Open letter from italian cabin crew
 

Please read this letter that an Italian Cabin Crew wrote to passengers talimg about Alitalia sitautuions.

Dear Passengers,
today I don’t want your attention on the emergency exits or on the oxygen masks, I would like to talk about something else and I would really appreciate your full attention this time.
everybody talked about the Alitalia questions, about the wonderful life of us cabin crew, everybody, except US.
Please allow me to say something and please forgive me if I sound too proud but this is really mine and most of my colleagues point of view.


I am a cabin crew for Airone and today I’d like to tell you what we have done before you passenger of Milan –rome flight at 7.00am come onboard, with your blackberry mobile phone and with your financial newspaper under your arm.
We got onboard and check that all emergency equipment work perfectly that all the smoke hoods were full and ready, that all the oxygen masks were perfectly located, life vest on their own place, smoke alarms in the lavatory ready, then we checked that nobody had left something suspicious. We’ve done everything in 10 minutes because today flight was full and we have the same slot.

Now everybody ready to board: smile and “buongiorno” sometimes at this early you reply with a “GRRR” ,but it’s fine, we are cabin crew we are always smiling. I would like to tell you my duties on board today after take off. I will have to be ready to fight a fire in the event that someone of you will have the bad intention to smoke in the lavatory without turn off the cigarette properly. Then may even occur that some of you has an Hearth Attack and then here I am ready to try to deal with this terrible emergency. and if the pregnant lady on row number 4, at his 7 months of the pregnancy, will have water break or something I will be prepared to help here giving the birth. I can even be a psychologist if some of you will panic where the door will be closed. Then Remember that if we crash out the runway during take off or landing WE WILL BE THERE, Ready to open to door and let you out with the emergency slide


Would you ever said this? We “hostess” have to do all those things? Yes, because if we would not doing this we will be in a court room in front of a judge, this is the reasone why we are here, dear passengers. Its after all thise that comes your coffee or your orange jusice. Is this hard to belive?. Today onboard we are 4, one supervisor or purser and then 3 cabin crew seasonal workers, someone is waiting for his permanent contract since 1 year someone else since 4 years and now with this new Alitalia / CAI plan everyone on board will end up lose his job.

Do you know that mosto f Airone Cabin crew are seasonal workers? Till few months ago we were most likely to have another seasonal contract at the end of the old one, then after 4 years we were called for a permanent. Today this is not happening, Cai will take away our job without a “thank you” or a “good bye”. This is WHY we don’t like the “CAI” Plan, because we will lose the job or will reduce slightly our salary.
Ladies and gentlemen I think that this job require a lot of professionalis from the coffea to the heart massage, if you might ever need it.


And now to the salaires, first off all you have to know that we don’t earn that much of money, maybe a little more of the average, but still normal salaries. Please consider that about 20 days in a month we are outside our house and we have to suppor ourself, these are life’s choice, I know just like the 16 Cai investitors that now are attempting to save the Italian flag carrier, but WOULD THEY DO IT FOR HALF OF THEIR OWN SALARY?
and what about a lawyer, would he keep with his “Life Choice” if his fees will be cut?
some seasonal workers are in a worse situation than ours, I’d agree with this, but I can’t see this as an excuse to cut our basic salary from 1100 to 635 … and please don’t talk about our benefits…

If you talked about our discounted airfares, Am I wrong if I say that Treinitalia staff have discounted fares for their family? We should cut their “benefits” too them. There are too much rumors about the job of a cabin crew, witch is a wonderful job, but it’s also very very hard.
I would like to have been a cabin crew in the 60s where we really had lots of privileges and lots of glamour,when we had the chance of travelling around the world and every single passenger was just a passenger and not a potential terrorist.
Today is not like this anymore, I could keep talking for hours and tell you about the downsides of my job, but I know that mosto f you will never listen to me and I think I’ve talked enough for now. I would like that these words would come straight to you, dear passengers but I don’t think this world will ever be published.

