Workers Get Sick after eating Holiday Meal

[NYGiantsFan90]

CHICAGO (AP) - Five United Airlines workers sought medical attention for nausea and vomiting after the company provided a Thanksgiving meal to employees.

United offered the turkey dinner Thursday to nearly 3,000 mechanics, baggage handlers and other employees working the holiday at O'Hare International Airport.

Flight crews didn't participate.

The dinner was seen as a reconciliatory gesture from the company to its employees, said Don Wolfel, president of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association Local 4, which represents mechanics at United.

Unions have criticized the airline, a unit of UAL Corp., for awarding tens of millions of dollars in pay increases and bonuses to top managers after employees took big pay cuts to help the company survive bankruptcy.

``For years, management worked to distance themselves from employees, but now they're trying to reach out to us,'' Wolfel said of the holiday meal. ``The idea is that we're all in this together.''

But one of the meals for dayshift crews quickly ended after staff found that the turkey ``was not edible,'' said Megan McCarthy, a United spokeswoman.
``There were questions about whether the turkey smelled quite right,'' Wolfel said. ``The popular opinion was that it didn't.''

Five employees reported nausea and a few workers vomited, said John Zautcke, a medical director at the O'Hare office of the University of Illinois-Chicago Medical Center. He did not have a diagnosis Thursday.

Three employees returned to work, McCarthy said. She didn't know if the other two did.

The meal had been catered. The caterer could not be reached for comment Thursday.

On the Net:
United Airlines: http://www.united.com
Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association: http://www.amfanatl.org

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

The five affected workers returned to work?

Anyone who ever ate bad bird doesn't return to work the same day without a diaper.

Too bad they couldn't devote the same amount of creativity to their customer service responsibilites....

 

[Harry Callahan]

In my station(US) most of the senior employees including myself declined the company food. Glad they are ok.

 

[tech2101]

In my station(US) most of the senior employees including myself declined the company food. Glad they are ok.

I'm sure they are happy they didn't offer it to the flight crews. That could have been a nightmare.


"United's operation was not disrupted, she said. The food was not for flight crew but for mechanics, baggage handlers and other airport employees. Management gave them all $10 gift certificates for the airports' food vendors to make up for the loss of the meal."


Chicago Trib article is here.

 

[JungleClone]

Leave it to UA's stellar senior management team to have a supposed gesture of goodwill turn into another embarassment. While they certainly have no control over food going bad, on a perception scale, the hits just keep on coming!!

 

[PO'ed PHX Ramper]

What a kick in the balls! Hey UA. I feel for ya guys, we are all in the same boat here.


Here's to ya brothers!