Isom and PHL

[perserverance]

Well, here we go again, round 5 or 6. The upper management has once again
asked the immediate management how to fix Phl for the upcoming summer, to take
care of the increase in Int'l travel. They continue to ask the management that has been
in place for a couple of years now and has shown no improvemnt in customer or baggage
service.

Today, Isom and Boda along with Ciminelli toured the Customs Hall along with the Recheck
Area. They were being escorted or protected by the PHL management team. They were not
introduced to anyone in the customer service or fleet service work group. They all say the
politically correct thing in that they want to make the employee happier in thier work enviroment
but continue to only listen to the management team and not the people who work there day after
day to see how to make or lessen the problems that currently exist or will be coming soon. The
Int'l tarvel will increase by double in the upcoming months and PHL is not prepared. As the
Int'l inbounds are ( 9 to 11 ) on any given day, if the connections reach anywhere in the 2,500
neighborhood the system fails...All flights arrive between 1400 and 1600 hours for the most part,
and pile up outside of Customs. PHL has one useable connection belt. The number of flights will
rise by at least 10 or more by the summer.

Isom came through today and I was told he was in the Recheck area for less than 2 minutes and
did not speak with one worker, there were at least 12 customer service agents and 7 fleet service
agents working in that area. He walked through with Boda and Ciminelli along with the current
PHL management team looked around and continued down the Hall back to the Int'l terminal.
I know that the supervisors that work up there for Customer service and the Fleet have over 43
years seniority between them and have been in that area since its' inception, yet neither was asked
for thier input.....I don't know if they'd give it anyway.


Boda said in a recent interview :
''Q: Many employees of the old US Airways - the backbone of the East Coast workforce of the new US Airways - have suffered through pay cuts, lost benefits and more during the airline's bankruptcies. Most are still waiting for a new union contract under the merged airline. Morale is low. How do you motivate people that feel so beaten down?

A: It doesn't matter whether you're at US Airways or any other airline for that matter, going through a bankruptcy is a difficult thing.

You look at the emotional side of it and look at what our employees have gone through, it is significant. It needs to be recognized.
I think it's a matter of getting the airline running well and support our employees and obviously supporting our customers and turning this back around. It's turning a big ship around. ''

Here Comes' the Summer



Thanks

 

[AlleghenyVista]

While my crew was waiting to pass through customs in the crew line, we saw all of them walk by us through customs. We all smiled as they walked by, but only one young lady, turned around to say hello? What a shame.

 

[YVINTERN]

Must have been Shamblins' successor that turned around and said 'ello!

 

[freedom]

Isom Has a lot of plans for fleet service that really don’t involve listing to anything fleet has to say , like up grading us to using hand scanners , and I’m betting he’s looking at making you all in PHL try and do more with less workers by splitting you up more during flights .


Hey Robert , I got news for ya , if you expect us to use new technology thereby increasing our job requirements , we expect to get paid , MONEY . I also have a feeling that PHL is going to be less than accommodating with any new changes if they don’t start seeing green …


What you NEED to be looking in on right now Mr Isom is the negotiators for this company , I’ve seen them #### up sure things before , no joke . If we don’t come to reasonability , then you can expect foot dragging on a never before seen scale … that’s just human nature , take a group of poor people get them hyped up that they might get 20,000 back pay checks and then snatch that away from them and you get depression . Take another group of workers who’ve labored diligently for years under low pay with the expectation of someday getting paid and yank their cords a thousand times and you get despondency , all of this leads to just pathetic motivation on the job .

 

[ksb]

Isom has a lot of plans for fleet service...like upgrading us to using hand scanners... ...if you expect us to use new technology, thereby increasing our job requirements , we expect to get paid...

I ask this purely out of curiosity and hope that I don't sound accusatory, but why is being given a new tool to let you do your old job better something met with this kind of response? If US is finally investing in something to make things better for passengers, why not applaud it?

(I ask this assuming that hand scanning simply means pointing a handheld device at a barcoded baggage tag to confirm its location. If so, it sounds like it requires just a short period of training and would not be labor-intensive to use.)

 

[freedom]

I ask this purely out of curiosity and hope that I don't sound accusatory, but why is being given a new tool to let you do your old job better something met with this kind of response? If US is finally investing in something to make things better for passengers, why not applaud it?

(I ask this assuming that hand scanning simply means pointing a handheld device at a barcoded baggage tag to confirm its location. If so, it sounds like it requires just a short period of training and would not be labor-intensive to use.)

I’ll answer that one easily , because they want more out of us , while giving us absolutely nothing …. You see , once you give an inch , they then want a mile , and it never stops …

And as far as applauding anything this company does , it’s hard to do when you sometimes get the feeling that your company would rather do away with you … or at the least that they don’t give one iota about you .

We will either succeed together or fail together , it’s up to this company .

 

[UPNAWAY]

Becuase they are all brained washed, union babies! These people are worse than a scorened women they will never "get over it". The company should have changed the airlines name and made it absolutely clear this is a new company and if you do not like it leave! I would make everyone re-apply for their job at this point to try and clean up this mess! And just FYI when non-reaving out there gate agents do not make a point of telling every non rev how long you have been there. 20, 30 40 years does not impress me, it only makes me think what kind of looser is a gate agent for 40 years!

 

[freedom]

the same kind of loser who is a doctor , or lawyer , or garbage man or any other profession , their just jobs , no need to degrade the people who do them .


i suggest you study american history upandaway and find out what life was like in the US before unions , none too pretty .