Anyway, Thank you for your attention.
A Cabin Crew

Sono una ex AP anche io... Ti capisco bene... Un augurio a tutti i colleghi stagionali sperando che riusciate a trovare lavoro altrove, anche all'estero (io sono fuggita in Emirates visto la situzione che mi si prospettava...)

Translation: I'm a former cabin crew for AirOne airline and I know unfortunatelly the situation that they are living now, it's all true just take a look to the news about Alitalia and AirOne to have an idea.
I wish to all my ex colleagues to find another job in other airlines...
I decided to join Emirates for that reason.

Hmmm...

I would have thought that if an individual crew member handed that to passengers it might prove somewhat career limiting!

Balanced, unemotional, factual & realistic are some of the adjectives that would not apply to the text.


:suspect:

Eeepp.... Totally agree TightSlot!!!

Can we cringe and call it Italian Passion?!


Does nothing at all for any of us, let alone those of us faced with loosing our jobs!
:ugh:

This person is only doing what all flight crews(front and back) do best, complain complain and blame everyone else for their misery. If your not happy doing what your doing then get off your LAZY BUM and do something else. Life is short.

USAPAScabs
 

The content of you're post is irrelevant and meaningless.

Whatever your view of the letter is there is one thing that is clear. Whoever wrote it has spent some time writing it which would suggest that they are not a LAZY BUM. They are most likely to be very concerned, upset, frightened for the future etc.... Anyone facing an uncertain and financially desperate situation is likely to be emotional and irrational.

Flight crew (front and back) are not LAZY BUMS, we are usually people with very particular skills that are not easily transferable to a ground job.

Looking to start a new career in this economic climate is not something to relish.

6

In General
 

Cabin Crew of all airlines are generally under appreciated and under valued
If you havent done the job you have no hope of understanding the demanding nature of the position.
Forums such as PPrune allow a venting of frustration...not complaining....but frustration.

No, I'm sorry, but that is not the point of PPRuNe! That is what your Mum does, or boyfriend/girlfriend, or if you prefer... a puppy. PPRuNe requires something more - intelligence and coherence to start with.

Something of a generalization, and has the benefit of being unprovable. This kind of emotional gush is something else that Cabin Crew are well known for - and if we want to take on the big bad management wolf we need to use more fearsome weapons: Fact, objectivity, ruthlessness and clarity being some.

Tighslot
 

Talk about emotional subjective gush.
You miss the point made.
It may not be the point or raison d'etre of PPrune but it does allow posters to understand that most airline do indeed undervalue their CC employees.
Unprovable?
Wages,procedures, manning levels, resources,fatigue and impact on the individuals health are all provable.
Airlines are not alone in the dysfunctional management they have.
Most corporations since the late 80s have mostly been run by individuals whose psychological profiles are similar to serial killers...they lack remorse,are narcissistic,have a grand sense of entitlement,are not introspective and are not prone to self evaluation.In short they empathize with no one.
They are all about the creation of executive wealth under the guise of building shareholder value.
Generalizations?......Yes...but provable...not on Prune though.
No one wants to get sued by a wealthy executive for libel/slander.
The price of truth and justice is generally unaffordable for the average airline employee .

Who ever wrote and handed out this letter to passengers has a serious problem with working in a service industry dealing with the public.

Sure there are lots of things wrong with working conditions both sides of the flight deck door. There certainly was when I was flying, and I would be surprised if much has got better now.

The first sentence "today I don’t want your attention on the emergency exits or on the oxygen masks, I would like to talk about something else and I would really appreciate your full attention this time."

Oh really, did the commander know this letter was being handed out. Did he/she know that passengers were being told to ignore a legal notice by way of the safety briefing? I could go on, but suffice to say that whoever the person is who instigated this letter can thank their lucky stars that this never happened on any flight under my command. If did, I would throw the book at them and ensure the authorities did the same.

If you have a problem with your job, go to management. If you hate the job anyway, seek a different career.

