Something To Look Into

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Feb 21, 2004
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With the RISING cost of Health, Life and Dental Insurance, It is really cost effective to have half your station only working 3.5 hours a day???? Most of our part timers in our station only get 17 -18 hrs. a week. Everyone is topped out at full payscale. Not to mention the 3% income match for 401. With the ablility to have AM,Mids PM, and closing shifts, the need for Part-timers, has really come to an end, along with the typewritter. As far as I know, there are no Part time Pilots, Flight Attendants, Mechanics, etc. Why have part time Customer Service and Fleet Service???? This is really costing many Millions of $$$$$ in BENEFITS that the Company could be saving.

The following test should be done ASAP. Pick a test city, and and lets say the test city has 20 Inside part-timers, make 10 Full time, and layoff 10. I'm 100% sure you could cover the ATO, GATE, and BAGGAGE with the new full time compliment. When you add up the savings, not paying Benefits to those 10 employees, I believe it would make a HUGE difference in our bottom line, and this is just ONE city. I know alot of people won't agree with me, because their husbands work full time, and they just put in 15 hours a week for the Term Pass, and other Benefits, but if the truth be told, since we really no longer have those RUSH periods, and the flights are more balanced thru-out the day, an all Full Time Customer, and Fleet Service Staff could be a BIG money saver.

Thoughts???
 
The real question should be, will companies keep ANY full time employees. Part timers are much cheaper and more flexible to an operation. You've got it backwards.

DENVER, CO

PS...... just look at ANY airline, the trend over the last 15 years has been to PART time employees........and not the other way around. Any guesses why??
 
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The real question should be, will companies keep ANY full time employees. Part timers are much cheaper and more flexible to an operation. You've got it backwards.

DENVER, CO

PS...... just look at ANY airline, the trend over the last 15 years has been to PART time employees........and not the other way around. Any guesses why??
You have a very valid point. But I feel now that the way Health Care has become so coveted, and so many Americans don't have it, the Company can say, "You want Health Care, Then plan on giving us 40 HRS.
 
With the RISING cost of Health, Life and Dental Insurance, It is really cost effective to have half your station only working 3.5 hours a day???? Most of our part timers in our station only get 17 -18 hrs. a week. Everyone is topped out at full payscale. Not to mention the 3% income match for 401. With the ablility to have AM,Mids PM, and closing shifts, the need for Part-timers, has really come to an end, along with the typewritter. As far as I know, there are no Part time Pilots, Flight Attendants, Mechanics, etc. Why have part time Customer Service and Fleet Service???? This is really costing many Millions of $$$$$ in BENEFITS that the Company could be saving.

The following test should be done ASAP. Pick a test city, and and lets say the test city has 20 Inside part-timers, make 10 Full time, and layoff 10. I'm 100% sure you could cover the ATO, GATE, and BAGGAGE with the new full time compliment. When you add up the savings, not paying Benefits to those 10 employees, I believe it would make a HUGE difference in our bottom line, and this is just ONE city. I know alot of people won't agree with me, because their husbands work full time, and they just put in 15 hours a week for the Term Pass, and other Benefits, but if the truth be told, since we really no longer have those RUSH periods, and the flights are more balanced thru-out the day, an all Full Time Customer, and Fleet Service Staff could be a BIG money saver.

Thoughts???

Shut up. What is wrong with you?

I can only assume that you aren't aware that there are flight crew members ( pilots & flight attendants ) that are on reserve that would be in your face over this.

Stop trying to do the company's job. Keep it up and the lot of you will be part-time and the only full time positions will be those "key" positions sucking up to the Desert Denizens of Tempe.
 
Could an equal level of competence be purchased for a lower price in Tempe?

How many savants there would go elsewhere if given a ten percent pay cut?

And, who would miss them?
 
Part-timers make a great deal of sense if an airline is running bank operations in a hub, and depending upon how the flight schedule works, then overlapping the full-time agents for a couple of hours. If you are Southwest, then they typically run a relatively even amount of flights throughout the day, thus full-time people make more sense.

It makes little sense to hire people for 8 hours and leave hundreds of employees standing around for hours in-between long breaks in the banks. So for example, run full-time and part-time in the morning, part-time gone by around noon, bring in more full-time people mid-afternoon to overlap with the morning full-time people who leave late afternoon and finally, have a group of part-time employees at night to cover the last bank.

In terms of costing the company more money is questionable given that many part-timers do not take the health insurance as they have other options, and they are paying a larger amount of the employees share, as well. The pension contribution is even smaller for the company. In many ways, the part-time people are a bargain, and the reason as to why America West used them extensively.

So Reviews Jester.
 
With the RISING cost of Health, Life and Dental Insurance, It is really cost effective to have half your station only working 3.5 hours a day???? Most of our part timers in our station only get 17 -18 hrs. a week. Everyone is topped out at full payscale. Not to mention the 3% income match for 401. With the ablility to have AM,Mids PM, and closing shifts, the need for Part-timers, has really come to an end, along with the typewritter. As far as I know, there are no Part time Pilots, Flight Attendants, Mechanics, etc. Why have part time Customer Service and Fleet Service???? This is really costing many Millions of $$$$$ in BENEFITS that the Company could be saving.

