missthe727
Senior
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2006
- Messages
- 313
- Reaction score
- 35
I heard there was a good turn out.....about 60-70 F/As. Other than that, I'm waiting for more info. Did anyone here go ???
Today's PIT AFA Meeting...
- Thread starter missthe727
- Start date
safety stud
Senior
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2006
- Messages
- 417
- Reaction score
- 15
It is SAT, and if anyone went to the meeting, they should put out what was said. I know there are a few out there who arent flying today.
Post please...
In S. Shamblin's letter, didn't she mention something about "addressing the commuting" problem from PIT? Like they were going to come up with a policy of some sort? Anything mentioned about that at the meeting?
(Satellite bases... satellite bases.... satellite bases..... 🙂 )
(Satellite bases... satellite bases.... satellite bases..... 🙂 )
Travelpro72
Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2005
- Messages
- 4,964
- Reaction score
- 455
Oh if only satellite bases would come true. WHAT is the reason we don't have any now? I can't recall the exact reason.
Be Careful What You Wish For.
Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2006
- Messages
- 2,269
- Reaction score
- 571
If they gave out satellite bases for every base that has been closed we would have no bases closed.
Good Luck
songbirdstew
Senior
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2003
- Messages
- 478
- Reaction score
- 51
There were about 65-70 F/As there. Steve Kingsley was sent by the company to tell us that they need to have further meetings to discuss all the questions that we have. There were questions about parking now that PIT will no longer be a base. People asked about a buyout or severance pay. Health insurance is a major question for those who don't want to commute, want to quit but aren't yet eligible for medicare. The fact that there will now be approx. 1000 people commuting out of PIT and the lack of flights was discussed. The hot topic was vacation and how they let it run (even though results aren't posted) when they knew the base with some of the most Sr. F/As was closing. To all of these concerns, Kingsley replied: "We're having meetings about these issues next week."
Shame on the company ! This is crazy and we told them so. They should have had these answers before they decided to close the base. This is the problem with how they did it. If they had let the union know more than 45 minutes before the announcement, AFA would have said OK---what about these items....and listed their concerns.
But NO, the company and especially Doug Parker, who snuck around and did this behind everyone's back. Doug LIED in an e-mail to Mark Gentile about the base closing. Just 5 weeks before the closure announcement, he sent Mark an e-mail that said they were going to try to make PIT work and they had no intention of closing it. The day of the announcement, Doug was in PIT and met w/ the PSA people but didn't go anywhere near the PIT mainline crew room. What a COWARD !!!!!!!
In addition, 4 hours after the base announcement was made, they had supervisors from other bases calling to "check on us." What a crock of crap ! One F/A at the meeting said they left a message on her machine at home and her 11 year old son got it and called her crying and thought his mom had lost her job...really nice as she's a single mom. Some PHL sup. called my cell phone and left a message. He "just wanted to give me a call." It sounded like a telemarketing call and he had a free set of ginsu knives to offer me with my $19.99 purchase.
At the meeting, Kingsley said that they wanted it to be personal with the phone calls but it blew up in their face as usual....who wants someone from management to call them to tell them their world was just turned upside down before it has even sunk in. Another F/A had not even heard the news and didn't know what the heck the sup was talking about when he called.
One good thing is that Congressman Tim Murphy, PA-18 called and asked if he could attend the meeting. He was very firm in stating that they had tried to work w/ USAirways and had asked to be informed if any major changes would be announced in the near future. He said, USAir only comes to Capitol Hill when they want something and US continues to make decisions out of the blue w/i out infoming anyone until after the event. He said that US is not well liked in Washington, at all. He also stated that he had talked to enough F/As to know that commuting out of PIT due to lack of flights would mean a lot of F/As being put on dependability due to unable to commutes, etc. He said his office would look at any firing due to the inability to commute as an unemployment issue and that he would fight to help with unemployment bennies and a retraining program which I think is GREAT ! In addition, that afternoon, he was the 5th Republican to sign on to the new FMLA bill that AFA has been lobbying for to include F/As.
Mike Flores also attended the meeting and gave us a negotiations update. As the latest E-Line states, the company agreed on 100% DH pay and credit for the joint contract---if we ever get one----so that was good news. I think he said they are working on SCK next. Mike also pointed out that the main reason that AFA should have been notified was so they would have answers to how the bump and flush of 312 F/As from PIT will impact the F/As in other bases.