Oh C'mon
 

Italians are like that.They wear their hearts on their sleeve.May have even been a little union propaganda.Alitalia is about to south big time if someone doesnt bail them out.
Sounds like a cry for sympathy.

And those of us who have experienced Alitalia's "service" won't feel that sorry for them.

I think they are more likely to get a size 9 Prada up the backside.

well said spinnaker! in any serious airline this lady would have a very short career. Indeed.

seen from the outside
 

I don't work in the aviation industry, but I do fly as a passenger, sometimes quite often and everywhere and above all, I am Italian. So, let me say something about what my fellow-countrywoman wrote.
It is true that the Alitalia situation, and as a consequence the Air One's, is really a bad and a tough one, and it is also true that we (Italians) tend to be toooooooo much passionate while explaining our problems, but I'm sorry Italian flight attendant, I've never flown as I should have with an Italian carrier!
Come on, I know you are prepared for emergencies when flying (of course you are!), but it is also true that each time I went on an Alitalia flight maybe for short-haul flights I didn't find polite, kind and nice or smiley people.
Once, on a flight from Lyon to Milan, 45 minutes with an ATR 72, I've asked what was the altitude we were flying, as I am curios about airplanes and I always ask new things I want to learn. None of them did know that! How could they save me in case of emergency if they did not even know which was our altitude?
This is only an exemple, but I could give you many others, not to say how bad I was treated in case of overbookings, while abroad or far away from home.
I am sorry for your precariousness, I've lived the same situation for almost 12 years, even if in a different field, so I know what you mean. But why keeping on working like that for few money and without any satisfaction at all?

By the way, good luck
(and please consider that if the businessman doesn't say hallo with a big big smile on his face when getting onboard, he may have really many problems at home, consider this, it will help)

I never know what altitude we are flying at!!! :eek:
I know how to find out but cannot say it is part of the role to be aware of our altitude at all times, thats the pilots job!!!

apaddyinuk
 

We were on an ATR72, which cannot fly I guess (but maybe I'm wrong) at the same altitude a B737 or an A330 does, isn't it?

And the lady and her colleague were almost laughing at me. I was just curious, cause I love airplanes, and I think that if someone works in the industry should have at least the half the curiosity I have. In any case, I just wanted to highlight that Italians are not well-known for their politness, and I'm sorry for that

Sorry, I may have missed something.

A few people in this thread have mentioned that this letter was handed to passengers and have reacted to this in their replies.

I can't find any reference in the original thread starter where it says that this letter was actually handed out to passengers.

As for the phrase "today I don’t want your attention on the emergency exits or on the oxygen masks, I would like to talk about something else and I would really appreciate your full attention this time.", I have the feeling the writer of the text was overly dramatic and emotional but I did not have the feeling that they actually skipped the safety demo on any real flight. Of course this is just my perception. The sentence at the end 'I would like that these words would come straight to you, dear passengers but I don’t think this world will ever be published.' seem to prove me correct though.

However, as for the letter actually being handed out to anyone but us here on PPRUNE is jumping to conclusions as it's actually nowhere stated in the text (as long as I haven't missed it.). Again, the last sentence makes me think that the letter didn't go any further than here.

So someone used this forum to vent their frustration in an melodramatic, emotional way. Come on guys, we've all been there, and we are all human.

And saying that, I can't see that many of the replies in this thread are much better. Most seem to have replied without reading the text til the end, and therefore drew wrong conclusions. So who throws the first stone? Not me ;)

Dolley

The easy answer to the conundrum would be if the OP, Flybee, would be kind enough to verify the source and add any other detail that might be relevant.

However, in the OP opening line "Please read this letter that an Italian Cabin Crew wrote to passengers talimg about Alitalia sitautuions. " implies that the letter was most likely to have been handed out.

Something we wont know for sure without further information.

gallimero
 

I agree with you, gallimero, I try to have always respect for people that work for me, believe me, but it seems that people in general, non only flight attendants, are concerned only at being treated well by anyone. well, life it is not a utopia...

...and thanks for the altitude-flight level correction:ok:!