Experience Counts,but My Station Is Express

[BIGDOG]

Today i got a phone call from a co-worker needing a little help doing a
computer weight and balance for a jet flight for the first time.

Since my station went EXPRESS in September of 2003.

Well,needless to say we got the weight and balance done and the jet
got the numbers for him to leave.

BUT while i was on the phone i heard the PILOT asking for the station mangers
phone number over the radio,because other things went wrong from what i gather.

I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND ALL YOU MAINLINE PILOTS THAT WHEN FLYING INTO EXPRESS STATIONS.

THE DAY WE WENT EXPRESS 80 PERCENT OF THE EXPERIENCE WENT OUT THE DOOR AND THOSE THAT STAYED THERE EXPERIENCE WENT OUT THE DOOR
WHEN THE PAY LEFT THE WALLET.

SO,PLEASE BE KIND TO THOSE IN THE EXPRESS STATIONS
WE DON'T MAKE BIG MONEY,EXPERIENCE IS VERY LITTLE AND SO IS THE PAY.

WE ARE LIVING ON WELFARE AND FOOD STAMPS.

PILOTS DON'T COMPLAIN TO US YOU ARE PREACHING TO THE CHOIR.

PREACH TO THE COMPANY AND NOT THE MANAGER OF THE STATION.

Like the saying goes "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR"

 

[robbedagain]

a couple of things went wrong--the only pushback tractor stopped running, thus had to borrow NWA's pushback to get our tractor out of the way, then hook it up to the towbar (already attached to the plane) and use it then and the water (which was drained last evening from the airbus due to no heat equip for the airbus) was fozen completely. all in all we had 4 agent total on the ramp itself with a 7am, 730 and a 740 and a 930. Needless to say the airbus took a 41 minute delay.
only two agents were there with the experience but oh well! like i say, the company is getting in return what they did to my station----screwed around---

 

[28yearsnojob]

I have been at three stations that went express well what a joke new people hired
do not care they are not airline people they are people off street who work for awhile when you turn around their gone and a new one takes his or her place.

 

[ILMgwm]

It makes me wonder about ILM. Are we next to go? They create full time jobs and rush part timers to weight and balance training? But, at the same time give part timers 4 hours a day. Go Figure! It's USAirways!

 

[wings396]

If they can find a way to Express ILM, you can be they will. The only thing saving you at this time is the buildup by DL. But then again US usually folds first and leaves the door open for the competition. I do know that stations that WERE larger by flights and boardings than ILM got the Ax already. Some of them were high yeild until PIT got cut enough to kill the boardings thru there. As much as I hate to say it, there are not many stations out there that are safe anymore. When you pay poverty Express wages, you get Express style employees and their work. There is little or no motivation for a job that starts at $8 and tops out at $13. You may as well go to CO Ex and top out at $16 if you work for an Express operation. Even NWA starts P/T off at $12. When you tell someone that they are worth $6 an hour less overnight, they may as well act like it too.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

It continues to surprise surprise me how many in the company don't know what mainline express is.

But at all the ME stations, the story is the same...drastic cut in pay and benefits for the experienced workers who stay, a revolving door of high turnover inexperienced new hires. Inferior serivce and frequent cancelations and delays from the contract carriers. Often, lack of ground service eqiupment for the new aircraft types.

One station in New England that went mainline express is at one of the fastet growing airports in the nation. The city is expanding the terminal and other carriers are adding service. Instead, UAIR is shrinking its presence there.

For those of you who work in mid-size or smaller mainline stations, pray that ME doed not happen to you.

On side note, now that Mid Atlantic may actually take off, will the next round of station closings be "MAA'ed" rather than "ME'ed". Since the payscale for MAA station agents is better than ME, what happens to exsisting ME stations?

 

[Robc98]

The mainline express status could only be a temporary thing until MDA gets off the ground...the CWA currently holds the contract for cust svc for both....so what can prevent the company from re-classifying ME stations to MDA.....nothing..........the only problem is the company wants to try and renegotiate alot of the items that were in the contracts signed off a year ago....they want the MDA airline to be equipped with all newhire 8.00 hr jobs and no seniority there.....run it as cheaply as possible.....these items were discussed at a recent CWA-Mgmt meeting about a week or so ago....the CWA just got up and left the table .....the unions have to stand firm on what little we have left in regards to the MDA plan...because the company wants to chop it down even so much more.....that is the truth...not speculation.......

 

[wings396]

You can bet that a lot more people will know all to well what Mainline Express is very soon. The thing that concerns me about MDA, is that it could be spun off at a later date. This is what happened to CO Exp a short while back. They had been able to transfer between Mainline and Express prior to that. My thoughts are that MDA will only be a classification within the Hubs and Large stations that will have Mainline and MDA operating together. You can't classify them as Mainline Express working the RJ operation with Mainline in the station with more than 2 flights a day.
I don't believe there is any language in the MDA proposal that speaks of a combined Mainline operation. We shall see.....