American flight attendant in trouble over bankruptcy parody videos

As a 30plus yr veteran of a major airline its comical that the management verbiage is essentially the same rhetoric. How lame of AA spokesperson to state they can not tolerate harassment of employees. Who is getting harassed? Hopefully a few "decision-makers" are getting some long overdue feedback they need but regrettably won't make any difference. AA will fire the "disgrace" to wash their hands of the situation. and bonuses will continue to line the execs pockets-after all those who get the bonuses are so worthy of it, there is no one out there that could replace them for what they are worth that it takes all kinds of stock options & bonuses to retain the "best-of-the-best" to run AA. Nevermind that there is no requirement that AA make profits to justify those bonuses.
I say keep the seasoned flight attendant and dump the fat on top-remember the airline motto--"if you are not working directly with a customer, then you better be working with someone who is".

Yes it is all management's fault. What is not said is that they could have filed bankruptcy along with the other legacy carriers back in 2005 or earlier but didn't. So we don't hear anything about the jobs that were preserved during that time. Clearly there is massive feather bedding if the airline can operate with the large employee cuts that are being floated with the filing. Yes- management has not been diplomatic and in touch- but attitudes like this lady point up the quagmire the company is and has been in its labor relations for YEARS. My prediction- much higher oil prices in the coming years will make this debate irrelevant. Air travel is going to contract so much that we won't need the current labor force in the industry anyway.

Whoa! While Mr. David MAY be within his legal rights here, I also think he is an idiot. The AA policy on use of social media is quite clear - and yes, AA CAN impose that policy as a condition of employment. We'll also note that several other AA employees publish blogs without (much) objection by simply avoiding topics of controversy. Yes, I've seen Mr. David's video clips, found them hilarious, mostly accurate and more than a bit creative. My sole reason for suggesting that Mr. David is an idiot is because he published those clips under his own name and acknowledged that he is (or was...) an AA employee! He's got a full brain on the creative side, but less than half on the common sense side. Mr. David had at least two easy ways to protect himself from his current situation - and he blew ALL of them! First, since day-one, he could have authored his blog postings and related items under a 'pen name' one not tracable to him. Second, understanding that these clips would annoy AA, he could have arranged to have them posted - without his name - by some third party with no connection to AA. Of course AA is annoyed! And rightly so. All employers have an interest in protecting their public reputations. Criticism is a good thing, but employees who do so, do so at serious risk of their jobs. When am employee finds this degree of criticism necessary, At The very least they should bury their personal identification and avoid including any material that would allow the employer to identify them. While Mr. David's criticisms of AA are both humorous and likely accurate, I have to conclude that he is an idiot for not covering his rear exit.

If Americans have become so unfamiliar with worker's rights that we cannot tell when something is legetimite free speech / protest or petty slander, we have fallen far from our justice and liberty loving roots.

A parody is the least of what American deserves for using corporate losses as an excuse to weaken labor contracts to an all time low. If they are having trouble staying competitive due to paying their workers fair wages and giving decent benefits, then they should consider helping unions form in the other airlines so that no one is using "employment savings" as a means of turning a profit. Simply put, if you can't both pay your workers well while running your company at a profit, either your competitors are cheating by paying low wages or you have something fundamentally wrong with your business strategy and need to rethink things. Either way, the worst you should do to your workers is give them a pep talk and retraining. Lowering their standard of living will not make them better workers, it is simply an excuse to take advantage of the economic situation to do something corporate heads have been wanting to do for decades anyways: funnel employee wages into corporate profits so that the top gets even more of the pie. Obviously it is in the interest of corporate management to silence anyone pointing out this hypocrisy, but what is the point of having free speech if you cannot use it when those on top are abusing their power without losing your job?