Stewardesses unify on many fronts:
Air evacuation missions of wounded soldiers in World War II called for onboard nurses, and many United stewardesses patriotically rallied to the call. Ellen Church, the world's first stewardess, took to the air again in 1942 and used her flying and nursing skills in Africa, Italy, England and France. For her achievements, she became one of the few women to earn the Air Medal.
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Lillian Kinkela took military leave from United and joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, completing 425 air evacuation missions. Kinkela was the Air Force's most decorated nurse in World War II and she later became the most decorated woman in U. S. Military history.
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| Mary O'Connor, who sat jobless by her telephone in the 1930s, explained that in 1943, "The country was begging for nurses." So she asked for a commission in the Navy Nurse Corps and took a military leave from her stewardess job.
Working on the home front:
Stewardesses also were busy back on the home front. In 1942, half as many United planes carried more passengers more miles than its entire fleet had flown the previous year. The war effort also forced modifications in the stewardess job, and United in 1942 hired non-nurse stewardesses known as "co-eds."
Edith Lauterbach joined the stewardess ranks in 1944. She explained that due to war priorities, airplanes never flew with an empty seat. From the beginning of her career, Lauterbach questioned the low earnings that had not increased and, in some instances even decreased, from the original eight stewardesses' pay in 1930. Stewardesses could also be dispatched to work unlimited hours. Lodging at layover stations was crowded in lounges or bunker-type setups in hangars. Ada Brown, hired in 1940, recalls, "Stewardesses used leg makeup, because of the shortage of hosiery due to the war. Sometimes the bed was still warm from the person ahead of you and there would be leg makeup all over the sheets. . ."
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World's first cabin attendant union at United
Air Lines:
As home front participation during World War II began to wind down, some stewardesses thought they had become forgotten workers. Ada Brown, a nurse stewardess with four years of seniority, left her chief stewardess management job in December 1944 to organize a union for stewardesses.
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With lightning speed, Brown and the grass roots stewardess organizers signed up almost 300 women and formed the world's first stewardess union at United.In a significant and progressive action, United's management in 1945 voluntarily recognized the stewardess union. Under the Railway Labor Act, voluntary recognition without National Mediation Certification is permissible in the absence of a challenge from a rival union. When it was brought to the attention of United President William A. Patterson that the representational vote could be verified United lawyer John Hill remembered Patterson's reply was, "'No, do not check the legalities. The stewardesses need a union.'" Chuck McErlean, a negotiator for United for the first cabin attendant agreement explained: ". . .we believed it better to deal with a recognized agent. The stewardesses, as short-term employees, especially would be easier to deal with as a union."
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The first stewardess agreement was signed April 16, 1946, and backdated to Jan. 1, 1946. All future cabin attendants at United now had a forum to negotiate for their rates of pay, rules, and working conditions. Pan American cabin attendants, some of whom joined United in an acquisition in the 1980s, initially obtained recognition from Pan American for the Transport Workers Union on June 7, 1946. Capital Airlines' stewardesses who found a home at United after the airlines' merger in 1961, shared their union history with the United stewardesses. Today, the flight attendants at United are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants.
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Back in 1945, Ada Brown and the stewardess organizers at United instituted similar organizing efforts at Braniff, Continental, and Western Airlines. They were in touch with cabin attendants at American Airlines, Mid-Continent, and Inland Airlines. Brown's goal was to have all cabin attendants represented as a class and craft and chartered under the American Federation of Labor (AFL) or the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
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The no-marriage rule, instituted when the first women took to the skies as stewardesses, lingered on. As a result, careers usually averaged around 18 months. The rapid turnover of stewardesses would have profound effects on their work lives as they entered the post World War II era.
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