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Letter to Time Magazine

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Source: Archived Content

Date: Nov 02, 2002

November 2, 2002

Time Magazine Letters
Time & Life Building
Rockefeller Center
New York, NY 10020

Dear Sir or Madam,

In the October 28th issue of Time magazine, you published an article titled, “One Airline's Magic”.

The article, besides being a bloated advertisement for Southwest Airlines, contained some incorrect information concerning the work of United Airlines flight attendants.

According to your article:

Flight attendants at Southwest work as many as 150 hours a month, compared with 80 hours at many other airlines, says union president Thom McDaniel. Southwest attendants are required by contract to "make a reasonable effort to tidy the airplane" between flights, a chore that other major airlines pay contractors to do. According to an airline labor expert, senior flight attendants at United get as many as 52 vacation days (compared with 35 days for veterans at Southwest). And they never have to clean up after the passengers.

That is incorrect. According to our current contract with United Airlines, a flight attendant’s contractual duties include the tidying of aircraft both in flight and on through flights.

That contractual provision aside, there are many cases where flight attendants (of all airlines) regularly clean up after passengers. Be it spilled drinks, scattered newspapers, or discarded coffee cups---to say that United Airlines flight attendants "never have to clean up after the passengers" is as uninformed as it is insulting.

I would appreciate it if you would immediately print a correction and apology to the United Airlines flight attendants.

Sincerely,

Christopher Lee
United Airlines Flight Attendant

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