it's time for the Rick Smith show now here is the voice
of the working class Rick [Music] Smith and welcome brother sisters Working
Class Heroes this is the Rick Smith show thanks so much for being here today on the big program
lots to get to lots to talk about looks like Kirsten Cinema is exiting stage left I had a big
announcement on Tuesday that she was uh she was leaving uh she was not going to run for reelection
she was bowing out probably because it it wasn't looking good for her was
not looking good in
Arizona for uh the the senator and look you know she she did this to herself I mean I mean
for me if you said you know what do you think of curs in cinema I remember the the Dipsy dooo
dance she did where she thumbs down the increase in the minimum wage yeah that that sticks with
me you didn't need to do the whole little dance and the whole little display with the weird little
outfit didn't need to do that uh that tells me not so much on the side of working people also k
ind
of the fly in the ointment on a lot of things now her her her Spiel uh she gave a three minute video
on social media on you know she went to Washington for compromise and you know she's proud of the you
work she's done and look you do that when you're going to possibly run for president because uh
I watched the uh the speech and I'm going well this is this is a nice way to bow out and say you
know you know Washington's broken and you know uh you know I you we've just gotten more partis
and
uh you know for me I'm going okay you know where where's she cashing in next and then I saw a tweet
from the No Labels people yeah uh those those folk uh they tweeted out the entire No Labels movement
the the movement of No Labels uh just a couple of rich people who are trying to figure out how to
also be of the fly in the ointment uh they write the movement is grateful for Senator Cinema
her courage Le her courageous leadership the worst Washington has gotten the the more she
has rise
n to the occasion they W they wrote she led the Senate passage of major bipartisan
legislation like the 2021 infrastructure Bill the chips act and most recently the bill to
secure our borders and get rid and get aid for our foreign allies she's a voice of Common Sense
and civility at a moment when America desperately needs more of both and I read that and I'm going
yeah I know where she's going could we see a Joe Mansion cursed in cinema uh hey I need attention
campaign because understand t
he both of them I I believe I believe the both of them it's about the
attention it's about you know having that power of of people pandering and and you know donations
and and you know that so we'll see and now I'm no just so you know no labels has not put her
out in front uh this is just my gut reaction Going H seems interesting seems like well timing
because she was never going to win uh re-election in Arizona that wasn't going to happen because
people there like like many people across t
he country frustrated that she held up a lot of
stuff that could have gotten life better for a lot lot of people uh now is she right that
you know we've become more partisan yeah out of out of necessity do we want more people in the
center yeah sort of but when you have things that that need to get done being the one who's always
holding up the progress or killing that progress that's going to get you in the center and that's
where she ended up so we'll see uh will she be the one that that
no labels cons into to running their
campaign uh I I don't know we'll see but the big news Tuesday uh the Biden Administration and Joe
Biden Joe Biden tweeted out uh today I'm launching a strike force on unfair and illegal pricing to
crack down on corporations who break the law while keeping prices high for American consumers uh and
look he said we're going to put all the powers of government the FTC the Federal Trade Commission
uh the Department of Justice and their arm going to get those
together going to get the agencies
of government working together to go after these these well gougers these people who have been call
it what it is screwing over the American people now you know I I talked to some of my friends who
have taken the simplistic route going you know it's all Joe Biden's fault that we have inflation
you know we we spent money on you know you've heard it they gave $1,400 to people you know we're
wasting all this money on infrastructure we love potholes in the roa
ds and bridges that collapse
we want more of it no um that's the argument that that we're we're spending money and not the
argument that Corporate America has grown too powerful uh that for decades now they've had their
way to consolidate uh to to be become so big that they're almost uncontrollable and that there's
no competition you know conservatives used to believe in competition now my free market folks
losing their mind over the fact that Biden is now going to be you know saying look w
e're going to be
the cop on the beat again we're going to promote competition we're gonna promote the ability of
consumers to be oh I don't know protected in an economy we're going to go after the the gouging
the junk fees the surprise fees the manipulation of markets we're going to go after that and and
