Nov F/A VPLOA's

[iwantout]

Is anyone else as pissed as I am with the few vploa's that were offered for the month of Nov. I am based in PHL and I think they only issued like 10 for PHL and 10 for CLT. Keep in mind that PHL lost tons of t/a time and a good chuck of 757 time. I was so pissed off when I saw that they only gave 10 people a leaves for Nov. I went back on reserve for Oct and many, many more people will be following in the months to come, once all the 757 time gets put down to CLT, who knows how far back it will go. Management could give two sh_its about what this does to our lives. The fact that we have kids, lives, and most importantly how this affects our paycheck. A lot of this could be avoided if they just gave out more Leaves of Absences. With all the time lost for November, they could have been very generous with them but no they just want to cover their asses and only give out a few. Management talks a good game on how they want to help us and make our lives and jobs easier but here is a perfect example of how that is just lip service. They could have put their money where their mouths are and helped us out but no they did not. I commute and have two kids. There are a lot of people in the same position. They could have shown that they really are interested in making our lives better by issuing more leaves but they would rahter just say they want to do this rather than actually doing it.

If you are as mad as I am about this. Email the following people and insist they give more leaves for the upcoming months. Let them know that you are human beings with lives and that they talk a good game about listening to us and improving out lives but when push comes to shove, they don't deliver.

Sherri.Shamblin@USAirways.com
Paul.Kinsey@usairways.com
mike.finn@usairways.com
mflores@afausairways.org

 

[songbirdstew]

Is anyone else as pissed as I am with the few vploa's that were offered for the month of Nov. I am based in PHL and I think they only issued like 10 for PHL and 10 for CLT. Keep in mind that PHL lost tons of t/a time and a good chuck of 757 time. I was so pissed off when I saw that they only gave 10 people a leaves for Nov. I went back on reserve for Oct and many, many more people will be following in the months to come, once all the 757 time gets put down to CLT, who knows how far back it will go. Management could give two sh_its about what this does to our lives. The fact that we have kids, lives, and most importantly how this affects our paycheck. A lot of this could be avoided if they just gave out more Leaves of Absences. With all the time lost for November, they could have been very generous with them but no they just want to cover their asses and only give out a few. Management talks a good game on how they want to help us and make our lives and jobs easier but here is a perfect example of how that is just lip service. They could have put their money where their mouths are and helped us out but no they did not. I commute and have two kids. There are a lot of people in the same position. They could have shown that they really are interested in making our lives better by issuing more leaves but they would rahter just say they want to do this rather than actually doing it.

If you are as mad as I am about this. Email the following people and insist they give more leaves for the upcoming months. Let them know that you are human beings with lives and that they talk a good game about listening to us and improving out lives but when push comes to shove, they don't deliver.

Sherri.Shamblin@USAirways.com
Paul.Kinsey@usairways.com
mike.finn@usairways.com
mflores@afausairways.org

Here's the problem, they don't care that we are human beings w/ lives. Their only concern is to protect the operation. period. Past history shows NOV w/ a TON of SCK calls so they offered very few leaves. I'm in PIT and they go on and on about how we are the most overstaffed base (so do a lot of people on this board) and how we should feel so lucky that they left us w/ a 33% RSV factor instead of displacing more. As the most overstaffed base, we were not offered leaves in OCT or NOV because Finn said that they need to use PIT to protect the operation when CLT and PHL have problems. I talked to C/S and they said that for the month of NOV PIT has an astronomical amount of VAC so they couldn't offer any leaves at all. So, welcome to our world.
The company acting like they care and even offering leaves in the first place is a farce. E-mail away to those on your list and see what lame excuse they come back with. I'd love to hear it. Bottom line, these people do not know how to schedule an airline nor do they care about, you, me, your two children, our husbands, etc, etc...all they see is the almighty dollar. Employees and sad to say passengers are nothing to them. It's all about the profit margin. Sick isn't it ?
PS-I'm sorry that you didn't get the leave.

 

[iwantout]

I had heard a long time ago that all this management wanted to do was to make life as miserable as possible for the senior people on the east so they would quit and replace them with cheap new hires who will do exactly what they tell them to do. I did not want to believe this to be true but as time goes on it looks like this is the case.