The following test should be done ASAP. Pick a test city, and and lets say the test city has 20 Inside part-timers, make 10 Full time, and layoff 10. I'm 100% sure you could cover the ATO, GATE, and BAGGAGE with the new full time compliment. When you add up the savings, not paying Benefits to those 10 employees, I believe it would make a HUGE difference in our bottom line, and this is just ONE city. I know alot of people won't agree with me, because their husbands work full time, and they just put in 15 hours a week for the Term Pass, and other Benefits, but if the truth be told, since we really no longer have those RUSH periods, and the flights are more balanced thru-out the day, an all Full Time Customer, and Fleet Service Staff could be a BIG money saver.

Thoughts???

Last layoff's in our station were pt with up to 20 yrs seniority and we kept our ft new hires. Most of the pt are not by choice but by being screwed by the company over many years but they won't leave pay is to good pt at 19/hr or full time some where else at 8/hr.
 
You have a very valid point. But I feel now that the way Health Care has become so coveted, and so many Americans don't have it, the Company can say, "You want Health Care, Then plan on giving us 40 HRS.
The real question should be, will companies keep ANY full time employees. Part timers are much cheaper and more flexible to an operation. You've got it backwards.

DENVER, CO

PS...... just look at ANY airline, the trend over the last 15 years has been to PART time employees........and not the other way around. Any guesses why??

The unions need to make part-time workers pay and benefits and work rules economically impracticable and unworkable therefore less part-timers and the existing part-timers have good pay benefits work rules … As a sides note same for reserve.HP non-union passenger service had part-timers working 8+ hours a day with no benefits. .HP had agents pay and work rules at a all time industry low and try to get USAirway EAST passenger service agents lower to there standard…. USAirways EAST passenger service agents had to take an STRIKE vote for solidarity in negotiations to get HP passenger service agents brought up to industry standards,,,HP management would make the majority of union employees part-time or reserve if they could
 
The real question should be, will companies keep ANY full time employees. Part timers are much cheaper and more flexible to an operation. You've got it backwards.

DENVER, CO

PS...... just look at ANY airline, the trend over the last 15 years has been to PART time employees........and not the other way around. Any guesses why??
Let’s make ¾ of wide body UAL flying reserve think of the flexibility. Ever pilots dream fly the left seat on the wide body. If you dump down the profession( Like ALPA has)you have less regardless of the employee group
 
USAirways EAST passenger service agents had to take an STRIKE vote for solidarity in negotiations to get HP passenger service agents brought up to industry standards,,,HP management would make the majority of union employees part-time or reserve if they could
[/quote]


A strike vote?? When was that? Show me in writing or a link that a "strike vote was ever given out!"
 
Last layoff's in our station were pt with up to 20 yrs seniority and we kept our ft new hires. Most of the pt are not by choice but by being screwed by the company over many years but they won't leave pay is to good pt at 19/hr or full time some where else at 8/hr.
Yes, not many jobs that require no education pay $19 an hour. And 19 an hour for part time is even more unheard of. It's a sweet deal. People complain and hate the company and resent the job but the will not leave because they know they qualify for a $10. 00 an hour job.
 
Part-timers make a great deal of sense if an airline is running bank operations in a hub, and depending upon how the flight schedule works, then overlapping the full-time agents for a couple of hours. If you are Southwest, then they typically run a relatively even amount of flights throughout the day, thus full-time people make more sense.

Which of course brings up the larger issue of "rolling" the hubs.

It makes little sense to hire people for 8 hours and leave hundreds of employees standing around for hours in-between long breaks in the banks.

Maybe I read the OP's post wrong, but I believe they had line stations in mind when posting...
 
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This is just ONE expample of what is happening in my station. Due to the contract allowing 26 swap offs per quarter, a part-timer who is scheduled for 20 hrs. a week can swap off 2 days a week. Now this employee only works 3 days a week, 4 hrs. a day. I don't understand how a Company, in todays economy, can justify giving health care, life insurance, dental, 401, ETC. to an employee who only puts in 12 hrs. a week.

On the other hand, we have Full Timers, that work other full time jobs, at other companies, who use their 26 swaps per quarter also. They give away 2 eight hr. shfits every week to Hungry part timers, then they swap their full time shift with a part-timer who only works a 4 hr. shift. Now this full-timer is only working 12 hrs. a week , and collecting FULL time benefits, and its all perfectly legal.

This totally legal mess, could all be put to rest, by not using part timers. The company should determine how many full timers it needs to operate each station, and hand out those positions by seniority, and lay off the junior agents. Then count the MILLIONS they are saving on benefits. The new slogan could be "IF YOU WANT HEALTH CARE YOU HAVE TO EARN IT".
 
The company does not cover the part-timer's family (a big savings), and part-time employees contribute double what full-timers do?????

Company could save a bunch money if the Union stopped protecting full-timers and the company used all part-time ;)
 
Company has a better solution ...... it's call a self-service kiosks! No health care at all, just insert a new roll of paper once every day or two .... :up:
 

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