What's Really Going On At Phl?

[jimcfs]

I wrote most of this as a reply in another thread, but I think it needs to be brought into a separate thread so we can get some answers. As one of your loyal customers, it disturbs me to hear this story.

I was on 2379 to CAK. It was already delayed two hours due to weather (which was good as my incoming from BOS was about 3 hours late.) We boarded about 5:45 for a 6:07 departure. Then we sat and sat and sat... waiting for checked bags to be loaded over 45 minutes. The captain was ready to give up when rampers finally came to load us up. (While waiting on the plane we were told there was a problem in the bag room and they couldn't find the bags.)

I was then told after we were in the air that even though we had a PSA crew the ground crew was PI. The crew was NOT happy with what happened. This was made very clear with the comments the flight deck made on the way to the runway and by the FA later directly to me.

Come on PHL folks... this flight was already 2 hours late due to the weather problems. Why make things worse because the rampers don't want to do their jobs? Or is PHL just that short staffed??

Will someone shed some light into this? No excuses... no BS... no bashing of your own people... just some straight answers please.

 

[Winglet]

I wrote most of this as a reply in another thread, but I think it needs to be brought into a separate thread so we can get some answers.  As one of your loyal customers, it disturbs me to hear this story.

I was on 2379 to CAK.  It was already delayed two hours due to weather (which was good as my incoming from BOS was about 3 hours late.)  We boarded about 5:45 for a 6:07 departure.  Then we sat and sat and sat... waiting for checked bags to be loaded over 45 minutes. The captain was ready to give up when rampers finally came to load us up. (While waiting on the plane we were told there was a problem in the bag room and they couldn't find the bags.)

I was then told after we were in the air that even though we had a PSA crew the ground crew was PI.  The crew was NOT happy with what happened.  This was made very clear with the comments the flight deck made on the way to the runway and by the FA later directly to me.

Come on PHL folks... this flight was already 2 hours late due to the weather problems. Why make things worse because the rampers don't want to do their jobs?  Or is PHL just that short staffed??

Will someone shed some light into this?  No excuses... no BS... no bashing of your own people... just some straight answers please.

[post="253787"][/post]​

Where was supervision??? Ah hah.

 

[crushed]

I would have to let the "Express" rampers respond to this.
"F" terminal is a whole different airline!

 

[MarkMyWords]

This is purely rumor.....so take it for what it is worth.....

It is my understanding that many of the vacancies at express were caused by employees jumping ship to go to mainline. So we have in essence robbed peter to pay paul and spread the misery between mainline and express. (Especially since PSA is a wholly owned)

On the plus side.....the mainline ramp staffing levels will have increased by 100 by the end of this week. Now they are only short 150 employees. :angry2:

 

[flyin2low]

PHL express ops have some serious problems. The CSA's are one thing which has been dicussed all too much. The ramp side needs some serious attitude adjustment (motivation). This is actually an accurate story all too often. You may say that they need better supervision, but it's the supervisors who create the whole problem. At any given moment about 10% of the workforce is actually performing their jobs, the other 90% are in the breakroom talking on their cell phones until the supervisor who is playing cards gets the call from the ops tower that a flight needs bags, like 45 minutes ago. After completing their calls and finishing the hand they might do something about it. It seems like 2 loaders are assigned to 2-3 gates at a time. With the rolling hub and the countless delayed flights, this staffing model doesn't work. I believe that the once ambitious employees of Piedmont(Henson) have lost it due to high turnover of their coworkers, poor planning on the managers behalf and an unknown future of their company.

 

[jimcfs]

PHL express ops have some serious problems. T

[post="253850"][/post]​

This explains things very well. Thank you all especially flyin2low. The scenario you gave here sounds exactly what happened last evening. The sad thing was due to the high number of cancellations there weren't a lot of planes sitting around F needing ramp help... so one would assume there would be a lot of rampers available to get this plane loaded.

Another observation from last night... the empty unboarded plane sitting at the gate to our right (from onboard the plane, so I'm guessing it was at F13) had a big pile of bags sitting outside on the ground at the back. Not in a cart(s), but in a pile on the ground. I saw a ramper come over after we had been on the plane about 30 minutes waiting and picking them up and throwing them (not placing them) on a cart. Looked like he was not enjoying his day at work.

I do seem to remember yesterday a lot of rampers either sitting around or standing outside doing nothing. Sounds like the stories given here are sadly true. The question now is what is US going to do about this???

 

[roadtrip]

Come on PHL folks... this flight was already 2 hours late due to the weather problems. Why make things worse because the rampers don't want to do their jobs? Or is PHL just that short staffed??

Will someone shed some light into this? No excuses... no BS... no bashing of your own people... just some straight answers please.

