Someone once said that there are only two certainties in life: Death and Taxes.  I think you can also add Lack of Airline Management Logic to that list as well.

According to Tuesday's DEAR-AFA tape, United announced this week that all probationary Flight Attendants will be 'released'---even though these very same flight attendants (around 330) were on our System Seniority list as of  September 1st!

'Released' is just a nice word for fired.

Why weren't these flight attendants offered 30-day ANP like everyone else?  Why couldn't they have at least been furloughed?  For heaven's sake, the events on September 11 affected them just as hard as they did for everyone else, yet now they are being fired?

These probationary flight attendants attended six full weeks of training (remember that hell?) six days a week under constant scrutiny to make sure they had what it took to earn our wings.  And these flight attendants received no pay during their training either, lest ye not forget that either.  They were assigned to DCA and ORD, where many of them had to relocate their lives for the company.  All for the sake of providing 'warm and genuine' attentiveness to United's 'customers'.

Of course, AFA is opposed to this action.  According to DEAR-AFA, "Linda Farrow will be personally communicating with United management regarding this grave turn of events, and your AFA representatives will do everything we can to protect our newest Members."

We'll see what transpires from those meetings.  This is one story I hope to update with a happier ending.  In the meantime, I think we ought to provide as much support for them as possible.  They deserve much better than this rotten deal they were handed.  We'll keep you updated here as new information made available.

In the meantime, contrary to certain rumors, this site will remain open to all flight attendants: active, furloughed, or fired.