Think of it this way, presently there are only 52 lines of flying in PIT w/ 160 B/H .......300 go from PIT to PHL, PHL is now over 300 so those 300 all go to CLT, which already allowed some transfers to cover the new 757 time being sent in from PHL, so now CLT is WAY over so those people are bumped to DCA,LGA,and BOS but they are now properly staffed due to recalls of furloghees...do you see where this might be going. No, Mike didn't say it but I did a few weeks back on this board and was called a "fear-monger." It actually might happen that those who were just called back might find themselves once again out on the street which is NOT right !! When you look at this closure, it has the potential not to impact those 312 w/ the PIT closing but up to 1000+ F/As and where they are based when the dust settles. It's not going to be pretty.
Moving on, the meeting was a good one with everyone just trying to figure out what to do. Unfortunately with the company so ill-prepared to answer our questions, we now have to wait for them to talk to AFA and come up with answers. We want DOUG to come to the next meeting. I think they sent Kingsley in because he used to be an F/A and many of us know him so they knew there wouldn't be too much of a slaughter...so we wait which is just plain stupid. If this management had it together in the first place, they would have had the answers. That was pointed out to Steve..and we asked him to go back to Tempe with a few questions such as what will Tempe do when the whole East Coast goes down due to weather and PIT is not longer there to have crews DH out to cover OPS ? What will they do when the 1000 people can not get to work---is it there problem---no, it's not but they've created this mess and they should at least assist us in dealing with it.
As one F/A pointed out...it's like you've been told that you still have a job in downtown Pittsburgh, but all the bridges are out so you have no way of getting there....but hey, you still have a job.
As Kingsley talked, Bob Baldwin, PIT base mgr. took a lot of notes and they have a lot to go back to the company with. Steve said they will be meeting this week and will get back to Mark and Mike......
One comment made was to ask Tempe how we are supposed to respect their business decisions when they announce a base closing then are ill-prepared with answers that they should have KNOWN would have been asked. Steve was told to tell them that it is very difficult for us to believe in them when their actions show how truly inept they are. I doubt that will make any difference.
Shame on the company ! This is crazy and we told them so. They should have had these answers before they decided to close the base. This is the problem with how they did it. If they had let the union know more than 45 minutes before the announcement, AFA would have said OK---what about these items....and listed their concerns.
But NO, the company and especially Doug Parker, who snuck around and did this behind everyone's back. Doug LIED in an e-mail to Mark Gentile about the base closing. Just 5 weeks before the closure announcement, he sent Mark an e-mail that said they were going to try to make PIT work and they had no intention of closing it. The day of the announcement, Doug was in PIT and met w/ the PSA people but didn't go anywhere near the PIT mainline crew room. What a COWARD !!!!!!!
In addition, 4 hours after the base announcement was made, they had supervisors from other bases calling to "check on us." What a crock of crap ! One F/A at the meeting said they left a message on her machine at home and her 11 year old son got it and called her crying and thought his mom had lost her job...really nice as she's a single mom. Some PHL sup. called my cell phone and left a message. He "just wanted to give me a call." It sounded like a telemarketing call and he had a free set of ginsu knives to offer me with my $19.99 purchase.
At the meeting, Kingsley said that they wanted it to be personal with the phone calls but it blew up in their face as usual....who wants someone from management to call them to tell them their world was just turned upside down before it has even sunk in. Another F/A had not even heard the news and didn't know what the heck the sup was talking about when he called.
One good thing is that Congressman Tim Murphy, PA-18 called and asked if he could attend the meeting. He was very firm in stating that they had tried to work w/ USAirways and had asked to be informed if any major changes would be announced in the near future. He said, USAir only comes to Capitol Hill when they want something and US continues to make decisions out of the blue w/i out infoming anyone until after the event. He said that US is not well liked in Washington, at all. He also stated that he had talked to enough F/As to know that commuting out of PIT due to lack of flights would mean a lot of F/As being put on dependability due to unable to commutes, etc. He said his office would look at any firing due to the inability to commute as an unemployment issue and that he would fight to help with unemployment bennies and a retraining program which I think is GREAT ! In addition, that afternoon, he was the 5th Republican to sign on to the new FMLA bill that AFA has been lobbying for to include F/As.
Mike Flores also attended the meeting and gave us a negotiations update. As the latest E-Line states, the company agreed on 100% DH pay and credit for the joint contract---if we ever get one----so that was good news. I think he said they are working on SCK next. Mike also pointed out that the main reason that AFA should have been notified was so they would have answers to how the bump and flush of 312 F/As from PIT will impact the F/As in other bases.
