Turbulence forecast in 1970s:
Jumbo jets began to fill the sky in the early 1970s. In a smooth transition, men were hired in 1972 to work with the stewardesses and the few Hawaiian stewards who had joined stewardesses in 1950. By 1973, the modern Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) was created and the nation's cabin attendants were renamed flight attendants.
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United, along with the nation's carriers, underwent economic upheavals during the early 1970s and the new jumbo jets often departed half-full. Airline analysts cited high costs, lower fares and a flattened market. Coinciding with the rising fuel prices and fuel allocation shortages due, in part, to the Persian Gulf cartel embargo in the early 1970s, there were also internal disruptions at United. Between 1970 and 1989, United made six changes in the office of president.
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Inflight service at United mirrored the highly competitive market in its quest to lure or regain the business of air travelers. Spacious lounges, special food offerings and continuous open bar services were offered to entice infrequent fliers to fly United. Jobs were threatened and ultimately flight attendants were furloughed. Newly created "smoking sections" grew smaller as more travelers desired a smoke-free environment.
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Struggles for change:
During the turbulent 1970s, the flight attendants' union and United began to work through some of the most significant changes of the century for the profession. The no-marriage rules, no-pregnancy requirement, weight restrictions and signing agreements to leave the flight attendant job after age 32 were partially resolved through negotiations, litigation, lobbying congress and media and governmental attention on the issues. Hundreds of former stewardesses who were grounded after marriage sought reinstatement of their jobs. The number of potential entitlement claims tallied up to more than 2,000 women.
Easing labor strife:
Labor strife in the mid and late 1970s touched most employees at United. The renewed movement for women's equality that began in 1969 touched responsive nerves in large numbers of women. By the mid-1970s the flight attendant union leadership began the serious work of addressing the need to be recognized as fully empowered women serious about erasing inequities of treatment.
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Some of the issues had nothing to do with traditional styled union negotiations and United negotiator Chuck Thomson remembers, ". . .we had a lot of sessions break down--not because of the issues--but because of the way the female union negotiators thought we were addressing them. . .equal treatment with the pilots was the major theme throughout the whole negotiations. . ." Issues that were a high priority included parity in deadheading, cross-town travel, single hotel rooms and extended work duty periods.
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| Pensions, not an issue with the earlier short-term stewardesses, now became essential. V. Diane Robertson, then chairperson of the Association of Flight Attendants at United states, ". . .it seemed to be an attitude of the company of 'why should the girls have single rooms,' and we were able to make the membership aware that after a long work day, they too, deserved a single hotel room."
United and the AFA addressed issues of disparate treatment based on gender and the contracts of the late 1970s opened long-term careers for flight attendants. Some restrictions such as height, weight, and age requirements were eased and basic retirement plans enabled flight attendants to look forward to a career in the job.
Early deregulation creates havoc:
The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 immediately impacted the industry, and flight attendants at United saw a moratorium on flight attendant hiring. The industrywide early effects of deregulation included bankruptcies, mergers, acquisitions, furloughs and domicile closures.
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As early phases of airline deregulation rocked the industry, United flight attendants were joined by new hires, some of whom had worked at now-defunct airlines. Former flight attendants who proved entitlement under the 1965 enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also were returning to their jobs.
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At the close of the 1970s, United employed around 8,700 flight attendants and about half were married. One in five had children and the average age of a flight attendant was 31.
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Deregulation turmoil and successes--1980s:
For flight attendants, the 1980s represented an extremely active time. Furloughs early in the decade, brought on by the effects of deregulation, rising fuel prices and a deep economic recession demanded creative thinking. United and the AFA worked together to implement innovative solutions such as job sharing that paired flight attendants who shared schedules and reallotted vacation to reduce temporary layoffs.
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In 1981, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reduced required cabin crewmembers, but the AFA conducted a nationwide campaign to help kill the plan. United's negotiated staffing already exceeded the FAA proposed minimums.
A renewed focus on security and safety issues intensified, and as a result, the flight attendant union began expanding its safety and health committee at United. Flight Attendant Fidel Gonzales later filled a full-time safety and health chairperson job for the union. He noted that the presence of local domicile safety representatives improved services to flight attendants injured on the job. The AFA representatives also dealt with terrorism, health, and assault issues.
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In 1984, the AFA was granted a charter by the AFL-CIO, ending its 41-year quest since the union's founding at United.
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No more business as usual:
The airline began to computerize tasks in the early 1980s. The move was an instant success with flight attendants. They quickly lined up at computers to access information that would help them gain more control over their worklives. Computer rooms were set up at domiciles that allowed flight attendants to trade work days, bid for advance schedules and enter and audit pay records. With tools they needed at their fingertips, the pace of the flight attendant worklife quickened.
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Labor strife in the airlines intensified after the Reagan administration replaced striking air traffic controllers in the early 1980s. By the end of the decade more than 20,000 flight attendants walked picket lines in the U.S. airline industry, either honoring their own strikes or those of other working groups. At United the flight attendants honored the pilots' strike of 1985.
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Following the turbulent 1985 pilots' strike, the flight attendants set out to participate in significant changes. During that year United's acquisition of Pan American World Airways' Pacific Division gave flight attendants renewed optimism and excitement. The addition of international routes expanded their schedules, increased earnings for many and offered job security. More than a thousand Pan American flight attendants from the acquisition were added to the United workforce.
Transitions in the deregulated airline industry brought more change. United's parent company was forced by a major investment group to divest itself of its non-airline subsidiaries. United, once again, became involved exclusively in air transport operations.
Other shifts in the industry were occurring. In 1990, a smoking ban went into effect on all domestic flights and a smoke-free workplace became a reality for thousands of flight attendants. By the end of the 1980s, the concept of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan took hold at United, and the 1990s would bring winds of change for all employees.
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