- Sep 10, 2003
- 478
- 51
Sherri Shamblin VP of Inflight to Address PIT's Concerns
Let me start by saying that I have heard from many of you regarding the rescinding of the CLT displacements and Scott Kirby's letter announcing that information. I want to thank you for your efforts of writing e-mails to the company expressing your feelings of disrespect for all your sacrifices and efforts you have made. The company has responded to your concerns by providing a meeting for the PIT flight attendants this Monday, April 9th, to explain this situation. The time of this meeting will be 4:00pm until 6:00 pm at the landside terminal, mezzanine level, Conference Room A (above the US Airways ticket counter). Sherri Shamblin, Vice President of Inflight Administration and possibly Mike Finn, Director of Crew Scheduling will be the attending company representatives.
Although the company gave prompt attention to address this matter, the critical coverage situation throughout the system this weekend depleted most of the reserves making them unavailable to attend this meeting. The announcement of this meeting came late Friday afternoon and was to be followed by a CBS message. Once the coverage situation became apparent early Saturday, myself, along with MEC President Mike Flores requested this meeting be rescheduled to a date that would be more accommodating to the reserves and thus providing a larger attendance. Sherri indicated her schedule would not permit such a change but she offered a possibility of a second meeting the morning of April 17th but did not commit to this date. I realize this is a short notice, but if possible, please make every effort to attend this Monday meeting if you are in base and have your voices and concerns heard.
I realize the connotation of Scott Kirby's letter appeared to have a disregard for the PIT displacements and should have been structured with some empathy and consideration to the disruption to the lives to our PIT flight attendants and hopefully this meeting provides some answers. I want to share a little information I have pertaining to each domicile and the amount of coverage in each base to provide a better understanding of this displacement situation. The number of available flight attendants fluctuates daily due to leaves within a month so the numbers presented are approximate at this time. Our PIT base has a total of 354 flight attendants available this month with 204 being blockholders and 150 reserves, this equates to a 42.3% reserve factor in PIT. BOS has a total of 177 with 152 blockholder and 25 reserves and has a 14.1% reserve factor. CLT has 1288 available with 1041 blockholders and 247 reserves and a 19.1% reserve factor. DCA has 327 flight attendants available and 260 are blockholders and 67 are reserves with a 20.4% reserve factor. PHL has 1,903 available with 1,567 blockholders and 336 reserves giving them a reserve factor of 17.6%. The LGA domicile has 181 available with 146 blockholders and 35 reserves giving them a 19.3% reserve factor. Looking at the numbers one would have to question the original displacement of 90 from CLT. The reality of CLT staffing is they will become overstaffed during the summer when much time is taken from that base but that time will return in the fall. CLT appears to be staffed properly for 8 or 9 months of the year. With seasonal flying, PHL will be overstaffed about seven months and adequately staffed for 5 months. In the month of June, after adjustments for transfers and displacements, PIT will have a reserve factor of 30%. Recalls will fill the vacancies in BOS, LGA and DCA. The results of the displacements have 37 active flight attendants going to PHL and only 3 going to CLT. Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of the displacement scenario and more information should be presented at the meeting. I must apologize for the short notice of this meeting but I was informed a CBS was going to be sent. Also with so many reserves flying trips I am uncertain to any possible significant turn out. I will continue to state the need for an additional meeting.
In Unity,
Mark Gentile
LECP - Council 40
[email protected]
NOTE*-The worst thing is....PIT F/As once again got called out all weekend and will not be able to attend. She's coming to sing to an almost empty house ! They took away people's off days and even illegaly rerouted an F/A from a two day to a four day with no clean clothes...when the union tried to get the F/A off the trip as per the contract, scheduling told them to "grieve it--we're out of people, she's staying on the trip."
Shamblin is scheduling this meeting the day after yet another mini-meltdown. She has been told that no one will be there but responded that this works with HER schedule....unbelievable.
Let me start by saying that I have heard from many of you regarding the rescinding of the CLT displacements and Scott Kirby's letter announcing that information. I want to thank you for your efforts of writing e-mails to the company expressing your feelings of disrespect for all your sacrifices and efforts you have made. The company has responded to your concerns by providing a meeting for the PIT flight attendants this Monday, April 9th, to explain this situation. The time of this meeting will be 4:00pm until 6:00 pm at the landside terminal, mezzanine level, Conference Room A (above the US Airways ticket counter). Sherri Shamblin, Vice President of Inflight Administration and possibly Mike Finn, Director of Crew Scheduling will be the attending company representatives.
Although the company gave prompt attention to address this matter, the critical coverage situation throughout the system this weekend depleted most of the reserves making them unavailable to attend this meeting. The announcement of this meeting came late Friday afternoon and was to be followed by a CBS message. Once the coverage situation became apparent early Saturday, myself, along with MEC President Mike Flores requested this meeting be rescheduled to a date that would be more accommodating to the reserves and thus providing a larger attendance. Sherri indicated her schedule would not permit such a change but she offered a possibility of a second meeting the morning of April 17th but did not commit to this date. I realize this is a short notice, but if possible, please make every effort to attend this Monday meeting if you are in base and have your voices and concerns heard.
I realize the connotation of Scott Kirby's letter appeared to have a disregard for the PIT displacements and should have been structured with some empathy and consideration to the disruption to the lives to our PIT flight attendants and hopefully this meeting provides some answers. I want to share a little information I have pertaining to each domicile and the amount of coverage in each base to provide a better understanding of this displacement situation. The number of available flight attendants fluctuates daily due to leaves within a month so the numbers presented are approximate at this time. Our PIT base has a total of 354 flight attendants available this month with 204 being blockholders and 150 reserves, this equates to a 42.3% reserve factor in PIT. BOS has a total of 177 with 152 blockholder and 25 reserves and has a 14.1% reserve factor. CLT has 1288 available with 1041 blockholders and 247 reserves and a 19.1% reserve factor. DCA has 327 flight attendants available and 260 are blockholders and 67 are reserves with a 20.4% reserve factor. PHL has 1,903 available with 1,567 blockholders and 336 reserves giving them a reserve factor of 17.6%. The LGA domicile has 181 available with 146 blockholders and 35 reserves giving them a 19.3% reserve factor. Looking at the numbers one would have to question the original displacement of 90 from CLT. The reality of CLT staffing is they will become overstaffed during the summer when much time is taken from that base but that time will return in the fall. CLT appears to be staffed properly for 8 or 9 months of the year. With seasonal flying, PHL will be overstaffed about seven months and adequately staffed for 5 months. In the month of June, after adjustments for transfers and displacements, PIT will have a reserve factor of 30%. Recalls will fill the vacancies in BOS, LGA and DCA. The results of the displacements have 37 active flight attendants going to PHL and only 3 going to CLT. Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of the displacement scenario and more information should be presented at the meeting. I must apologize for the short notice of this meeting but I was informed a CBS was going to be sent. Also with so many reserves flying trips I am uncertain to any possible significant turn out. I will continue to state the need for an additional meeting.
In Unity,
Mark Gentile
LECP - Council 40
[email protected]
NOTE*-The worst thing is....PIT F/As once again got called out all weekend and will not be able to attend. She's coming to sing to an almost empty house ! They took away people's off days and even illegaly rerouted an F/A from a two day to a four day with no clean clothes...when the union tried to get the F/A off the trip as per the contract, scheduling told them to "grieve it--we're out of people, she's staying on the trip."
Shamblin is scheduling this meeting the day after yet another mini-meltdown. She has been told that no one will be there but responded that this works with HER schedule....unbelievable.