 

[marco90821]

As much as I disagree with this management team, and I use that term loosely, if you want to stay home maybe you should consider a different career, or even question if you want a career. You are employed and given a paycheck for your time and hopefully efforts to make the customers happy. You can disagree as much as you wish, but in reality this isn't your only option in life.

 

[ALCARLOS]

I had heard a long time ago that all this management wanted to do was to make life as miserable as possible for the senior people on the east so they would quit and replace them with cheap new hires who will do exactly what they tell them to do. I did not want to believe this to be true but as time goes on it looks like this is the case.

This is good business !

 

[Zarah]

As much as I disagree with this management team, and I use that term loosely, if you want to stay home maybe you should consider a different career, or even question if you want a career. You are employed and given a paycheck for your time and hopefully efforts to make the customers happy. You can disagree as much as you wish, but in reality this isn't your only option in life.

Last year I went to the airport exactly 1 time in Nov. To work a 1 day trip on Thanksgiving day.

December, same thing only replace 1 day with a 2 day trip that started late Christmas Morning.

Being overstaffed for the entire month is nuts when it is only the holiday that is an issue. There must be a better way to run an airline, besides paying people not to work.

Is this really the best way to operate an airline?

 

[hula-flyguy]

What is truly amazing is that you state reasons for the 33% rsv staffing level, yet still feel that management is screwing you by following a business plan to protect the operation....go figure. How dare they be proactive and plan on protecting the "operation" . Get a clue that the airline and managements decisions aren't all about you. Perhaps the decisions have an impact on you, but trust me, you are not singled out either as an individual nor as a work group. Business is business....get over it.

 

[missthe727]

What is truly amazing is that you state reasons for the 33% rsv staffing level, yet still feel that management is screwing you by following a business plan to protect the operation....go figure. How dare they be proactive and plan on protecting the "operation" . Get a clue that the airline and managements decisions aren't all about you. Perhaps the decisions have an impact on you, but trust me, you are not singled out either as an individual nor as a work group. Business is business....get over it.

The only business plan Tempe has is to sell us off to the next highest bidder. You say PERHAPS the decisions have an impact on the employee....you must be in mgmt. to make a statement like that. OF COURSE they have an impact on every employee....on our salary, our livelihood and worst of all, their poor decisions have an impact on the way every employee is able to offer to service to the customer who pays our mortgage by not giving us the proper supplies/equipment to make this place run as a functional unit.
Put away your rah-rah Tempe pom-poms and you get over it....

 

[songbirdstew]

What is truly amazing is that you state reasons for the 33% rsv staffing level, yet still feel that management is screwing you by following a business plan to protect the operation....go figure. How dare they be proactive and plan on protecting the "operation" . Get a clue that the airline and managements decisions aren't all about you. Perhaps the decisions have an impact on you, but trust me, you are not singled out either as an individual nor as a work group. Business is business....get over it.

No, what IS truly amazing is that their answer to protecting operations is to keep one base heavy w/ RSVs to save the day instead of knowing how to truly balance the bases properly. What kind of a business plan is it to depend on flights from one base to another to get the "back-up F/As" in place to protect the operation...especially on an airline like ours with some of the worst on time performance?

 

[cactusflyer]

iwantout----Sorry to hear you didni't get your leave. I know it sucks 🙁

Welcome to our world as far as staffing in concerned. You guys (easties) figured out a loooong time ago that Tempe has
no clue how to staff and what you're seeing now is a classic example. Last year in PHX they offered VLOA's (like your VPLOA's) for
Oct. and Nov. This year none and we ended up with over 500+ reserves for the month of Oct. The reserves are pi$$ed and so
are many line holders. The more leaves offered, the more reserves that can jump up to holding a line. I guess this "management" would rather pay people to sit around and not fly. That makes real business sense. Or they need the extra staffing here in PHX due to the current witch hunt resulting in a ground swell of terminations. :down:

The beatings will continue until morale improves.....

 

[JMM]

Last year out west they offered VLOA in October and November. This year NONE. It is my belief that the manager/director of scheduling has the ultimate goal of keeping at LEAST 50% of this airline on reserve so he can cover his own inabilities when it comes to being unable to do his job!