consolidation as well uh they said you know look in the food in the food sector they're going
to support you know with some funding you know people to get involved in in different parts of
the food market you know farmers and ranchers and and help lower prices for consumers this is all
part of that also on the health care front you know in his press release they were talking about
Health and Human Services the fact that they've rejected more than a thousand Medicare Advantage
TV marketing ads in just one year uh because they were misleading uh they were making a whole bunch
of things that you know maybe they're true maybe they're not but what they are is they're getting
more
people to taking on privatized Medicare than the the good oldfashioned traditional Medicare and
then you get to when you actually need it you go oh well sorry that's not CED or sorry you're gonna
have to pay more for that surprise and look our economy has been rigged on surprise so to hear
Biden say you know we're going to finally take on some of this stuff we're going to crack down
on on on credit card companies that gou you uh if if you're if you miss a payment or if you're
late or somet
hing we're GNA we're gonna take that on or you know all those places that you you
go to check out and oops surprise there's there's there's more fees you know just the other day
uh my wife is going to see our our our daughter perform in the drum uh line that she's in the
percussion band uh in in Virginia and my wife wants to get a hotel down down near Richmond and
and you know spend spend time because she doesn't want to drive down and back in the same day so
I'm looking at hotels and I go
on the websites and you know name I'm not going to say which one
I'm not going to promote it but it's it's one of those come here and we'll we'll look at all the
hotels so I go here's a good one let's let's look at this so I go to go through the checkout
process and at the end there's like another $30 in fees doesn't say what the fees are have no idea
there's the taxes we know what the taxes are taxes are clearly written and you expect that but it's
the fees and I'm going I don't I don't ev
en know what the fees are for so I exed out of that and
then I went to another one and not only were there fees there was like a resort fee and I'm going
it's a hotel I didn't know it was a resort hotel and this is the kind of stuff that has to become
more front and center if we're going to truly per you know move towards free market principles
having that information that's what makes it a free market ensuring that everything is front and
center making sure that there are no shocks and sur
prises and that there's someone on your side
kind of kind of important to me so seeing Biden do some of this I say it's about time now I've been
saying Congress should have been doing this for a couple years coming out of the pandemic seeing the
greed and the massive inflation that has happened to us saying hey senators where are you doing
the investigations into this stuff why aren't you doing anything to stop it and that's that's the
frustrating part of this it's finally come down to the
president you know coming out with this
Strike Force and and about time so for me I'm all on I'm all in favor of strike force uh we most
certainly need it I want to hear your thoughts uh have you been have you seen opportunities of
being cheated by well Corporate America outside of the the greed flation of hey we're making record
profits but we still got to raise the prices and cut those wages on those workers I want to hear
it Rick at the Ricks Smith show.com gonna take a quick break when
we come back Julie Hedrick is
going to be here to talk about what's going on in American Airlines and the flight attendants fight
for well better wages hours conditions back after this from the steel mills of Pennsylvania to the
auto factories of Michigan to the modern makers movement manufacturing makes our nation great I'm
Scott Paul president of the alliance for American manufacturing we bring business and labor together
to advocate for policies that everyone can agree on together we can
strengthen manufacturing and
create good paying American jobs help us keep it made in America [Music] America the old factory
towns in America's Heartland have been taking a beating thing is though there's a light at the
end of the tunnel the inflation reduction act will lower energy prices and create millions of new
jobs by dramatically increasing the manufacturing of solar panels wind turbines electric cars and
energy efficient home appliances we're finally turning things around after 40
Years of screwing
over working people but will we keep moving in the right direction that's our choice As Americans
we are afge we support our nation's military and our nation's veterans we protect our nation's
borders and provide services to our nation seniors across the country and here in Washington DC the
American Federation of government employees we work for America so on Monday American Airlines
flight attendant picketed on Wall Street during American Airlines 2024 investor day meet
ing
where the company touted their goal of uh to care for people on life's journey yeah which
evidently and this is weird uh is a a registered trademarked slogan I gotta think I gotta think the
