Attendants in Burbank Cheer 1st Taste of Victory

BURBANK —  Some cried. Some shouted. Some simply reflected on the meaning of it all.

For striking American Airlines flight attendants, it was the first taste of victory. And the consensus at Burbank Airport was unanimous: It is sweet.

“We did it!” shouted flight attendant Linda Abbott, waving her fist in the air, when her group received news that at the request of President Clinton, management had agreed to binding arbitration. “There is a God! There is a president who’s pro-labor!”

The picket line had been transformed into a circle of celebration, and the talk Monday was of pride and unity and of the Davids who slew Goliath.

There were tales too, of how the strike affected those in Southern California, many of whom have seen more than their fair share of calamities: Abbott’s husband lost his job of 13 years in September. Then the couple nearly lost their Thousand Oaks home in the fires. Then came the strike.

“I cried all the way over here,” Abbott said.

But this time they were tears of joy.

“This is what we wanted all along. It’s unfortunate it had to go all the way to the head of the country.”

Inside Terminal A, which houses American Airlines, the response was far more cautious. The 2 p.m. flight to Dallas, one of four daily flights out of Burbank, did not operate, and except for the ticket agents, the counter was deserted.

Lynda Johnson, general manager for American Airlines in Burbank, said it was still too early to tell “how it will all be put back together again.”

“We’ve advised (passengers) to call reservations and they can update them on whether a flight is operating,” she said.

Outside, Abbott and others stood on the sidewalk, accepting congratulations from passengers and employees of other airlines.

“I feel incredible,” said Julie-Anne MacGregor, who has worked at American for 10 years. “I feel like it’s one for the little people. We all stuck together and we did what we thought was right.”

“And we kept our pride,” chimed in Tracy Marsh.

Many said they expected things would be different for all flight attendants as a result of their victory. They had proved, they said, that not only striking mechanics and pilots can ground an airline.

“Well, you can add flight attendants to that list,” said Carola Schroeder, a flight attendant for nine years. “We are no longer the cocktail waitresses in the sky. We are a force to be reckoned with.”

And as for the public at large, strikers said the dispute has helped paint a more realistic picture of the profession.

“I make maybe $13,000 a year,” said Ina Taylor-Ames, who has worked for American for a little more than a year. “When they bring out the graphs, they don’t even have a graph to show me. They don’t want people to know how little they pay people.”

It is not uncommon for flight attendants based in New York to supplement their incomes with food stamps, Taylor-Ames said.

“I have to work a second job in order to make ends meet,” said Albert Blandon of Burbank, who has worked for American for eight and a half years and works part time as an interpreter.

The strike was also a lesson on how to survive what some described as a warlike struggle between company officials and flight attendants.

When Taylor-Ames was stuck in Chicago, unable to fly back to her home in Agoura Hills on the airline she was striking, “this United pilot gave me money,” she said. “The support has been incredible.”

And when a group of flight attendants found themselves stranded in Rio de Janeiro, a pilot with American “paid $9,000 in air fare so our flight attendants could get home,” Schroeder said.

Strikers also found support from other unions. Members of United Farm Workers of America showed up this weekend to march with them and other unions have also expressed support, said MacGregor, who spoke at a rally of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees in Burbank on Saturday.

With all of their lessons, experiences and newly formed alliances, American Airlines flight attendants said now they are simply ready to get back to work--just in time for the holidays.

“We’ll be thankful to be working on Thanksgiving,” Abbott said.