Think of it this way, presently there are only 52 lines of flying in PIT w/ 160 B/H .......300 go from PIT to PHL, PHL is now over 300 so those 300 all go to CLT, which already allowed some transfers to cover the new 757 time being sent in from PHL, so now CLT is WAY over so those people are bumped to DCA,LGA,and BOS but they are now properly staffed due to recalls of furloghees...do you see where this might be going. No, Mike didn't say it but I did a few weeks back on this board and was called a "fear-monger." It actually might happen that those who were just called back might find themselves once again out on the street which is NOT right !! When you look at this closure, it has the potential not to impact those 312 w/ the PIT closing but up to 1000+ F/As and where they are based when the dust settles. It's not going to be pretty.
Moving on, the meeting was a good one with everyone just trying to figure out what to do. Unfortunately with the company so ill-prepared to answer our questions, we now have to wait for them to talk to AFA and come up with answers. We want DOUG to come to the next meeting. I think they sent Kingsley in because he used to be an F/A and many of us know him so they knew there wouldn't be too much of a slaughter...so we wait which is just plain stupid. If this management had it together in the first place, they would have had the answers. That was pointed out to Steve..and we asked him to go back to Tempe with a few questions such as what will Tempe do when the whole East Coast goes down due to weather and PIT is not longer there to have crews DH out to cover OPS ? What will they do when the 1000 people can not get to work---is it there problem---no, it's not but they've created this mess and they should at least assist us in dealing with it.
As one F/A pointed out...it's like you've been told that you still have a job in downtown Pittsburgh, but all the bridges are out so you have no way of getting there....but hey, you still have a job.
As Kingsley talked, Bob Baldwin, PIT base mgr. took a lot of notes and they have a lot to go back to the company with. Steve said they will be meeting this week and will get back to Mark and Mike......
One comment made was to ask Tempe how we are supposed to respect their business decisions when they announce a base closing then are ill-prepared with answers that they should have KNOWN would have been asked. Steve was told to tell them that it is very difficult for us to believe in them when their actions show how truly inept they are. I doubt that will make any difference.
safety stud
Senior
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2006
- Messages
- 417
- Reaction score
- 15
Thanks for the update....Songbird....
ClueByFour
Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2002
- Messages
- 3,566
- Reaction score
- 37
I thought AFA managed to get a commuter policy put in during BKII--something like listing for X number of flights and then the "unable to commute" does not count or somesuch.
I know of at least two PIT based FAs who are going to bid DCA, which kind of shocked me a bit. The theory from at least one is that it can be a shorter drive than PHL should it come to that....
I know of at least two PIT based FAs who are going to bid DCA, which kind of shocked me a bit. The theory from at least one is that it can be a shorter drive than PHL should it come to that....
Travelpro72
Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2005
- Messages
- 4,964
- Reaction score
- 455
Well it's certainly closer to drive to DCA from PIT than PHL. Considering the chaos and the drama of the PHL commute we may see a few go to DCA. I know if I were in PIT I would.
SegmentKing
Veteran
It still should disgust everyone that most of the time when they do this, the people conducting the meeting still don't have all the answers. Maybe we should start sending Doug & Kirby out to all of these, but wait.. even they don't know why they approved decisions like this.
*sigh*
at least with Wolf, we had some kind of accountability at who was screwing the place up.
*sigh*
at least with Wolf, we had some kind of accountability at who was screwing the place up.
US1YFARE
Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2004
- Messages
- 3,932
- Reaction score
- 54
Is everyone working for US Airways Magazine these days????????
USCREW
Veteran
The thing that most F/As are not considering is the fact that DCA has very little flying!!! If I didn't live here, I surely would not choose DCA. We only have a dozen or so trips per day, and a third of them are one days (which I love but most commuters avoid). Most trips are not commutable; especially on both ends. Trying to make your schedule work with Primary, SAP, ETB, and AIL is very challenging due to the limited number of operating trips. It does not matter how senior you are (ask Betty), if there is nothing to pick up--you're outta luck. Just look at the activity for AIL on any given day on screen 16. It usually does not exceed one and a half pages. That's because everyone holds on to their trips since they're all equally bad. DCA is a great base with professional crews who have no need for drama at work. Even so, I think that choosing to drive from PIT to DCA is a mistake even if the distance is shorter. Have you all not had the pleasure of experiencing the local traffic? I would go to PHL.
Twicebaked
Veteran
- Joined
- May 22, 2003
- Messages
- 1,788
- Reaction score
- 18
Go to CLT!!!!
We don't need/want anymore burgers in PHL.....the commute is bad enough!!! :down:
I have a gr8 idea........RETIRE already!!!!!!!
Not being mean, but something has got to give here........................
N965VJ
Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2005
- Messages
- 3,255
- Reaction score
- 149
diamondcutter
Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2007
- Messages
- 640
- Reaction score
- 618