workers who are out there picking on the picket line would question the company's commitment
considering they're working for wages that were last negotia a decade ago yeah 2024 the last time
uh their wages were negotiated and here to share some thoughts on Monday's event and well where
this could be
heading and hopefully doesn't but I asked Julie Hedrick to come talk with us Julie's
the national president of the association of professional flight attendants uh she represents
27,000 flight attendants at American Airlines their website apfa.org Julie thanks for taking
time for us hi Rick thank you so much for having me on today today so Monday you have this event
you got people out on on Wall Street saying hey treat us better tell me about the day all right
well first off that was Monda
y but on Friday here at American Airlines was Employee Appreciation Day
and American Airlines put out this like we have a culture of appreciation right for their employees
I can tell you our flight attendants today do not feel appreciated and that was clear on Monday
as we had many flight attendants out picketing with us on Wall Street to basically push back
on a company that's there for analyst day their first analyst day in seven years and uh touting
about the 260 aircraft that they are p
ut in an order for and our flight attendants want them to
invest in Us in the flight attendants first before they are investing in an order for 260 aircraft
right and uh isim had all of the top Executives there that day making their presentation on what
a great company American Airlines is and uh we were definitely out there telling everybody that
would listen to us um a different story uh what really is happening at American Airlines today I
got to think American Airlines is appreciative o
f your members appreciative of the fact that they
haven't had to give them a raise in in all these years and that they're making a lot of profit that
they can then you know plow back into uh new fancy airplanes and look we want them to invest I I I
want companies to do really well but the people who make that profit your members the folks who do
the actual work in making people's lives better on that Journey uh maybe you take care of them too
absolutely we are waiting for that and we are ti
red of waiting I can tell you every flight I am
on the flight attendants that when I'm talking to them they're like we are ready to go on strike
we can't wait any longer our flight attendants are suffering to say the least our new H flight
attendants make a gross of $27,000 and you know we are based in 10 of the most expensive cities
across this country so that doesn't pay the rent it surely doesn't put food on the table it is
not enough to live and this company is really been taking advant
age of the fact that many of
our flight attendants have second and third jobs many are living at home with their parents and
actually we've got flight attend who've been living in their cars it's totally unacceptable and
but do I understand Julie if I'm correct me if I'm wrong uh the the upper management your your upper
level folks the folks people who aren't taking care of the customers they've actually rewarded
themselves quite well haven't they oh yes we we haven't gotten their bonuses f
or this year yet
um but I can tell you last year uh the bonuses up into and this is like middle management and up
um they got like 60% of their salary some of them did we don't know what the top got um we we don't
have the information on that but as you probably know Robert isome took a 2.75 million bonus last
year as he has flight attendants who haven't had a raise in five years we negotiated our rates
back in 2014 and so you can imagine what it is like trying to live in these cities where
rent has
just about doubled in some of them right and and actually we don't have one city in our system any
longer that's affordable um for rent and and again you know I'm sure he appreciates your members
working for poverty wages so that he can enrich himself uh but so this leads us to where where
does this go I mean at some point uh this is an untenable situation the workers you know can't
I'm sure you've got a turnover problem that that needs to be addressed I'm sure you've got a lot of
things that that need to be addressed what's going on I mean I know there's a negotiations happening
I know you're asking for uh the ability to possibly strike down the road where are we where
is this going all right so where we're at today is next week we are going to be in Washington
DC our entire negotiating team with our lead negotiator and we are going to be making our case
to the National mediation board in person uh this is the second time we have asked for a release
from these neg
otiations uh because we definitely feel we are at an impa impass sorry uh we have uh
they have passed one economic proposal to us and all this time we have passed two and we're waiting
for a second economic proposal from from them and the last time they passed a proposal was back in
September so we definitely feel we're at an impass we have narrowed the issues we know our flight
attendants need raises they need improvements to their work roles and we can't wait any longer so
