Globe: Flying into the two-tier wage world

[sourdick]

AirCanada is having labour problems. After unions representing their flight attendants failed to secure a ratified vote on (a second) agreed upon deals with the airline, the attendants were ready to walk. Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to review stalled contract talks at the airline. In so doing, she

Comments

[northern_dirt]

Service industry wage..
let them work for tips like other servers..

Id rather have no attendants and a $50 discount..

[sourdick]

The safety check is done by VIDEO now. Set up a vending machine with some booze in it and let flight attendants fade into the past.

[dzuunmod]

I wonder whether there are regulations from the CTSB that would prevent this.

[sourdick]

I know in my specific industry (rail) the amount of human verifications has decreased as requirements for technological monitoring has increased and become mandatory.

Regulations can always be changed once a technology has proven to be sound.

[dzuunmod]

I somehow can't imagine that we'll ever reach the day where there are no attendants on a full 747, but maybe I could see the number slashed to 1 or 2 or something.

[northern_dirt]

Flight attendants seem to be a hold over from a different era..
Much like gas station attendants..

[mijopo]

from the Wikipedia article on flight attendants:

"Flight attendants are highly trained to deal with a wide variety of emergencies,and are trained in First Aid. More frequent situations may include a bleeding nose, illness, small injuries, intoxicated passengers, aggressive and anxiety stricken passengers. Emergency training includes rejected takeoffs, emergency landings, cardiac and in-flight medical situations, smoke in the cabin, fires, depressurization, on-board births and deaths, dangerous goods and spills in the cabin, emergency evacuations, hijackings, water landings, and sea, jungle, arctic, and desert survival skills."

Yeah, good point, we're long past worrying about any of these things. In fact, from what I understand the threat of hijacking is now so low that they've completely done away with airport security checks.

[sourdick]

Are you kidding me? You think that seven week training includes HIJACKER TRANING and BIRTHING BABIES?

At least we know for sure that a flight attendant wrote the wiki on Flight Attendants.

[mijopo]

No, it probably means they're not adequately trained for the duties they're expected to perform.

[suitablyemoname]

Are you kidding me? You think that seven week training includes HIJACKER TRANING and BIRTHING BABIES?

...it most definitely does. I did a two-day first aid course with my current employer and we spent at least an hour on assisting with birth, along with a further half-day on first aid for infants and newborns.

[northern_dirt]

A single flight attended or EMS worker could replace the 5-6+ they have currently on flights.

[jamesq]

Really? They can deal with all passenger queries with one person? If there's an emergency they can handle that while simultaneously dealing with other passengers? They can handle potentially drunk/unruly/violent passengers single-handedly? They can monitor minors being transported without a guardian by themselves? They can do all that even if they themselves become incapacitated during the flight?

I know people joke about them being sky-waitresses, but they're not up there to serve you drinks - that just gives everyone something to do on a hopefully routine flight. It's the non-routine flights where they become important.

We can automate the plane taking off and landing too, do you want us to do away with pilots entirely, or just pay them minimum wage?

[sourdick]

A new crush? I'm hurt. And I even starting going to the gym, baby..

[sourdick]

I cant believe you compared pilots to flight attendants. Pilots go through years of school, and hundreds, if not thousands of clocked hours in a highly regulated and difficult training.

Flight attendants can waltz straight out of grade 11 on graduation day, and be a flight attendant by August.

You really think that's comparable, and we should be comparing their rights to wages in the exact same way?

[jamesq]

You and northern_dirt were making the argument that they weren't needed because of automation. I was just taking it to the logical conclusion.

You seem hung up on their level of education. Please enlighten us: what level of education and experience should you have to warrant the maximum of $46K/year?