Hug a Bug!

[Dea Certe]

To my fellow employees:
We all are feeling pretty abused around here lately. So are our passengers, the ones who make our paychecks happen.
RES is being demolished, what are pax supposed to do when they have an emergency, need to make plans or on International travel? The whole world is not on Eastern Standard Time. Some folks don''t have access to computers at all hours.
Mechanics and Fleet Service is being uprooted, torn apart and possibly out-sourced.
Customer Service Agents are so short-staffed even your average day has them on the run trying to provide a level of pax service our customers deserve. God forbid bad weather or mechanicals happen. Who''s going to take care of protecting pax on other flights when CSA''s barely have time to run from gate to podium to jetway in the course of normal operations?
Flight Attendant staffing is being cut to FAA miniums. That''s a drag but we aren''t going to be serving food anymore anyway. Or so I heard. And I''m sure I''ll be hearing more about this from people who don''t know and didn''t bring a brown bag with them.
So, I say we show a little appreciation for our loyal cockroachs and make sure they get a smile and special thanks for sticking with us. They have plenty of choices these days and I''m sure the low-cost, low fare airlines will welcome them with open arms. We are all in the same boat here, let''s pray it''s not the Titanic! We employees can''t offer 6 million bonus dollars to keep the rats from leaving the ship, but we can offer our cockroachs gratitude and appreciation.
So, what do you say? Hug a Bug and make a difference!

 

[N513AU]

We are seeing a terminal airline gasping for breath. Dave Siegel is just the captain on the Titanic trying to keep some semblence of order while the ship sinks.

Let's face the facts:

1) Dave pulled the BK trigger too quick. He wanted to bust the unions, but his scheme shrunk the airline to unreasonable and unrealistic levels.

2) Dave's "labor friendly" approach was either overrode by the RSA hacks or was a ruse all along. The TPA hangar closing at 3:00 AM was straight out of the playbooks of 1930s strikebreakers.

3)What concessions we make will effect the whole industry. Remember that, when round 2 comes. When you vote them in, all your future employers are going to fight their employees for the same wages. Those work rule concessions will be matched at another carrier, where now there won't be enough work for you to return to. Remember that your job and profession are bigger than your airline!

4)Customer service has begun to suffer, this is a really bad sign. When res is cut back to two shifts and there are terrible lines at the ATO because of staffing shortages, US Airways will continue to drive away customers.

5)Next is the maintenance problems and terrible dipatch reliability. After you've laid off too many mechanics, you can't get the overnight maintenance done on time. This doesn't have anything to do with a slowdown either, before some of you start up. This is the same problem that CSAs are looking at right now. The airplanes will get unreliable and dirty, quite possibly unsafe. My worst revenue travel experience was on EA right before they went under, two days stranded in Mobile, AL of all places because they didn't have available equipment. Airlines that are on the brink do everything wrong, just tightening the death spiral.

6)The employees give up hope. Eventually, most (if not all) of the employees know that the game is over. They stop caring. They show up and get a check and that's it. They know that either Chapter 7 or a less-than-favorable TWA/AA type deal is in the wings and all they worked for is going away soon. So they pass the love to the customers, who go look elsewhere.

 

[Art at ISP]

Dea,

Thank you for your kind ideas toward us bugs. For what it's worth I want you all to know that your passengers DO appreciate you, and we stay loyal mainly because of YOU!

Yesterday I had a mostly great experience returning from a week away. With the exception of one ticket agent at the counter in ORD who could not be bothered helping me with a cancellation, every one from the next agent who printed the boarding passes as arranged by the Chairmans Desk (thanks Tracey)to the three wonderful gate agents (Cecelia, Bob and Elio--thank you!)who handled a full plus flight and boarded a late arriving aircraft quickly and efficiently went above and beyond the call of duty, even going so far as to express appreciation for the loyalty of the US1's in the gate area (there were about a dozen of us).

