Saturday, July 08, 2006

 

Don't let the terrorist win,..! 911 victims need protection.



My point is this,...

By the APFA (American Airlines Flight Attendant Union) not extending unlimited recall rights to the furloughed flight attendants after the 9/11 attacks,... They are effectively giving the terrorist another victory from those very attacks,... It's shameful.

The furloughed pilots were given these unlimited recall rights under a "Special Situation" as I understand it.
9/11 was indeed a "Special Situation"
And giving the terrorist any victory is a horrible situation. Why would any major company or union want to be tied to that?


My story is,...

My name is John Linneman, most of my friends know me as "Scuba". This is an old nic name from my childhood. I reside in St. Louis Missouri.
I flew for TWA and American Airlines as a flight attendant for a total of 18 years. 16 with TWA and 2 with A/A. I was laid off a few years after the 9/11 attacks that devastated our country.
My beliefs are,...
Many lives were lost and many were destroyed by those horrible events that took place that day.
I believe it is everyone of our duties to fight terrorism in any and every way. Any victory the terrorist get from an attack fuels their want and need to attack again. Loss of life, injury, lost revenue, businesses closing, jobs lost, and basically any hurt they can put on the societies they attack is the goal of terrorist. If they get none of these or if we can minimize these effects we have in a sense minimized their attack on us. Our leaders said it best after the Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks,..."lets pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get back to living and working and show them they had little effect on us,..."
To do this I feel it is very important for us to show them that we are all right,... we lost life, but not at all what they intended upon us losing thanks to the heroic efforts of the New York and Washington D.C. Police and Firemen, and of course those on flight #93. We need to be able to say,... "we stood up to your attacks and we are still standing,..."
We lost some businesses and some revenue and some jobs but not at all the number of which they would have wanted us to loose from these attacks. I'm sure they have a score board for these attacks, lets not let them fill in any more spaces.
In a few short years my 5 year recall rights will run out. At that point my name goes off the list of potential employee's to be recalled to American Airlines and on a list of permanent victims of the 9/11 attacks. If anyone doesn't think losing ones career of 18 years does not make me a victim, well then you haven't talked to this group, we do feel victimized.
The worst part is it can all be changed by the APFA with a change in their policy and wording that has already been done for one group in this same situation, our pilots. Their union recognizes them as valued employee's and victims of a "Special Situation". Having extended their recall rights to unlimited means they will all have a chance to return to their jobs held before 9/11. Take that victory away from the terrorist, they didn't cause major job loss there.
The APFA can take another victory away from the terrorist. Why wouldn't anyone or group want a chance at that.
This is not a TWA vs A/A thing. There are many flight attendants both in front of and behind the TWAer's who were hired by A/A, their numbers count too. I pray for us all to get back to out jobs someday and we can say to the terrorist,... "yeah, we were hurt, we worked other jobs, we budgeted, but we're back, you didn't take my career away from me,..."
Our needs are,...
Are their any "Victims of 9/11" groups out there,...?
Any government agencies that look into this kind of thing,...?
Any idea's on ways we can put pressure on those in charge at both American Airlines and the APFA to help this cause,...?
Speak up,... America needs you,...
Thank you,...
John Linneman
(scuba)

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