ftfy.
.
American Airlines employee appears to hit woman with baby stroller, challenges passenger to 'hit me'
6 Likes
That doesn’t really put the woman in a bad light. It seems like one flight attendant told her she could look for space in an overhead bin for the stroller, and then another flight attendant, unaware of that, just flat out overreacted. And the one witness is wrong, because airline policy, in this case, doesn’t specifically ban strollers, so the woman was not out of line for bringing it on board. Kudos for looking up a reliable source.
15 Likes
Might have a bit to do with the policy that Fight attendants do not get paid until the door is closed and the airplane starts to move.
That is when their time clock for payment starts.
All that stuff they do before you take off…they aren’t getting paid for.
So they have a incentive to pack it up and close that door to get paid.
Everything the FA does from serving you pre-take off champagne in first class to helping people board the plane…they are not on the clock. They only get paid for hours when the doors close and plane pushes back from the terminal.
So, yeah…they have a incentive to get the cattle seated and close the doors to get a pay check.
6 Likes
Well that’s some bullshit right there. Not your statement, but whatever (likely illegal) clause in their employment contracts allows it. If I’m an hourly worker doing work for my employer I am damned sure getting paid for it. Even fast food workers get paid for pre-opening setup and post-closing cleanup.
14 Likes
1 Like
Where was the dad?!
Well, it’s been industry standard for decades.
Do you get paid for sitting in your car in traffic? Nope. FA’s don’t get paid sitting in the waiting room for a flight. And often they’ll have a ‘call’ where they have to sit in the waiting room to get a flight…unpaid…until the flight is called up.
They get paid by the metric of the flight time when the plane closes it’s doors and all the passengers are seated and stuff is stowed.
That’s just the way it is now and has been for decades.
And is probably a contributor of friction between FA’s and passengers boarding a flight.
Well it’s still bullshit. Hardly anyone gets paid for commute time unless they use their own car for company business too, then they at least get mileage. It’s not at all comparable to already being at your place of business and doing your job helping passengers and serving drinks and not getting paid just because the airplane door isn’t latched yet. The friction should be with the employer, not the passengers. (And where’s their union in all this? What kind of union lets this kind of crappy deal happen? Imagine if a miner’s union had said “Oh, you want 12 hour days six days a week and to pay company scrip instead of money? Safety equiment and standards are too expensive to implement?
Sounds good!”)
6 Likes
How about criminal charges if there was an actual assault with witnesses?
Then maybe we wouldn’t have as many overworked and power hungry employees getting shit upon by their companies saying “I don’t care because I hate my job and F-everyone”. If the thought becomes “Fuck, I may get actual jail time if I assault someone”. Also, can’t the FAA levy exorbitant fines for this this kind of crap?
I honestly am not a big fan of the “appeal to a higher power/threat” approach, but it works.
(note, this train of thought should also be applied to police forces)
1 Like
Don’t know, but she may have been en route to meet him. I travel regularly for work, when my kids were small we arranged a couple times for my wife and son to come out and meet me. Rather than me heading home for just two days before having to fly out again, she was able to come out for a week to spend time with me in New York. Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s along the lines of what was happening here.
3 Likes
Not a strong enough incentive, apparently, since attacking the passengers tends to delay takeoff. Maybe they need to add another clause that says flight attendants don’t get paid unless all the customers are boarded and arrive at their destination without being attacked by the airline employees.
It now seems both reasonable and necessary to specify “Job duties include not assaulting and battering the customers.” 
2 Likes
I had to take a few UA and AA flights some years ago when i was living in Canada for a while. Boy, the atmosphere on those flights even back then was some of the most tense shit I have experienced. Every employee was on edge or indifferent at best. Flying with someone who has some pretty bad anxiety issues on planes those were not pleasant fligts. I shudder to think what almost ten years of security theatre and fear mongering have transformed these already bad customer experiences into.
4 Likes
I would have said this is what happens when you build a society where the foundation is the imperative to accumulate capital, but then I thought this would be a bit generic and I dropped it.
3 Likes
Possible no dad. Possible mom going on trip dad to follow along later or meet dad at location (I’ve done this and it sucks even with just one child). Possible mom going on trip alone because dad not available/ amenable to accompany.
Traveling sucks. Traveling with ONE small child sucks balls. Traveling with two small children? That is one strong lady.
10 Likes
Suit up!
2 Likes
You just did say it.
O_O
1 Like
Not on that flight, is my distinct impression.
1 Like
That’s what you get when your so keen on free market capitalism that you allow for near monopolies in the airline business.
2 Likes
and she just happened to do it in a plane full of people who thought aw, aren’t overly entitled ladies who get miffed about not being able to do what they want so very precious and deserving of protection! Only in America(n)!
2 Likes
I’m automatically wary of any company that refers to its employees with euphemisms like “team members”.
1 Like