The irony of the situation was that the nice lady who helped me at the ticket counter AFTER the bad experience couldn't apologize enough for the behavior of the first agent-she said there were numerous complaints about him, and she said that she just got her furlough after 15 years, but he was keeping his job. I sincerely wish there was something I could do to help this lady keep her job or perhaps have her keep HIS job--if any of you have an idea please contact me privately.

Again my heartfelt appreciation to you ALL at U, and I sincerely hope that these predictions of gloom and liquidation do NOT come true. As I have been saying all along, IT'S THE FARES STUPID--I can't understand why they don't fix the fares--revenue would increase dramatically.

Well enough ranting..my best wishes to all my friends at US Airways, and my fellow passengers.

 

[Dea Certe]

Art,

Thank you! It's the "bugs" that have kept this airline going and my paycheck (as meager as it is these days) coming.

I hope I have the privilege of serving you. Provided Mr. Bronner doesn't pull the plug! It's the people like you that make my job a pleasure and why I've stayed all these years.

I'll be looking for you!

Dea

 

[Art at ISP]

Dea Certe,

You are typical of the fine US people I meet during my travels. As I said above it's the fare system which needs to be adjusted--NOT employee wages.
Would anyone have an email or other method of contacting Dr. Bronner?--I'd like to give him a piece of my mind.

By the way Dea Certe-where do you work? It would be my pleasure to meet you one day.

Again my best to you all,

 

[trvlr64]

Art,

I am with you. If USAirways goes away, that is going to be the worst thing to hit the skies. I have been a customer of USAirways since 1987, during the Piedmont and PSA mergers. Even though those were not the happiest days for some of the employees, it started the framework for a group of individuals that truely make this a first class airline.

I would love to get ahold of an email address for Mr. Bronner too. It's about time he started hearing from us US1's. Let's tell him how great this airline is and that he had better start cleaning house owith the BOD and upper management.

I truely hope USAirways is around for me to continue to fly and will take me to some new destinations all over the world.

 

[callgirlcindie]

This is my first weekend off in 15 yrs..I took a vol furlough..going back to school. I will not miss the "politics" or the environment that the airline has become, but I will miss my hard working, professional co-workers, and the great pax I had an oppportunity to work with. Piney Bob, I know I am a furloughed employee, but I put in 22 yrs, so if you ever have a spare cockroach pin I could put in my "keepsake box" I would love it! I hope all goes well for my co-workers and pax, and we survive. Keep the faith and hang in there..

 

[trvlr64]

[blockquote]
----------------
On 12/8/2002 11:27:35 AM Seatacus wrote:

[blockquote]

----------------

On 12/7/2002 143 PM Dea Certe wrote:


Art,


Thank you! It's the "bugs" that have kept this airline going and my paycheck (as meager as it is these days) coming.


I hate to sound ignorant but, is being a cockroach a good thing? Where does this come from?
----------------
[/blockquote]



Go to the website

www.us-cockroach.com

you'll learn all about us undesirable PAX that your Ben Baldanza hates!! LOL

this was started over on Flyertalk.com in the USAirways forums

[img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/2.gif']

 

[Seatacus]

[blockquote]
----------------
On 12/7/2002 143 PM Dea Certe wrote:

Art,

Thank you! It's the "bugs" that have kept this airline going and my paycheck (as meager as it is these days) coming.

I hate to sound ignorant but, is being a cockroach a good thing? Where does this come from?

 

[sdavis29]

http://www.rsa.state.al.us/About/contacts.htm[img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/10.gif']



some info here phone number and emails...

 

[trvlr64]

[blockquote]
----------------
On 12/8/2002 11:33:36 AM sdavis29 wrote:

http://www.rsa.state.al.us/About/contacts.htm[img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/10.gif']




some info here phone number and emails...
----------------
[/blockquote]


THANKS sdavis29

I sent an email to Dr. Bronner. I await his reply.

 

[sdavis29]

my pleasure...wonder what type of response you will get?

 

[ITRADE]

Employee number and first five of your SSN so we can get access to the US non-rev line.

 

[irak]

I would be happy to provide pins to any US employees, at cost, if someone can figure a way to identify themselves as a US Employee. Drop me a line with any suggestions.