[post="253787"][/post]​

From the ramp view from main line get a jumpsuit on and see for yourself. They can use the help! oh and be prepared to work your butt off looking for equipment they dont have........ loading planes with you and yourself as the only workers on a gate with 7000lbs coming off and 7000 going on in 29 degree blizzard conditions
and having a blown out knee torn sholders sore back moving 70lb plus bags in a 4ft hole under the plane. yup all this can be your for 9.50 an hour see for yourself. do it for a couple of nights over the weekend and be ready to be forced to work OT. Night after night after night.

 

[jimcfs]

From the ramp view from main line get a jumpsuit on and see for yourself. They can use the help! oh and be prepared to work your butt off looking for equipment they dont have........ loading planes with you and yourself as the only workers on a gate with 7000lbs coming off and 7000 going on in 29 degree blizzard conditions

[post="254075"][/post]​

Boo-hoo, it's hard to have sympathy when you walk through terminal F and see ramp workers standing around inside while bags are sitting around waiting to be loaded on a plane. Part of the job is working in those conditions. I can understand coming inside once done to get warm for a minute or two... but when there are loaded planes waiting for bags to take off, someone should be getting off their asses and getting the planes loaded.

To quote a line from another thread... "It's the service, stupid."

 

[700UW]

ever hear of lunch, breaks or that is not their work assignment?

See since you don't work there, I guess you can't undertand that concept.

Guess everyone wants just a bunch of slaves loading and unloading planes.

 

[Travelpro72]

The best for me was when I was commuting home from PHL to PIT after working from Paris and sat on the plane from 1:15pm to 4:30. The bags from the flight before were still in the belly. The f/o working, another flight attendant and myself went out to unload and load our bags. We had a FULL flight and the girl outside didn't want help. She said there was no cart to put these bags on so load them away from the wing so we could pull out if possible. When the bags started to pile up she said, "No! Huh-uhhh I'm not loading these to the ground and then again to a cart". We all were trying to help and she didnt want it. A huge discussion broke out and the f/o and myself said we had a full plane of paying passengers and I was more than ready to be home. Things are rough for everyone I told her and were trying to help you. If you dont want to do this punch out then. I dont agree with anything that has happened to any group here but when you dont even want help from a fellow employee who are we hurting in the end. Needless to say we took off at 6:30pm.

 

[700UW]

First of all it is not YOUR job to unload or load a plane, are you trained properly?

Second of all US Airways Policy is to place luggage in carts, not on the ground.

Third, what would happen to you if you hurt your back unloading a plane? US would not cover any injury you get because you were doing something that is not your job description.

Fourth, you do not have a SIDA badge to be on the ramp to work.

Why should US hire the over 200 people they are short, if people like you would work for free?

 

[jcooke]

I'll take a jumpsuit, size XXL. Kneepads, too.

To the people looking out the windows of the airport and airplanes they simply see a bunch of people sitting around doing nothing while their plane waits for marshalling.

But to the workers support, its a common thing. Its happened at many corporations where I have worked, and even happens to me as of writing this. Unfortunately I can't be redistributed so the best thing I can do is be "invisible" to the rest of the world and do my job.

 

[Winglet]

The prime question you should ask is WHERE IS SUPERVISION??????

Questions:

1. Why can't SUPERVISION schedule people and aircraft correctly so the bags can be loaded/unloaded efficiently?

2. Why isn't SUPERVISION there to make sure workers are performing the correct tasks at the correct time??

JUST ONE OF US AIR'S MAJOR PROBLEMS IS COMPETENT SUPERVISION.

 

[jcooke]

First of all it is not YOUR job to unload or load a plane, are you trained properly?

Second of all US Airways Policy is to place luggage in carts, not on the ground.

Third, what would happen to you if you hurt your back unloading a plane? US would not cover any injury you get because you were doing something that is not your job description.

Fourth, you do not have a SIDA badge to be on the ramp to work.

Why should US hire the over 200 people they are short, if people like you would work for free?

[post="254284"][/post]​

Good points, 700. Why should they hire 200 people if they have people willing to help out? Because they need to. The people are willing to help out in a pinch because they want to make a positive impression, but as you said, they're not really able to because of SIDA badges and other restrictions. It's a Catch-22 which is unfortunate because I'm guessing a ramper in their right mind wouldn't mind some help unloading a full plane.

-JC

 

[jimcfs]

First of all it is not YOUR job to unload or load a plane, are you trained properly?

Second of all US Airways Policy is to place luggage in carts, not on the ground.

[post="254284"][/post]​

If US policy is to put luggage in carts, then explain the mess I saw at F13 on Tuesday afternoon with a pile of maybe 30-40 bags sitting next to the back of an RJ?