Piedmont Airlines

[robbedagain]

well from what i read earlier, it says that they have filed with the NMB and elections to be hel roughly around the 2nd week of january

 

[Edward]

SegmentKing:
No problem, I;ll go ahead & move it back to US forum.

 

[philly rocks]

That is correct. The CWA filed with the NMB on November 21, 2007 for elections to be held in January sometime.
GO PIEDMONT!!!! VOTE YES !!!

 

[SegmentKing]

I feel I'm as qualified as anyone to talk about worker / mgt relations at EN and JS, as I was in management at a station that went from JS to EN.

Under PSA, which is a union shop, the union could have cared less about my guys. The work contract was HORRID, and never passed because of the PIT mafia that demanded higher caps for its employees. I know of a few of the former PIT workers who told me they were strong armed by the senior JS and union guys to VOTE DOWN all the TA's presented by PSA mgt. And the voting was always interesting.. the JS out stations always voted heavily FOR the TA, while PIT voted it down in an almost mirrored reverse image.

While my station was "small" - we couldn't hire anyone because of the crappy pay (6.70 goes VERY far in Key West)... yet when we converted to a Piedmont Station, they got an almost instant $2 raise and a different way of getting raises... which are based on a mix of merit, knowledge, and the ability to show up on time.

But being in mgt, PSA treated us a lot differently than at Piedmont. At PSA, we had different levels of compensation, pension/401k, etc; whereas at Piedmont we were treated no differently than normal workers.

So according to some of the posters here, I must be blind or naive, but I've always seen a lot of cooperation between Eric Morgan & Piedmont management with the employees, so I'm not sure what the CWA could really do unless they're just dying to get a 2 or 3% of the EN employee's paychecks. And to the comment about having a crappy EN manager -- every airline has them, Piedmont isn't exempt.

 

[philly rocks]

First of all PIT has downsized and will most probably be phased out in the coming years. PSA was IBT not CWA.
Eric Morgan only shows his face and interest in Piedmont because he doesn't want a Union. That should speak for itself right there.

Piedmont agents have been abused for too long. Pay is inconsistant, discipline is a way of life for most. There must be something wrong if Piedmont in major cities are nearing almost 100 pct in signed cards to form a Union. Segment King, being in management him or herself should know the Kool-Aid is also being passed around in our wholly owned subsidiaries. Psa unfortunately didn't negotiate a solid contract. We have faith that Piedmont will have a kick a$$ contract in the very near future.

It takes alot for employees to join and realize that "enough is enough"! They are now willing to make the difference! Tell Mr. Morgan he is too late and that lockers and paint on walls in breakrooms will not cut it. The employees want to see $$$ and benefits, not something that they can offer now while union busting but something in WRITING that is binding like a Contract.

 

[john john]

I'm not sure what the CWA could really do unless they're just dying to get a 2 or 3% of the EN employee's paychecks. And to the comment about having a crappy EN manager -- every airline has them, Piedmont isn't exempt.

Not a big fan of express agents being in the CWA management loves to whipsaw the two workgroups/airlines. The CWA wants the express agents unionize and the company wants to express mainline work. The union wins they get members the company wins they get mainline work at express pay. This has play out in every work group AFA ALPA IAM TWU. Express lowers the bar. CWA should go after the work with the existing mainline contract

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

Under PSA, which is a union shop, the union could have cared less about my guys. The work contract was HORRID, and never passed because of the PIT mafia that demanded higher caps for its employees.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

---Your guys?

---Contract was HORRID?

---PIT mafia?

Honestly, you need to evaluate your posts critically before submitting them. None of what you posted was true, let alone a valid opinion of goings on in Pittsburgh at PSA.

 

[cynic]

This is Piedmont, Bob. Tempe doesn't care- they let us run autonomously with as much of the "out of sight, out of mind" whitewash the turd can carry.

A union is a good thing, but trust me... this company blatantly violates the contract the pilots use every single day. I mean they act fully contrary to the CBA at will. They also violate those pesky FARs.

For some reason, the wholly-owned culture is totally different than what Doug espouses in the crew news webcasts: They're contracts, and we have to abide by them.

Get union representation, a contract, get a good grievance chairman and a good system board of adjustment, and swamp the hell out of them with grievances when they start breaking the rules.

While I'm generally not a big union guy, Piedmont is the perfect example of a company that needs significant oversight in how it deals with its employees. That said, nothing ever seems to happen to them for violating the contracts or FARs.

 

[SegmentKing]

You have no idea what you are talking about.

---Your guys?

---Contract was HORRID?

---PIT mafia?

Honestly, you need to evaluate your posts critically before submitting them. None of what you posted was true, let alone a valid opinion of goings on in Pittsburgh at PSA.

Yes, <b>MY</b> guys. They didn't send a union rep to my station *AT ALL* and then a bunch filed some paperwork with payroll to refund all union dues because no one came down to sign them up, tell them about the union, etc, etc. it wasn't until it was announced we were being converted to EN (and giving everyone a MASSIVE raise) that the Union then sent letters to all of the employees.

