Flight Attendant Moves

Submitted by Julia Morris on November 5, 2005 - 6:20pm.

Northwest Airlines has plans to outsource some of the highly sought after flight attendant shifts on its transatlantic and other long haul flights, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The move comes as the bankruptcy protected airline is looking to cut flight attendant costs by $195 a year.

If the plan succeeds, and the company manages to use labor that is not in the Professional Flight Attendants Association union, it will certainly unburden itself from a sizable chunk of money, particularly as these routes are usually staffed by more senior and therefore expensive attendants.

But the operations will need to be managed with some care. Many consider flying these routes a perk, which no doubt also fosters a certain amount of staff loyalty. Taking this away might dampen spirits, which in a service industry is never too good.

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Anonymous (not verified) said:
November 7, 2005 - 12:59am

Northwest Airlines has proposed to outsource the jobs of approximately 3,000 Flight Attendants that currently work on International flights. They plan on replacing those jobs, currently worked by U.S. citizens, with foreign nationals, in a shocking move to slash their labor costs.

Not only does this move threaten the jobs of thousands of Northwest Flight Attendants, but it will only lead to the other U.S. airlines to pursue a similar cost cutting move. Eventually we will see an industry in which Flight Attendant jobs are handed out to foreign nationals participating in a rapid race to the bottom in a pursuit to find the lowest paying workforce available on the global market.

But the job losses alone are not the only thing you should be concerned with. What about the safety and security concerns? How can we guarantee that these new flight attendants will be subjected to the same rigorous safety training standards that we are required to complete? Will there be English language proficiency standards to guarantee that flight attendants can communicate flawlessly with the cockpit in an emergency situation?

Also, what about the security ramifications? Currently, flight attendants are subjected to thorough background checks. How can we be assured that TSA has the resources and ability to conduct the necessary 10-year background checks on these individuals?

Clearly there are serious safety and security concerns that must be addressed by the federal government before Northwest is allowed to outsource all these jobs.

I strongly urge you to sign-on to the Maloney-Ramstad letter that encourages Northwest to reconsider this proposal. The safety and security of our airlines are at stake.