Steeland's Comments Completely Inappropriate

Some groovy news from within the airline industry... Please share this information with one and all.... Today, October 14, 2005, in MSP in an address to pilots at the NATCO building, NWA CEO Doug Steenland referred to Flight Attendants as "overpaid vending machines." Now I am not sure about you, but I truly find this to be one of the most offensive things he has publicly said. His total lack of respect for his own employees rivals that of his own recognition of how valuable Flight Attendants are to safe and secure air travel. Imagine the May incident where two of our own aircraft collided in MSP. Flight Attendants, even though injured, helped safely evacuate every passenger in 90 seconds with no reported passenger injuries. Our Flight Attendants did it again in August when a 747's landing gear failed on landing in Guam. Air France Flight Attendants heroically saved every passenger's life in a fiery crash in Toronto in July. That's three incidents/accidents this year alone in which Flight Attendants made headlines for their bravery in ensuring the safety of passengers. Now what has this overpaid talentless executive done for NWA? He's collected millions in salary and bonues while simultaneously running our beloved company into bankruptcy. He has failed in developing a business plan to make NWA succeed. He wasted more than a hundred million dollars on a union-busting contingency plan that included breaking AMFA and callously recalling Flight Attendants furloughed back as far as 9/11 just to re-furlough them again two months later. He failed to hedge fuel calling it too risky yet refused to raise fares in hopes of ridding competition. He has called fuel hedging "stupid", "risky" and "a gamble." Yet he has gambled our company and our futures away. Instead of focusing on employees and running a great airline, he has looked for ways to break our spirits and bust our union. If we're "overpaid vending machines" according to him, what does that make Steenland?