No bonus for May

[hp-csr-phx]

DOT Airtravel Report

 

[NCFL]

To hear the company propaganda, it would sound like US is doing "better" in customer satisfaction. What was left out was that, while US may have had fewer complaints, it ranked dead LAST of the 20 airlines ranked by DOT.

 

[UPNAWAY]

To hear the company propaganda, it would sound like US is doing "better" in customer satisfaction. What was left out was that, while US may have had fewer complaints, it ranked dead LAST of the 20 airlines ranked by DOT.

Improvement is still improvement and yes the company should stress the positives, ops are generaly fine and the compliants will lag at least a year behind. I bet by this time next year we will see the rankings catch up.

 

[john john]

QUARTERLY LABOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT

June 30,2006

On Tuesday, June 27, 2006, Doug Parker, US Airways CEO, met with the members of the Labor Advisory Committee in Phoenix. Doug reviewed the company's on-time performance and reported we were doing a good job and wanted to express his thanks to all the employees at US Airways for their hard work. Baggage mishandling has improved but is not where he wants it to be. The main goal is to get PHL to have the same numbers as CLT and PHX. Revenue is above industry average and they are in better shape financially than the merger models anticipated. He stated we should have a profitable quarter and he felt strongly we would see profit the entire year. Doug reviewed the profit sharing plan the employees will be seeing at the end of 2006, where the Unions will share a pool of 10% of the profits and felt it would be a very nice bonus for all of the employees. In his report to the committee, he focused on customer care issues, and felt we succeeded in spite of ourselves, but the most troubling to him are the Reservations and web site problems. He knows the wait on the phone for our customers is very long and there are too many times a customer is being transferred to get the help they need. The Company's goal is to get Reservations staffed up as far as possible and continue to hire as they currently are in all of the Reservations centers. Doug recognized the difference in the performance of an agent with 10 years compared to a new hire and was concerned that the new agents are having problems with handling the complex calls all Reservation agents are asked to handle due to mainstreaming.

Doug described some of the many problems with integrating the two web sites. Customers are not able to complete reservations or are having problems using the site, which is a contributing factor to the major backlog of calls and long hold times at the Reservations centers. He was very impressed with the way the INT Reservations agents expressed their concerns to him when he was there recently for a Town Hall meeting. He was surprised to see the main issues raised by the INT RES agents were about the customer's experience. He was prepared to hear stories of workplace problems and personal issues, but, instead of complaints, he heard how much we care about the customers. He stated that he does realize that the front line employees are filtering many of the customer's complaints and are very well aware of the problems the customers are dealing with.

The CWA pointed out that mainstreaming obviously is not working. The Union suggested reestablishing separate, dedicated departments to better handle the customer's specific needs. The Union advised Doug there are many furloughed, experienced Reservation agents that would come back if they could be recalled and paid at the non-early out rate, which would help overcome the time it takes to train new hires that are inexperienced. The Company did not agree and stated they need to continue to fill the EO RES positions first to realize the cost savings they are gaining from hiring at $8.72 per hour. The CWA reiterated what was suggested to Doug when he was visiting INT RES, that the Company should raise the starting rate to increase the retention rate of the newly trained employees in Reservations. The Union suggested reopening a center in PIT since there are many trained furloughed reservation employees there.

The CWA described the problems with the understaffing going on in almost every airport East and West, citing specific situations all over the system: the mandatory overtime, the thunderstorms causing lengthy delays and short staffing causing people to perform under high stress situations, which in turn, is causing potential security problems at the end of the night when multiple delayed flights are pulling up to the gates at the same time and there is only one closing agent on duty to meet them. This also is a contributing factor in some of the OJI's we see happening in the ATO's when the closing agent on duty is trying to handle a straight back without assistance, since there is no one on duty to help them. This is all going on at the same time the agents are being watched and critiqued under the new ACE program, which the company is using to observe the customer experience. The Union told the committee there is much fear that the ACE program is also a method to put the agents under a microscope.

In PHL and PIT, the agents are being unfairly subjected to a comment card program, where the customer can pick up a card and critique each agent on whether or not the agent met their expectations. The Union expressed concern with the cards since most agents are working alone at a counter or gate trying to do the work of 2 or 3 people and in turn, being written up by a customer who travels once a year and expects to be waited on in a timely manner. The CWA advised Doug that in CLT, PR delays are a reality almost on a daily basis, when the ticket counter line extends all the way down to the AA ticket counter for most of the AM flights. Doug expressed much concern and stated he was not aware this was so serious. He was not directly aware of the comment cards being used and noted that he would look into the comment card issue and look at the staffing problems that were raised by the CWA and the IAM on the ramp. He also stated he would report back to the Committee on all of our concerns that the CWA and the other Unions brought to the meeting.

 

[Harry Callahan]

No bonus=no suprise. We all ready have 2 1/2 strikes against us just due to lack of staff & morale issues not counting other issues....

 

[Res]

The Bonus should be given anyway ...I would look at it as hazardous duty pay or a nice company jesture - a way to say thank you for hanging in there for our passengers -
...with all the passenger issues and we can't forget to mention the overwhelming system issues on both the US and HP side - the employees are exhausted, and feeling a bit unappreciated.

 

[barbeetantrums]

The Bonus should be given anyway ...I would look at it as hazardous duty pay or a nice company jesture - a way to say thank you for hanging in there for our passengers -
...with all the passenger issues and we can't forget to mention the overwhelming system issues on both the US and HP side - the employees are exhausted, and feeling a bit unappreciated.

I know the morale on the PHX and LAS ramp has plummeted since the company decided to pay $9/hr to new hires only in PHX. These new hires are now being unfairly treated with resentment by their coworkers. Newbies are being told to get in the bin and stack as they are getting the "big money" now.
The ramps are understaffed and it is blazing hot but when planes don't arrive on time, it is the front line employees fault. Despicable. :angry:

 

[Harry Callahan]

I agree that bonus should be given anyway. Like I said earlier so much is stacked against us to start with.
For barbee, at $9.00 an hour how can you even hire or keep anyone on PHX ramp when in CLT it's inpossible at $9.50 or whatever it is they start at ?

 

[barbeetantrums]

I agree that bonus should be given anyway. Like I said earlier so much is stacked against us to start with.
For barbee, at $9.00 an hour how can you even hire or keep anyone on PHX ramp when in CLT it's inpossible at $9.50 or whatever it is they start at ?

At $9/hr, few people stay. This has repurcussions on morale and espirit de corps. It doesn't make sense to become emotionially attached to anyone and you quickly learn not to remember names or faces. New people up to 1 year are treated poorly by their colleagues. Myself, I try not to talk to newbies or make eye contact, as terrible as it sounds. I've made the mistake of becoming friendly with some and it only leads to heartache when they leave like everyone else. Diehard old-timers, like myself, work copious amounts of overtime or have spouses that have good jobs.