Dear Mr. Kirby,
Dear Mr. Kirby, United Executives, and all airline executives and decision makers,
We are in unprecedented times.
We have been for quite some time now. You will not let us forget that in daily emails since the pandemic began, yet all airlines are continuing to make record profits despite the pandemic, which primarily benefits executives and the board.
Mr. Kirby, we find it odd that you decided to post your letter “to United employees” on LinkedIn but never sent it to your employees internally. They are finding out about it through Instagram and other social media. It reads as if it were written by your PR team and edited by lawyers. It also doesn’t mention the private jet even once, which feels as if you only regret doing it because you were caught, and judging by the comments on your LinkedIn apology letter, it seems to be the general feel of both of the letters you have released to the public.
As crew members, we are hyper aware that weather can disrupt our day, crumble operations for days on end, and leave crews in non-ideal circumstances. However, wait time for crew scheduling has been an issue for years. Newark’s airspace has always been a disaster. Furthermore, United and other airlines have known that the FAA is understaffed and that they recommended cutting flights in high-volume areas to account for the issue for months. What did you do to ease operations before the meltdown?
You returned from a Hawaiian holiday with your family to utter chaos. We’re all under stress. We’re all having to make incredibly challenging decisions; however, not everyone is getting hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in stock options to be able to take that holiday or charter that private jet. We understand that investors need a return on their investment, but it’s painful to see record numbers and excessive amounts of money being dished out to the board of directors while some flight attendants are applying for food stamps and sleeping in their cars.
United Airlines isn’t the only airline that has this issue:
JetBlue Airways seems to be running on chaos daily. High wait times to crew scheduling, constant delays, continuously being worked up to and beyond legal limits, and regularly being flown into days off.
Southwest Airlines just had their own internal meltdown leaving crews and customers stranded all over the country. Southwest’s flight attendant’s contract expired in 2018, so it’s shocking that they are still showing up and supporting the operations despite 5 years of negotiations.
In February, Alaska Airlines had flight attendants stranded in airports and left unable to connect to crew scheduling because of snow storms and high volume. This should be no surprise for an airline with its headquarters and largest base in the Pacific Northwest.
American Airlines stated in their negotiation contract that they are looking for ways to “increase efficiency” without implementing any improvements to work-life balance
Your “solutions” are a band-aid. Yes, the technology that supports crews across the industry is incredibly outdated. However, ANOTHER app or website will not fix this problem.
Some better solutions would be to:
Invest in your crew members. We don’t want an app that will create more questions than solutions—we want more humans behind desks 24/7 who can answer questions and help support us while we’re floating in limbo between broken pairings and cancellations. We want to be able to have quick access to HUMAN BEINGS. There is no possible way a mobile application can answer all of the questions crew members have when going through irregular operations.
Pay your crew for time wasted on hold with crew services, for sleeping on cots, for stealing our days off “for the greater good.” How does your financial model support increasing trips up to 300% during irregular operations? You even had crews working flights in street clothes to get your customers to their destinations. We deserve a break.
Have meltdown procedures and contracts with hotels and other travel solutions (train vouchers, charter bus contracts, etc.) in hub cities that would guarantee available rooms for your crews and customers. There is no reason your flight attendants should be sleeping in an airport—ever. Pilots with schedule changes received rooms right away while flight attendants were left in limbo at the gate.
Create more realistic pairings and more transparency during meltdowns. Your customers and your crew deserve to know that a plane will be delayed or canceled instead of rolling delays that keep people stranded and waiting.
Give your crew contracts that they deserve. I hope this shows how valuable our crew members are and shortens our time at the negotiation table for all crews. United Flight Attendants’ contract expired in 2021. Being a flight attendant isn’t a temporary or short term job—for most, it is a lifelong career. Treat it as such, and retain the people that work so hard to carry your company’s brand.
Let this be a lesson to ALL of aviation leadership, that we are paying attention. We will not be silenced any longer, and we’re ready for REAL change. Your pilots are on the verge of a strike and the rest of the industry is about to boil over along with them.
If “good leads the way” then put your money where your mouth is and take better care of your frontline crews.
Sincerely, on behalf of all flight attendants everywhere,
Domenica Rohrborn
Founder of Pay Me for Boarding
Change is in the air!
