In the United States of America, a dispute is raging between the Association of Flight Attendants and the management of Alaska Airlines. It's about outdated coffee machines. The employee representatives are of the opinion that there is a high risk of injury to cabin crew.

The trade unionists have now gone to court over the coffee machines from the manufacturer B/E Aerspace and have achieved an initial success. This led to management giving in and even banning the use of the disputed devices. The employee representatives are of the opinion that an older model, which is still in use on many Alaska Airlines aircraft, does not provide sufficient protection against hot coffee and water splashes.

Specifically, the issue is that the so-called brewing basket is not adequately protected. This could lead to flight attendants and/or passengers suffering injuries in the form of burns, as there would be repeated splashes from this area of ​​the equipment. Although Alaska Airlines has had many of them retrofitted with a so-called Brew Shield, according to employee representatives, by no means all of them.

After months of dispute and a court ruling, the carrier's management issued new instructions. This instructs the flight attendants that if a Brew Shield is present, then it must be used. If one is not installed and there is no other coffee machine on board, then its use is now prohibited and passengers may not be served coffee. Furthermore, the cabin crew is required to report missing Brew Shields immediately.

In an initial statement, the union welcomed the management's decision, but criticized the fact that the management had been stubborn for several months and that it took a court ruling and the involvement of the authorities before they gave in. The employee representatives also suggest that it would make sense if American Airlines were to completely remove the older machines in question and replace them with newer coffee machines that are considered safer.