this union actually has no rights to strike. That’s affirmative, the US gov decided that electricity is too important “to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness†to allow labor to have that much power (no pun intended). Simply put, if the juice stops flowing, life as we know it stops. In the most severe cases, some people would die without electricity.
In the health care industry, imagine what would happen if a union representing 2/3 of the nations nurses were to strike. Forcing the entire nation to close most if not all of it’s medical facilities. Once again the worst result is that people would die. In this case the government would again step in and tell labor “Sorry, but your really going to have to go back to work. Or else we’ll through you in jail.†Wow, and we thought we lived in a free country.
Since the majority of us on this board are airline employees or very frequent flyers, we tend to put a higher emphasis on travel than most of the general public. But if any airline labor group tried an across the board strike of true solidarity that effected multiple US airlines, do you believe that the US gov would stop it? Do you think that air travel is essential enough to force Uncle Sam to step in and institute measures that were designed to keep the American public from harm and peril?
Obviously Eric Heyl believes so. I myself am not convinced. I would definitely sleep better at night if I didn’t think that most of airline management believes they have Bush and the courts firmly in their corner.
I think they might just be in for a surprise….
USPerfEngr