next week we're
really hopeful that the national mediation board will hear us and they they will
release us so that we can we can get into our 30-day cooling off period and actually be able to
strike if that's what it's going to take for us to get the contract we deserve yeah I hope it doesn't
come to that but uh but if you have to you have to you know as I say strikes are are always the last
arrow in the quiver but you got to have that Arrow it's got to be there in the event that uh that
negotiations are
n't moving forward but here's the thing that gets me um as someone who has flown
and someone who who sees what your members do and what they go through you know I I got to tell
you the poverty level wages that haven't as you've pointed out were last negotiated over a
decade ago um I don't know how people do these jobs and good on your members for doing it but I
don't know how people do it um I just don't well I can tell you this like I I fly every week back and
forth I live in Northern Cali
fornia and I fly to Dallas every week so I'm talking to at least eight
flight attendants every week but usually I try and get out in the field whenever I can and I've
come across flight attendants who have a dollar in their pocket I had a flight attendant Dollar
in his pocket for nine days he said I don't have money to eat it is totally unacceptable we are
helping our flight attendants to get food stamps um we are trying to help them in any way we can
but at the end of the day this company
is failing they are failing their employees I know we've got
employees who've gotten other uh contracts here recently but I will tell you they've told me they
voted yes because they couldn't wait any longer if they voted no they had to get an Improvement
in their wages and so our flight attendants we are trying to do everything we can to help them
through this time frame but they're having to make tough decisions they want to stay but they
also know they cannot live on these wages for much
longer yeah now again I go back to that
trademarked and it seems I'm it's trademarked it's got the little r right there next to to care
for people on life's journey how is this caring for people and I know you know sometimes we don't
think of workers as people but how do how is this caring for those folks listen our management team
is caring for themselves that's it they are not caring for us and I can tell you if you went out
and you talked to probably thousands of our flight attendants it
's going to be hard to find one that
is going to tell you that they feel cared for by this uh company it it's a really sad state right
now I'm hopeful that we'll get this done soon we have to and that's why we're at the national
mediation board we can't wait any longer it is you know five years without a race you know we're
I know there's other Americans out there that are dealing with the same thing we are and having
to worry about how they're going to pay the rent how they're going to get
food on their table it's
totally unacceptable no it is unacceptable so on Monday as you're out there on the picket line you
know with the the investor class walking in and out what kind of response did they get from them
because I gotta imagine not all of them are just all about hey more for me and well screw you tough
luck better luck next time some of them have got to be going hey we want this company run better
so that it makes this profit continually what what kind of response did you
get on Monday uh we
didn't get any response from them we didn't see them which is not unusual we saw a lot of our
passengers a lot of public and I can tell you they support us they were definitely out there to
support us telling us to keep up the fight to get um what we deserve and I will say a lot of them
were talking about our boarding pay uh because now the public does recognize that we do not get
paid our hourly rate while we are boarding the aircraft while they are all boarding the air
craft
and um they're out there now basically chanting with us that we need boarding pay so um is insane
to me Julie I I gotta be honest you you're you're working but not getting paid how is that how is
that possible I mean yeah I guess this how we got paid started a long time ago no I'm thinking
about truck drivers you know most truck drivers don't get paid for their pre-trip only when
the wheels are tur and I've often made the uh the analogy that you know Airlines and truck
truck the truc
king industry are similar you know one's just got wings and the other one's
riding uh they both abuse employees in in very similar ways so I guess I shouldn't be surprised
uh that the flight attendants don't get paid for the boarding process the the security process I
guess I shouldn't be shocked by that listen our days are very long the majority of our days are 12
13 hour days we go up to 15 if we're just flying domestic right if we're flying International much
longer than that and we're o
nly guaranteed uh like a 12- hour day we're only guaranteed six hours of
our hourly rate okay so a lot of times you'll see flight attendants in the airport sitting around
waiting for their next flight that's because we have a lot of two and three hour sit times that
we're sitting there not getting paid our hourly wages and so that is why when people look at our
