Dear USairways employees.

[BlueSkies]

I for one do not wish to see ANY airline employee lose a company. I am hoping for the best for all of you. It is morbid to read so much talk about picking apart a still operating company. It is far better to take pay cuts and have a path to save years of senority than no job and a vanished company. Do whatever it takes to save your company. The best to all of you!

[jetstewus]

Thanks BlueSkies! It's hard to look at paycuts and the possiblility of more layoffs, especially for the many employees who have been here for years and have heard this all before.

Our new CEO doesn't seem like a liar though. Like it or not this is the shape we are in TODAY and we've got to suck it up. I hope my fellow employees will join me in supporting our company and trying to make it a survivor. The alternatives seem pretty bleak at this point.

Good luck everyone! images/icons/smile.gif

[quickcallqueen]

Blue Skies,
I think that you have a good argument. Still having a job and your seniority are really important.
As I said before, I really would hate to see things go from bad to worse. Sometimes in life you have to make those 11th hour compromises to prevent something going from bad to much worse. Yes, it is a short term sacrifice, but hopefully in the long term things get better for us.
I know that I said it before, the job market is not too good now. None of the major airlines such as United, American, Delta, and Continental are hiring pilots and flight attendants at the present time. Everyone is flocking over to Southwest and JetBlue, but there is no guarantee of a job. I personally tried both and did not make the cut. Even outside the airline industry, the prospects of finding a job are not too good. Regardless of whether you want to find interim employment or actually make a career change, it is like no one wants to hire you because you are a flight attendant, albeit a furloughed flight attendant. Stop and think about it for a moment, you fly for an airline, but you are furloughed at the moment. So, you try to find a job in the meantime to survive. You go to a hotel or retail store to apply for a job. Many of these folks don't want to hire you because you are with an airline and they just draw the conclusion that you are going to get called back to work anyways, so they say just wait for the airline to call you back.
I encountered this. I called about hotel jobs and someone said to me " the airline is going to call you back anyways." I know that alot of my friends have encountered this on numerous occasions. I know someone who has 7 years of work experience as a bartender before she became a flight attendant, and when she went to apply for a bartenders job, guess what they did not want to hire her because she is a flight attendant with an airline and come to the conclusion that she would go back to here flight attendant job in a heartbeat. Many of us have encountered this in the job market.
I am speaking from personal experience here. I have been involuntarily furloughed for the last 7 months from US AIRWAYS. I am one of the 50 that just got recalled to go to LGA in July. Yes, I am happy to be coming back to work, and I love being a flight attendant. Needless to say I have not been able to find another job and I have two college degrees. So, my friends, the job market is not a good place now , regardless of whether you have a marketable job skill or a college education.
I know that I don't really relish the idea of taking a paycut, but I would not want to see things go from bad to worse for all of us. I will say that it is better to actually have a job and get paychecks than to be getting unemployment checks. Here is a thought: "BE LUCKY TO HAVE A JOB". When I finally get back to work, I will be glad to have a job. Unemployment is not much. Even if I was not flying and only getting my monthly guarantee, it would be more than what I get from state unemployment and I would have health insurance.
Thanks for bearing with me my fellow flight attendants. I just thought I would share how I feel with all this going on.

Have a nice day images/icons/grin.gif

[quickcallqueen]

I just thought that I would tell all of you that this is for everyone to read. I did not just address the letter to BlueSkies, I just merely stated that BlueSkies has a good argument. So, this is an open letter for everyone to read. I welcome your opinions, thoughts, and/or criticisms. Feel free to add your thoughts.