Thanks Art and FFOCUS Members....

songbirdstew

Senior
Sep 10, 2003
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Here's a portion of the latest AFA MEC E-Line. Thank you Art for contacting Mike Flores and expressing your concerns.

Sunday, April 29th, 2007 17:30

COMPANY INITIATIVES AND PLANNED PICKETING

Last week US Airways announced a profit (excluding special items) of $34 million. The Company also announced new customer service initiatives designed to keep our existing customers and win back those customers who have become disenchanted with US Airways. Profits, money spent on airplanes and onboard products-yet still no value offered to employees through contract talks.

Management continues to use the cost savings, derived through bankruptcy, to drive new customer service initiatives, enhance shareholder value, management bonuses and performance plans. The Company refuses to return any employee investments to those that made any of the above possible. I believe the Company has reluctantly begun to realize their customers are at the breaking point. It is my job to point out that our Flight Attendants are at their breaking point-and everyone needs to know it.

After last week's Eline, "The Company that couldn't shoot straight" I received an email from Art Pushkin, a 7 year Chairman's Preferred Customer and Co Chair of FFOCUS (Frequent Fliers Organized and Committed to US Airways' Success). Mr. Pushkin wrote the following to me and wanted me to share it with all of you:

"I wanted to let you know that your customers support you and your flight attendants, and that many of them are the only reason some of us still fly US."

Furthermore he told me in the email he had relayed the following comment to management, "It is sad that the management of this company appears to be on the fast track to destroying it. In my position with FFOCUS, I have met with senior management on more than one occasion, and have gotten excellent lip service, assurances of improvement, and none come. While we have issues with the product, reliability, and customer service (for complaints, not on board), our main point to Tempe is ALWAYS that in order to have customer satisfaction you must have employee satisfaction. I am afraid that is a message they still don't get."



I have been a Flight Attendant for 25 years and I realized from day one, the airline business is not a transportation business- it is a customer service business.

The new Company initiatives may improve the Company/Preferred Customer relationship, but it won't succeed if frontline employees feel there is nothing in it for them. Frontline employees are beaten down. Promises to customers without promises to employees will never insure the success of US Airways.

We have been in contract negotiations for over a year-with no end in sight. The committee has been working day and night to negotiate a contract that ends the inequities extracted through bankruptcy negotiations. Human nature will eventually take its toll. Flight Attendants at US Airways will not be able to continue to provide the service necessary to fulfill the needs of our customers and the needs of the Company. While we will continue to provide the safety aspects of our jobs, our onboard service will soon erode to that of Aeroflot. The new customer service initiatives, designed to appease the discord caused to our customers, will not be successful if the Company's internal customer-the employee does not have the drive or spirit to deliver them.

It appears the Company may indeed be listening to the customer outcry for a better product and has responded with an initiative to improve that product.

It does not appear the Company is listening to the outcry from the people they entrust to provide the services they how are promising to our customers. The reconfiguration of the Airbus fleet has caused a tremendous uproar from our customers. Management gets emails and can respond on their own time. We have to respond to our customers in "real time". The drive to add seats and revenue to the Airbus fleet flies in the face of both the Company and industry mantra that a reduction in capacity increases revenue by driving a higher ticket prices. Management can take their time crafting a nifty "corporate-speak" response to complaining passengers. Flight Attendants do not have that luxury. We are on the spot and have to craft an immediate response. The Flight Attendants' only response to the complaints is, "sorry that is the way it is".

Shortsighted decisions lead to failure. The Company can't expect Flight Attendants to explain Company "revenue projections and corporate philosophy" (cram as many people on a plane as the weight of the plane will allow) to a First Class customer who has no place to stow his/her computer bag. When the bag has to be checked, the customer has no way to do the work he/she may need to accomplish. In the end the Flight Attendant is left "holding the bag" and an adversarial relationship between the employee and the customer begins. Ivory tower, white paper decisions are not reflective of the real world. Management is losing the trust of their customers and employees. Management can't continue to say, "We want the best employees in the industry" and not back that up with compensation packages and labor agreements that maintain and attract quality employees. Substandard agreements and wages lead to substandard employees. Think about it, how many times you have been screwed at the drive through at a fast food outlet. That is what is happening here.