 

[FlightChic]

Yes, it totally does suck and it's all a bunch of BS! I feel really bad for you since you didn't get the VPLOA. I am so sorry.

The bottom line is this:

1. They don't give a rat's arse about us and they never will.

2. They are incompetent.

3. They want us all to quit so they can go out and recuit people from Wal-Mart, Dollar Store, and the Greyhound station so that way they can pay them minimum wage without a fight.

4. They love making our lives miserable.

5. They just don't think.

They make life hell for us reserves. We sit, and sit, and sit, and wait, and wait, and wait for a trip. Instead we get screwed over (have you ever sat for three days and on the fourth day you get assigned a really bad trip into your days off or been called out after midnight for transatlantic after having been up since the crack of dawn?), yelled at by scheduling for no reason, schedulers who try and violate your contract and very low pay. For those of us who choose to commute it is even worse because we have to sit in a crash pad here in PHL instead of being at home and being productive. The company can say "Well, then you should move to PHL then" but that doesn't work either. Why? It's too expensive, it's not a nice place to live, bases always close or staffing needs change so we get shifted around and therefore it doesn't make since to relocate and uproot everyone's lives all because the company can't figure out what the hell they are doing. We don't get the days off that we want. We never get the vacation that we want. We never, ever get off holidays that we want. Sometimes we're on duty for twelve days in a row with one NFL day in the middle which doesn't give us any time to go home. That is horrible! Then, all of us reserves are forced to call in sick and then they scratch their heads and wonder what the problem is. Worst of all, the union just sells us off like prostitutes so they and the top five percent can have the best trips, the best schedule, and holidays off. Nobody sees the problem. They just think they need more reserves which makes it even worse for us. That's their solution. Nobody (neither the company nor the union) is looking at the big picture, unless of course the company is making our lives a living hell just so we will quit. Otherwise, if they know (and they should know since we're always telling them) that the system doesn't work, why else would they not try to change it? Don't they comprehend why we are all calling in sick all the time and why there is a pattern of sick calls at certain times of the year? OK, now I am getting really worked up so I better quit before my blood starts boiling.

If I were you, I would take another type of LOA such as an educational leave. You may have to get creative but there are ways to get time off without resigning. If you want more ideas just PM me.

 

[Twicebaked]

First off there should be ABSOLUTELY NO open time during a holiday especially Christmas. From Dec 20th through the end of the year ALL trips should be assigned. You would then only need a handfull of reserves to cover irregular ops.

If you call in sick or have a pattern of calling in sick on the holiday you need a legitimate Dr. note or you are FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This sense of being "owed" the holiday off is BS.

You don't get it off so you screw your fellow flight attendants....

 

[FlightChic]

First off there should be ABSOLUTELY NO open time during a holiday especially Christmas. From Dec 20th through the end of the year ALL trips should be assigned. You would then only need a handfull of reserves to cover irregular ops.

If you call in sick or have a pattern of calling in sick on the holiday you need a legitimate Dr. note or you are FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This sense of being "owed" the holiday off is BS.

You don't get it off so you screw your fellow flight attendants....

I like the no open time idea during holidays idea. Why they even allow all those open time trips is beyond me because they are shooting themselves in the foot when they allow it. As for the sick calls, it isn't really that hard to get a doctor's note. In any case, if there is a pattern then something should be done about it. I wish they would treat it the same way they treat the reserves who are caught out of base. Strike two and you're out! I think they should rotate holidays off. So, we could bid which holidays we get off so one year you might get Christmas, the next year Halloween, the next year Thanksgiving, the next year Easter, etc. That way, everyone gets a chance to get a holiday off. Even if it is only one, it is better than nothing. They should pay us enough during the major holidays so that will be an incentive to work that holiday. Holiday pay now just doesn't cut it. I don't blame the others for calling in sick, especially if they are so junior that they never get anything off that they ever want. I have never done it myself but it sure has been tempting.

 

[USstew23]

As much as I disagree with this management team, and I use that term loosely, if you want to stay home maybe you should consider a different career, or even question if you want a career. You are employed and given a paycheck for your time and hopefully efforts to make the customers happy. You can disagree as much as you wish, but in reality this isn't your only option in life.

Here we are again with the "If you don't like it, quit" mantra. Well we all know what side of the fence that is coming from.