Guam’s United Airlines Flight Attendants joined the picket line yesterday, standing in solidarity with UA employees nationwide against the airline’s management.
PNC’s Damen Michael and Khyomara Santana were on location and spoke with UA employees to get their input on the situation.
Here’s more…
Guam Based UA Flight attendants including their supporters picketed outside the A.B. Won Pat International Airport
Rich Delin AFA Union Representative said, ” that as poor working conditions continue to soar it is the main concern for the union, employers have to maintain their employees.”
Further saying that flight attendants are front-line employees and that if the airline continues to use and overwork them, without properly maintaining them, then eventually they will break down.
Rich Delin, Representative of the Association of Flight Attendants said, ” The problem is we need the resources and we can’t work effectively and do it efficiently without these resources, and some of those come in which management has to provide. ”
Kitty Mccorsley, Representative of the Association of Flight Attendants added ” The biggest thing is management needs to step up and get it done it constantly excuses well here’s why we can’t do it and here’s why we can’t do it and we just need to see them doing it even if it means them taking the moment to step up and doing it themselves as crew members we are the front line resource we are the ones stepping up and doing it for ourselves but we need more backup. ”
Mccorsley added that the lack of action from management regarding the workforce is the main reason for this picketing.
One of the biggest issues they are facing is that management has schedulers that are centralized in Chicago which makes it difficult to resolve issues due to time disparity.
Due to Guam’s geographical location, situations like typhoons may cause delays in operations and recrewing flights could take hours due to communication delays with Chicago’s schedulers.
Mccorsley said, ” personally I’ve spent over two hours at a time waiting on holds with crew scheduling just to work on assignments for my schedule sometimes even as long as three hours to get issues resolved ”
According to Mccorsley, these issues don’t just affect the employees it also can affect customer experience. Adding that she, like many others, is tired of always having to apologize to customers about delays, shortage of items, or a shortage of staff on board
Reporting for the Pacific News Centre
I’m Damen Michael