This is not a game, nor, is it Union rhetoric. The Company needs to recognize the sacrifices made to keep both America West and US Airways alive. The Company needs to revaluate aircraft configurations decisions driven by bean counters. Remember folks, this is a customer service business. Management has lost the confidence of many frequent flyers and almost all of the frontline employees.

How can this be fixed? It is clear from this week customer service initiatives that management is listening to their customers and making some changes.

After this weeks negotiating session it is clear that management is not listening to the negotiating committee or the members. If money can be allocated to the customers money must also be allocated to the employees. To be clear, negotiations are not being stalled, but they are at a stalemate. I don't want to spend the rest of my natural life in negotiations- but I will if I have to. The AFA will do what it takes to make sure our members get what they deserve for providing the services management wants to provide to our customers. We will be at the bargaining table-but will not agree to substandard proposals or terms. We will also take this fight outside of the negotiations arena.

US Airways Labor Coalition Picket and Protest

US Airways' Doug Parker will be a panelist and join other CEO's and senior executives of American, Spirit, Hawaiian, Virgin Atlantic, STAR Alliance, British Airways, JetBlue, Boeing and Airbus for the 16th Annual Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Aviation Symposium's "Aviation 2007 - In Search of New Strategies for Success", May 8-10, 2007, held at the Biltmore Resort in Phoenix.

US Airways Flight Attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and Pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, as well as other labor groups will join in solidarity and protest what employees have dubbed the "US Airways Strategy for Disaster- Continued Failure to Deal with Labor Concerns". The protest will be held in conjunction with the aviation symposium event.

Mark your calendars for May 8 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm and join your fellow brothers and sisters at ALPA, AFA-CWA, and other groups as labor unites for "Frustration and Fury II"- A Labor Coalition Picket and Protest.

We are requesting you wear white shirts with blue pants/jeans. We have arranged bus transportation for all participants from the staging area at Harkins Arcadia Movie Theatre, 40th Street and Thomas Roads. The first bus will depart the parking lot to our picket location at 10:50am.

We will be planning more informational picketing on the East Coast.
 
The new customer service initiatives, designed to appease the discord caused to our customers, will not be successful if the Company's internal customer-the employee does not have the drive or spirit to deliver them.

This is why I have alreadly cut my business in half with US, I don't think it will happen. I have a frequent flyer with US for 15 years, and a top elite since the program has started. I am also gold with NW and Silver with DL. It was real easy to leave.

While I think US has many great front-line employees, too many are now jaded to provide the service they should. It was a bad attitude flight that made me finally say enough is enough. Luckly the connecting flight crew was GREAT. I will still fly US on routes where it make sense, but I'll probably only be a gold this year, not a CP as in pas years.

The other factor for leaving is the continual IT problems that just makes it too hard to give US my company's money.

Unless management smartens up fast, US will not have any good front line employees left. They will have found other employeement or are just too misrable to be around.
 
I have nevered liked complaining about companies. That's why I left the last one. Fleet has the company not replying to our Town Hall meeting which was to be addressed May 1 or 2. We got numerous maybees. One of the middle management set the date; and then, no response. This happened during the letter Parker sent to Fleet/Mechanics about the injunction and the companies opinion. (April 24.) The injunction was "thrown out" of Bankruptcy on April 27th. This might have some meaning as to why Phoenix doen't get a Town Hall: But Charlotte, with their very direct questions did. We would be "Cross Examining the letter that was premature to the ruling of the Bankrupcty court that intitles us to now go ahead. There will be no Judge Mitchell, and BK court to run back to. Now, it is the language as to whether our IAM or Company, MERGED! or ACQUIRED! Who will decide on the SNAPBACK! Thur the next judge. AKA Arbitrator! All lawyers are SNEAKS. Who pays the most for the BEST! will win.
 