Oh by the way , i have an idea , why don't you go work for and fly service air , you sound like you'd fit in just fine over there ...

 

[jcw]

Isom Has a lot of plans for fleet service that really don’t involve listing to anything fleet has to say , like up grading us to using hand scanners , and I’m betting he’s looking at making you all in PHL try and do more with less workers by splitting you up more during flights .


Hey Robert , I got news for ya , if you expect us to use new technology thereby increasing our job requirements , we expect to get paid , MONEY . I also have a feeling that PHL is going to be less than accommodating with any new changes if they don’t start seeing green …


What you NEED to be looking in on right now Mr Isom is the negotiators for this company , I’ve seen them #### up sure things before , no joke . If we don’t come to reasonability , then you can expect foot dragging on a never before seen scale … that’s just human nature , take a group of poor people get them hyped up that they might get 20,000 back pay checks and then snatch that away from them and you get depression . Take another group of workers who’ve labored diligently for years under low pay with the expectation of someday getting paid and yank their cords a thousand times and you get despondency , all of this leads to just pathetic motivation on the job .

This is the exact reasons unions are hard to deal with. The company wants to use new technology which most of you have been complaining about the tools the company gives you. So they are planning on a new tool to help improve your job and the product you offer and the first thing you can say is give me a pay raise. Almost all employees in Healthcare, Banking, Communications, Fast Food Rest. get new technology tools everyday and the first words out of employees mouths are not - "how much more are your going to pay me to make my job easier"

 

[UPNAWAY]

the same kind of loser who is a doctor , or lawyer , or garbage man or any other profession , their just jobs , no need to degrade the people who do them .


You are not seriously going to compare gate agents or rampers to Drs & Lawyers? These are jobs that are steping stones, not a career, your expectations (and the unions) are all wrong! No one thinks a MC Donalds drive through clerk should be a career (but a superviosr or manager job might be), why are similar entry level jobs in the airline indistry thought of as a job for life?

 

[freedom]

Well let me familiarize you with another term , it’s called

LABOR DISPUTE ….

We are of COURSE not bothered normally with the introduction of new technology , but unless you’ve been hiding under a rock , you’d know that fleet service and this company are NOT getting along right now … So tell me , what incentive do I have to do what this company wants when they are purposely manipulating the labor laws to keep those of us former America west workers underpaid ?

I don’t think you get it , we’re PISSED OFF !!! This company can take it hand scanners and take a leap , we are NOT interested in providing for the customer when we can’t even PRODIVDE for ourselves!!!!!!!
Do you have any idea what pathetic wages they pay us over here on the west side ???? #### the customers!!!

 

[UPNAWAY]

Well let me familiarize you with another term , it’s called

LABOR DISPUTE ….

We are of COURSE not bothered normally with the introduction of new technology , but unless you’ve been hiding under a rock , you’d know that fleet service and this company are NOT getting along right now … So tell me , what incentive do I have to do what this company wants when they are purposely manipulating the labor laws to keep those of us former America west workers underpaid ?

I don’t think you get it , we’re PISSED OFF !!!


The bigger point is you guys will be pissed off forever, no matter what the comapny does. Thsi industry has changed way to much and for way to many you cannot move beyond that but just think about trying to get back to what it was, which will never happen!

 

[freedom]

You are not seriously going to compare gate agents or rampers to Drs & Lawyers? These are jobs that are steping stones, not a career, your expectations (and the unions) are all wrong! No one thinks a MC Donalds drive through clerk should be a career (but a superviosr or manager job might be), why are similar entry level jobs in the airline indistry thought of as a job for life?

Because 20,30,40 years ago these were not entry level jobs … but welcome to the new America , where will bring in millions of illegal immigrants to do any sort of work , and we will outsource any sort of meaningful jobs! Oh and btw , a lawyer ? A serious career? Please anyone with half a brain can become a lawyer , kinda the way anyone can now become a real estate agent .

 

[ksb]

Freedom, I had been typing a response that included a call for UpNaway to cool off, but after response #11, I don't see a need. This thread is probably already a lost cause.

Let me say that as a CP customer, I'm pretty pre-disposed to take anyone's side but Parker's in a fight about pretty much anything. But right now you're making that awfully difficult because you just said "#### the customer." That's not going to win you friends who pay for tickets.

As a last ditch effort to redeem the original thought, absent how poorly Tempe has treated the labor pool there, do you think that the idea of providing the staff with hand scanners to improve baggage handling and make your jobs easier is a good thing and one that, in the right circumstances, need not be accompanied by a raise because it isn't demanding more effort or time? If so, while we may not be on the same wavelength, at least we're in the same spectrum. If not, we're just going to have to disagree on this (which I'm sure we'll both get over. ;-)

 

[dexter]

Let me try to explain to those chairmen preferred that are reading this thread the operation behind the ticket counter in the bag room. You are in a basement type setting that is full of carbon monoxide from baggage carts being driven in and out all day. You have many carousels of baggage, similar on a smaller scale to the ones you pick your bags up in in baggage service. The bags are coming off conveyor belts from various areas all over the airport, a-west, bc, interline etc. You may have only one ramper on each that have baggage carts that they seperate the destinations. They are lifting the suitcase and hauling them into the right carts for the right aircraft. The company now wants them to scan the bag(mind you the belt is still moving) put the scanner down , pick up the bag and place it in a tug. Unless they are prepared to surgically attach the scanner to the top of your hand it will be a disaster. I foresee it slowing the process down and causing alot of missed bags to final destinations.