The work contract was AWEFUL AWEFUL AWEFUL.. I read the thing 8 times, I had to, because technically I was in mgt of a work group that was unionized so I needed to know the do's and don'ts.

And yes, the pay for some of my guys was $6.50 / hour. Folks that worked for Piedmont for 8 years, then Air Midwest for 2, then to JS. According to the CBA, the employees had to start at the *very* bottom of the payscale.

 

[madders]

Well this will be the third time in 6 years so maybe it will be either the charm or strike out.

In the pass the bigger stations dca clt phl lga did not even show up to vote.....

 

[robbedagain]

i dont know if this is true but i have heard we are getting 3 agents from PSA in January from Pit, but yet they will be given full time status ahead of us EN agents and they will be bidding vacation ahead of us agents as well. To me that is wrong and I would hope that if we are officially union then the union will take care of that cuz to me that is absolutely wrong to put another air carrier employees ahead of us EN agents but that is the type of manager in our city

 

[SegmentKing]

Robbed,

What EN has normally done is carry over DOH when transitioning between the two airlines -- since everything is done out of Middletown SSO and we're all on the same systems it should be easy. the only diff between EN and JS is insurance -- the JS CBA has provisions for insurance whereas EN doesn't. For Mgt I know that my pay was locked in (PSA pays more than EN for supervisors & mgrs). The changeover was fairly easy - I just remember signing in as E53 or E51 (forgot, its been a while.. and I miss Sabre 🙁 ).

regarding JS employees coming in and taking open positions: that's fair game

but to have JS employees come in and get jobs that EN employees don't have access to sounds fishy.

the only thing I am aware of that EN/JS employees get are DOH for travel and waiver of any probation periods when going between the two, including mainline. Anything over that is negotiated.

 

[robbedagain]

ok i didnt know how it worked but from what i heard no one in my station is happy that the js folks will be bidding vacation before us en folks we shall see how it plays out

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

Yes, <b>MY</b> guys. They didn't send a union rep to my station *AT ALL* and then a bunch filed some paperwork with payroll to refund all union dues because no one came down to sign them up, tell them about the union, etc, etc. it wasn't until it was announced we were being converted to EN (and giving everyone a MASSIVE raise) that the Union then sent letters to all of the employees.

Fascinating. Since I don't know what station you're talking about, I have no idea why there was no union representative to relay information to the employees. Odd that they would be allow to work at a station without signing up for IBT representation after training, considering that would be a condition of employment under the current or previous contract.

The work contract was AWEFUL AWEFUL AWEFUL.. I read the thing 8 times, I had to, because technically I was in mgt of a work group that was unionized so I needed to know the do's and don'ts.

Are you management or not? Or are you refering to the employees being "technically" in the IBT? Either way, you need to read the contract no matter who you are. You would then know what I stated in relation to the prior quote.

And yes, the pay for some of my guys was $6.50 / hour. Folks that worked for Piedmont for 8 years, then Air Midwest for 2, then to JS. According to the CBA, the employees had to start at the *very* bottom of the payscale.

So, your management knew what to pay according to the CBA, but yet there was no union representation to handle dues collection, no contact from the union prior to a switch to Piedmont, et cetera, et cetera...like I said before...fascinating, considering the out-stations under the prior CBA started wages at $6.27/hr, unless management at PSA allowed a higher starting wage (i.e. STL, which was offered in excess of $11.00/hr to keep former mainline agents employed, which is not only a pittance but also a subject for another thread).

But you have still successfully failed to address any of what I stated in my prior post. Instead, you seem to want to digress into other marginally related subjects. You refered to PIT PSA employees as "Mafia", which is not only patently offensive but also completely false. We do not blindly follow our IBT representatives and stewards. We are not strong-armed into voting a certain way. We have had plenty of arguments in the past concerning CBA's, but you get what you give, and that includes respect from opposing viewpoints. Free-thinkers we have a-plenty. Liars and embellishers tend to become ostracized quickly by everyone, no matter what the current view is of union business......

Which is why I'm not expecting much of a response from you to this post.

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

i dont know if this is true but i have heard we are getting 3 agents from PSA in January from Pit, but yet they will be given full time status ahead of us EN agents and they will be bidding vacation ahead of us agents as well. To me that is wrong and I would hope that if we are officially union then the union will take care of that cuz to me that is absolutely wrong to put another air carrier employees ahead of us EN agents but that is the type of manager in our city

If you are unhappy with the advantages you say the PSA transfers are receiving, you can blame Piedmont HR, and then you can blame the brain trust in Tempe that is disbanding our operation and giving the Piedmont HR department free reign to hire those PSA agents at whatever it takes to retain their talent.

Vacation bidding among the wholy-owned subsidiaries is done by longevity, and is transferrable either way. We have had Piedmont transfers who kept their vacation seniority after transferring to PSA. Ironically, those few transfers did not last long at PIT, for a number of self-destructive reasons.

You are currently non-union. As is being discussed, if you want change, then certify a union and get a collective bargaining agreement in place. Then follow it and don't let management try to weasel out of following it, too. Until you do, management can do whatever they want without any regard to how you feel about it. This is what we've been trying to tell you guys for a long time.