For Immediate Release: November 11, 2008
Contact: Corey Caldwell 202-434-0586
Midwest Flight Attendants Overwhelmingly Vote No Confidence In Current Management
Washington, DC – Midwest flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), today announced the results of a survey regarding employee and passenger views of Midwest management and the carrier’s current economic situation. With over 200 votes cast, participants overwhelmingly declared that Midwest CEO Tim Hoeksema lacks the leadership skills necessary to make the carrier successful and expressed no confidence in the airline’s current management team.
“Midwest flight attendants, pilots and other employees strive everyday to provide ‘the best care in the air’ while management continues to turn their back on the values that built this company and continue to move forward in the outsourcing of our job,” said Toni Higgins, AFA-CWA Midwest President. “We will not stand idly by and let this management team furlough hundreds of flight attendants and demand drastic wage and benefit cuts from those that remain while they continue to line their pockets with millions. Those are not shared sacrifices and they are not Midwest values.”
On Wednesday, November 12, Midwest flight attendants and pilots will hold a joint rally in Oak Creek, Wisconsin as part of their campaign to inform passengers of management's recent plans to transfer most flights over to another carrier. The rally will begin at 12:00 p.m. and feature speakers from AFA-CWA as well at the Air Lines Pilots Association (ALPA).
After soaring oil prices sent Midwest Airlines to the brink of bankruptcy, under Hoeksema’s “leadership”, Midwest management agreed to outsource most of the current flights to another airline. The move to reduce flying results in the outsourcing of Midwest flight attendants and other employees. According to the proposed plan, close to 300 flight attendants, over 75 percent, would be outsourced. Management even went so far as to say that if the remaining 120 flight attendants agreed to massive concessions, there would be a chance that some of the outsourced flying would return to Midwest Airlines.
RALLY DETAILS
Where: Oak Creek Community Center
8580 S. Howell Avenue
Oak Creek, WI 53154
When: Wednesday, November 12
Time: Noon to 3:00 p.m.
For over 60 years, the Association of Flight Attendants has been serving as the voice for flight attendants in the workplace, in the aviation industry, in the media and on Capitol Hill. More than 55,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines come together to form AFA-CWA, the world’s largest flight attendant union. AFA is part of the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America (CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.afanet.org.
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