Management says that the Flight Attendants are important part of Hawaiian Airlines’ success and they want to provide more for us, but the current financial situation does not allow them to give anything close to what the AFA is asking for the Flight Attendants. Is that true?
It’s true that the Flight Attendants are an important part of Hawaiian Airlines’ success. It is not true that management cannot give anything close to what the AFA is asking for. Just because the first part of a statement (you are important) is true, that doesn’t mean the second part of a statement (we cannot afford to give you anything close to what the AFA is asking for) is true. Management will sometimes say something is important and then give a reason why they cannot do it, and other times they will do things that show that the first part of a statement really is not as important as they say.
An example of this can be seen in the Japan market. Management has always maintained that the Japan market is important to the success of Hawaiian Airlines. When we first launched our service to HND in 2010, the service on the aircraft showed the statement was true: a great First Class service with high tea, higher quality meals for Extra Comfort passengers and so on. Since that time management has continued to say that the Japanese market is important to the success of Hawaiian Airlines, however, what we have seen on the aircraft over the years is a slow, steady, decline in service. No more high tea, higher quality Extra Comfort meals, glasses or metal utensils in the MC, etc., etc. Even though the company has been consistently profitable there has been a seemingly never-ending march to cut costs in order to make more profits. Given these facts it would appear that the Japanese market may not be as important as they have said, otherwise they would not have cut back on service while making record profits.
Our concern is that with this management team, the Flight Attendants, like the Japanese market, are next. Everything and everyone is a cost and management appears to be willing to cut costs even if they have said it is important and the company is profitable. In the case of the Japanese market it appears that the pending Joint Venture with JAL is forcing management to live up to its declaration of the importance of the Japanese market. Similarly, we need to stand together and force management to live up to its declaration about the importance of the Flight Attendants. We need to hold management to their words. We need to vote “FOR.”