Flight attendants who blamed uniforms for their health issues win a lawsuit
They blamed chemicals used in their uniforms for their health issues.
A jury in California ruled that a clothing company should pay more than $1 million to four American Airlines flight attendants who blamed chemicals used in the production of their uniforms for causing a variety of ailments including rashes, headaches and breathing problems.
The verdict last week could be just the tip of the iceberg: Lawyers say they represent more than 400 other flight attendants who are making the same claims against the uniform maker.
The judge has not affirmed the jury's decision. A lawyer for the flight attendants called that step a technicality. The uniform maker's lawyers declined to say whether they will appeal.
American gave new uniforms to flight attendants in 2016, and many were happy to get them after a decade wearing the same outfit. Complaints soon followed, however.
“I would wake up and my eyes would be completely swollen. I looked like I had been in a boxing match,” says Tracey Silver-Charan. “I was unable to breathe. I often felt like I was going to pass out on the job. I was coming home and my husband was running me to the urgent care.”
American gave flight attendants the option of wearing their old uniforms, or even picking out an outfit at Macy's or JCPenney, said Silver-Charan, a Los Angeles-based flight attendant who has been in the field for 37 years.
Silver-Charan is part of a group of flight attendants who sued in 2017, and she was among four involved in the bellwether trial in Alameda County Superior Court near San Francisco to see how a jury would view the case.
The jury decided that the uniforms provided by Twin Hill Acquisition Co. were a “substantial factor in causing harm” to the flight attendants.
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