The glamorous life of flight attendants is shown on the big screen. But in real life, many people find that the glamour doesn’t quite match the real world.
This video is shared by flight attendants from across the country. “crash pads”According to them, they can sleep up 30 workers when they’re on leave or on call. It’s affordable and only a few hundred bucks per month.
Crash pads have existed for years, and were once considered a way of life. Some people are fed up with the cramped conditions and low wages that they live in, they might just give up on their dream of a crash pad.
Jen Barnes believes she cannot choose but to share a cramped hotel suite in Chicago with seven other women.
“I’m stuck in a new city and I’m just trying to do whatever I can real quickly with the smallest amount of money,” Barnes said.
Five people can sleep in a single bedroom with two beds on each side and a cot. The rest of the guests sleep in a small living room.
“I wouldn’t even put my children in the bunk beds that they have in there. They’re made of thin, hollow metal, they make noise, you don’t get any sleep,” Barnes said. There’s also just one bathroom.
Barnes claims it is all she can afford. Barnes says that she is only paid for the time the plane is in air.
“We can work a 16-hour day and only get paid for six of those hours,” Barnes said.
The same day Inside Edition spoke to Barnes, more than 100 flight attendants gathered outside Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, threatening to strike if pay isn’t increased and working conditions aren’t improved.
“We can’t just shut these places down. We have to make sure people actually have a place to stay. Sometimes it can get even worse. If the crews don’t have a crash pad to go to, what do they have? They have the airport floor,”Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants.
Another Boston crash pad housed 20 people, and was considered a great place to live. “death trap”It was shut down by firemen.
According to a Dallas-based flight attendant, when she was assigned to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, she had no choice but to sacrifice her Dallas home.
“We have to dedicate everything into being a flight attendant. If you do not make your flight then you are out of a job,”She said.
Airlines for America reports that the average U.S. airline worker’s annual wage has nearly doubled in two years. The group is also focusing on investing in their future and current employees, who they consider the greatest asset to their sector.