Doin' any hiring?

My luck has run out. After thirty years in the airline business I will be out of work May 27. Our company executive board can no longer endure the losses and is closing our station. Kansas City airlines will be left without a full-service commissary for the first time since modern air service has emerged.


That isn't so much of a shock. There isn't a demand for these services on the short-haul flights which arrive and depart at MCI. The public has long ago given up the luxury of inflight dining. Flight attendants run a drink service, then hold down jump seats during the time they used to serve passengers. That isn't totally unfair, as some have endured pay reductions, downsized crews and layoffs all in the name of survival. A two-hour flight may carry food for first-class passengers, but only on the longest hauls is a complimentary meal served to the rabble in economy class. For several years we have survived on boarding food, ice, and elaborate meals for NFL and major league baseball charters during their seasons.


The 17 of us that are left of the 400-plus employees who once serviced airplanes here have steadily watched service decline as fuel, security and payrolls have gone through the ceiling. The public demands have shifted and with this the air carriers are only too pleased to oblige.

I wonder what some of the folks I have worked with will do. A few are barely literate, having poor reading and writing skills with little prospect of improving either. To what kind of work can they look forward? One is caught with 15 months to retirement. Another is not physically prepared to take on unfamiliar labor. Yet another is partly disabled and has become a creature of routine upon which he depends.

So here we are, victims of change. Not so long ago one might assume that he or she could join a firm, create some value for it and expect to stay there for 30, 40 or more years and retire. Today's climate no longer supports that; just a fact of life. And now I get to close down a second shop in seven years. Maybe that should be my new work--closing down businesses who have outlived their usefulness. Now that is a job I could expect to keep indefinitely.