Sara Nelson: Let’s Show Bosses They’re Lucky to Have Our Work
For 50 years, bosses have extorted concessions from workers while saying we’re “lucky to have jobs.” Now, Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson writes in Jacobin, workers need to make bosses understand they’re lucky to have our work.
President of the Association of Flight Attendants–Communications Workers of America Sara Nelson speaks during a press event at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on October 4, 2022, in Arlington, Virginia. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Six years into my flight attendant career, United Airlines declared bankruptcy in the wake of 9/11. While I was still mourning my friends who were murdered that day, my employer began planning to dismantle our contracts and our careers.
The C-suite told us over and over, “You’re lucky to still have a job.” And many of us felt we were, as we watched waves of furloughs hit our friends and colleagues across the industry. They used that threat to demand concessions — health care, pensions, wages, even some protections negotiated in the first flight attendant contract decades earlier.
For the last fifty years, all the bosses have been telling workers we should feel lucky to have a job. It’s one of the greatest tricks the corporate class has ever pulled.
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