I have nevered liked complaining about companies. That's why I left the last one. Fleet has the company not replying to our Town Hall meeting which was to be addressed May 1 or 2. We got numerous maybees. One of the middle management set the date; and then, no response. This happened during the letter Parker sent to Fleet/Mechanics about the injunction and the companies opinion. (April 24.) The injunction was "thrown out" of Bankruptcy on April 27th. This might have some meaning as to why Phoenix doen't get a Town Hall: But Charlotte, with their very direct questions did. We would be "Cross Examining the letter that was premature to the ruling of the Bankrupcty court that intitles us to now go ahead. There will be no Judge Mitchell, and BK court to run back to. Now, it is the language as to whether our IAM or Company, MERGED! or ACQUIRED! Who will decide on the SNAPBACK! Thur the next judge. AKA Arbitrator! All lawyers are SNEAKS. Who pays the most for the BEST! will win.


Singleflyer! Wow! You have just told a mouthfull. I realized I was venting and overlooked the obvious. We will all stop complaining when this new improved merged airline fesses up to what we have become. Thank you for your continued business. We will get our act together ASAP!
 
The new customer service initiatives, designed to appease the discord caused to our customers, will not be successful if the Company's internal customer-the employee does not have the drive or spirit to deliver them.

This is why I have alreadly cut my business in half with US, I don't think it will happen. I have a frequent flyer with US for 15 years, and a top elite since the program has started. I am also gold with NW and Silver with DL. It was real easy to leave.

While I think US has many great front-line employees, too many are now jaded to provide the service they should. It was a bad attitude flight that made me finally say enough is enough. Luckly the connecting flight crew was GREAT. I will still fly US on routes where it make sense, but I'll probably only be a gold this year, not a CP as in pas years.

The other factor for leaving is the continual IT problems that just makes it too hard to give US my company's money.

Unless management smartens up fast, US will not have any good front line employees left. They will have found other employeement or are just too misrable to be around.
Your last paragraph hit the nail on the head.
 
Thanks ART...your efforts made a difference on my life. One day...one flight. Flew with a chairman preferred that told me the other top airlines have offered him his same status to transfer over to them. He's never flown on them but, they hate US so much they want our business travelers. I told him you and the FFocus group made a differance and the Co was listening. He said it was the F/A's and agents that kept them loyal to US. He said support your depts with their picketing to show solidarity. FFocus as a group will be where they can to show the CO the customers support the employees and they have had enough. He said we want your tools and fabulous attitudes back to care for us. The industry will see a change in that its not just the employees that are mad and bitter, its the customers....joining the employees. He said if DP isn't kicked out by the board this Co. won't survive. That you can't be a LCC and cater to the business flyer. He believes they have finally gotten the message but, are a long way from recovery. He gave me a service coupon with a laugh that, passing the snack basket and smiling was top first class service these days. Thanks Art and FF.
 
That you can't be a LCC and cater to the business flyer.

You can...to a certain extent...if you charge reasonable fares with reasonable (or no) change fees (a la Southwest), and offer reasonable comfort in Y. You won't get a lot of the high yield business travelers whose companies pay full freight without blinking an eye, but you'd certainly keep the business travelers who will pay a bit extra for some of these things....but don't have unlimited travel budgets. Let's face it....if you're going to be nickel-and-dimed to death anyway, you may as well do it on a carrier which offers far more bang for your buck.
 
I never charge anyone a change fee or standby fee at the gate. It just seems so tacky to me. We already collected their money, just make them happy if they want to go home and see their families earlier. Just put them on the plane for God's sake.
 
AMEN! Like I said before, the company is losing alot of $$$ on sharks that know they can fly for free because we can't find their ticket and reservation.

BBS
 
You can...to a certain extent...if you charge reasonable fares with reasonable (or no) change fees (a la Southwest), and offer reasonable comfort in Y. You won't get a lot of the high yield business travelers whose companies pay full freight without blinking an eye, but you'd certainly keep the business travelers who will pay a bit extra for some of these things....but don't have unlimited travel budgets. Let's face it....if you're going to be nickel-and-dimed to death anyway, you may as well do it on a carrier which offers far more bang for your buck.
LCC was a great idea. Problem is it's not a viable entity. There is no such thing as a full service low cost carrier. It is physically impossible. To offer the aminities and services most business travelers want and need costs money. Something LCC doesn't give up easily.

Just my opinion...