wages they're kind of trying to understand when you look at our hourly rate it looks a little
different um but that is because we a
re not paid for a a lot of the day when we are on duty
wow I'm ready to go on strike I gotta be honest with you I hear this and you know as someone who's
been very fortunate throughout my life uh to be a unionized truck driver there are a lot of things
that happen in the the non-union sector I'm going guys you should be striking over uh but hearing
this this is one of those things that that yeah absolutely uh so what are the chances do you think
that you're going to get this relief that you
're seeking and what are the chances do you think that
that this will awaken American to get to the table and to actually negotiate because look allowing
the strike to a strike to to possibly happen doesn't mean you're going to go on strike but the
threat of it has got to be something that's gonna put some juice in the negotiations I think right
absolutely we need that pressure on this company to get this deal done and we really want to get a
contract we you know I say this all the time our
our goal isn't for us to go on strike our goal
is for us to get a contract that we deserve but we will do whatever it takes to get that contract
and we are not going to give in to something less than what we deserve and that's basically what
this company wants us to do we have uh shown up to many events uh before this we've had eight
picketing events in the last year and a half uh across the country worldwide our last one with
over 100,000 flight attendants um that belong to unions and we'
re going to keep on it as much as
we can and as long as we have to until we get the contracts we deserve as you probably know this is
not just about American Airlines flight attendants we have Alaska United Southwest um we are all
in negotiations right now and of course Delta is non-unionized um but we're working on that
uh so I I will say it's not just about American Airlines flight attends it's about flight attends
across this country who who are we're all dealing with the same thing none
of us uh basically what's
happening is these CEOs have devalued our job and this happened during covid okay five years without
a raise that's what can happen to your wages when you haven't had a raise and they're trying their
hardest to keep our wages down this time and not let them get up and that is why we are working
together to make sure that doesn't happen again you know that idea of solidarity everybody
involved in pushing so with that in mind last question God for you what can I do
to help what
can our listeners and viewers do to help what can you know people do the flying public do what do
you what do you what are the marching orders well listen first off thank you so much for having me
on the show today this helps um just getting our word out there I will say like I said yesterday
when our passengers are out there and they're chanting because they think we should get paid
during boarding pay or boarding time uh that helps us also our passengers have been very suppor
tive
everyone in the media has been supportive getting the word out out about flight attends about what
these CEOs are trying to do um devaluing the job trying to make sure that it's no longer a career
for people to stay in for many years I've been a flight attendant for 41 years and um I can tell
you it would be really hard for a flight attendant today to do this for that long because of what's
happening at these Airlines it's not just American it's across the industry and it is time that
we
change so we've seen a lot of support out on the picket line every time we're out there and I can
with social media today one of the best things we see now is when our CEO puts out anything
on social media um about American Airlines or Robert isome our passengers weigh in they go
in and they're like give your flight attendants a contract that they deserve right give them a
raise so um that's very helpful to if if your CEO is putting money in his pocket uh some of that
should trickle dow
n to the pockets of the people who actually do the work and and not just boarding
pay should they get but Hazard pay as well because I got to tell you since the pandemic I see a
lot of craziness going on especially because of social media so your members they earn every
penny uh that they that they earn and and they deserve more uh but Julie I appreciate you taking
time for us uh one day longer one day stronger I hope you'll come back with some good news down
the road uh but thanks so much
absolutely I'd be happy to come back and I'll let you know how
it goes next week at the national mediation board looking forward to it Julie I appreciate you
taking time for us want to hear your thoughts uh can you believe that you they don't get paid
while while they're greeting people seating them doing all the putting the bags overhead all not
a dime that's insane want to hear your thoughts email me Rick at the Ricks Smith show.com for our
Free Speech TV audience thanks so much for tunin
g in we'll see you back here next time for our radio
Affiliates across the country quick break right back
Comments
Yes Rick Smith, we need hazard pay!