Why Are They Still Here?

[tadjr]

QUOTE (usair_begins_with_u @ Jun 1 2004, 10:29 PM)
Sounds like a great guy.. I hope he gets to keep his job.

PHL added...
He could be the best employee with a written commendation from every customer he's ever come in contact with. His stellar performance could be noted by every supervisor for whom he's worked. But this is a union shop and, sadly, his Senior employee counterpart with no customer commendations and a record of minimal, yet technically satisfactory, performance will trump him everytime. In the "real" world of business (i.e. non-union), he'd have a job because his performance goes above and beyond the "minimal" requirements.


My reply- CWA has only been on property for about 5 years. There are very few agents around with less than 5 years seniority so my question is, how did all of these "slugs" get to stay around before they had union protection if they were so bad? Its because no one wants to hold them accountable (pre or post union) and so they are allowed to continue to do nothing.
I have seen a change in attitude though recently at least in my station. People are getting tired of covering, especially since there arent that many left to help cover those who arent contributing and management is finally beginning to take notice. What in the past was a minor annoyance is fast becoming a major hardship. Those agents who used to take a full hour lunch and had extra people around to cover are finding out that "they" are the coverage and their slacking is imposing on their fellow workers break time so finally this is being addressed. With fewer agents to work, the supervisors are starting to get the wrath of those left to man the fort when someone is M.I.A. for a long period of time and they are advising management so they can take action. (PSS arent allowed to discipline since they are covered by the same contract, but they can alert management to a problem and let them address it).
Finally some of these people we all "love" to work with might just be held accountable for their work ethic and lack of knowledge since there isnt the luxury of having someone extra around to cover for them or clean up their messes.
Management has the tools to get rid of employees who arent performing IF they take the time to document and follow up. The lack of this practice from management along with supervisors reluctance in the past to take action on those who have been skating have led us to where we are now.
No amount of union protection is going to be able to save someones job who has numerous work violations, occurances, bad letters, and other disciplinary write ups. I'm all for having the union protection to prevent the company from UNFAIRLY firing someone, but even I get fed up with those who are able to skate on the job for 8 hours while I am down to a measely 4 hours a day.
If the documentation is there, then the manager is remiss in not doing his duty by firing the person. I've even heard union stewards comment that they dont know why certain people are still around with some of the documentation they have in their files.
I dont feel like the company should start a witch hunt to get rid of senior (or junior) people for that matter. Just finally take action on those who arent and havent been pulling their weight around here all these many years.
Its not a union thing, its part of the company culture around here. :down:

 

[AtlanticBeach]

Tad-

Thank you for the post. Your frustration is quite evident. My questions to you and others are not meant as flaming, just to extend this discussion.

If management was to make a substantial effort to remove deadwood, would there be a union backlash and strong defense of anyone terminated? Or, have so many quality employees been taken advantage by this small group that it would be welcomed by most of the workforce?

I'm not advocating the GE model whereby the bottom 10% of the workforce is removed annually. It works for them, but not reasonable for an airline. My sense is that performance reviews, an integral part of management on every level, have not been effective.

To continue with a thought from a poster in another thread, the real world has the concern about age discrimination. If the company knows that a 50 year old employee will be replaced by another 50 year old employee, then age discrimination is not an issue.

 

[PITbull]

Tad-

Thank you for the post. Your frustration is quite evident. My questions to you and others are not meant as flaming, just to extend this discussion.

If management was to make a substantial effort to remove deadwood, would there be a union backlash and strong defense of anyone terminated? Or, have so many quality employees been taken advantage by this small group that it would be welcomed by most of the workforce?

I'm not advocating the GE model whereby the bottom 10% of the workforce is removed annually. It works for them, but not reasonable for an airline. My sense is that performance reviews, an integral part of management on every level, have not been effective.

To continue with a thought from a poster in another thread, the real world has the concern about age discrimination. If the company knows that a 50 year old employee will be replaced by another 50 year old employee, then age discrimination is not an issue.

The union will bash any management that disciplines f/as without "just cause"

If we are to use U as an example, many reps are of the strong opinion that management is targeting the "senior population" of workers.


Now, one could make the argument that U has a mjority senior workforce...but the issue is, so does SW.

The folks that are targeted here at U are those who have chronic illness. Union Reps have deduced from their data that once management deems you a liability, depending on your illness/disease, they focus to pull you under the FMLA, once used up, you are under NO JOB PROTECTED time.

Then, everything is fair game.

 

[tadjr]

Pitbulls response is entirely related to sick time.

I am not talking just about sick time abuse (real or perceived).
I am talking about agents who are constantly gone from their assigned positions when they are not scheduled for a break (not restroom break/smoking break or a little extra when things are slow, but in the middle of their shift they disappear for an hour.) Employees who have fought with each other or supervisors at the counter/podium in front of supervisors and customers. Agents who have numerous sick/late/noshow calls who somehow keep getting another chance. (Not those on FMLA or those who have documented medical visits, they just seem to never be there). Late showing up for work (not a minute or two, but 10-30 mins on a weekly basis depending on their shift time). Constantly have work issues (not knowing how to correctly do something so they pass it off or dont do it at all and make excuses as to why they didnt do it). This often results in a customer down the line somewhere that gets the "correct" info and is po'd now because they were told incorrect info before.
OR someone who has a combination of all of these factors. It takes a lot to get put on a step for disciplinary reasons and it seems that stealing is the only way the company will get rid of someone, but I know of agents with 10-20+ occurances who seem to linger for ever and ever on step 3 or 4 and never make it to the end. These are the employees that I am discussing in the post above. Everyone knows they arent doing their job, management doesnt have to go on a hunt for them since its a weekly occurance, someone just has to finally have enough to take the time to document the problems and then follow up on them. I would say that there are only a couple people that I am aware of in my station that would fit into this category. I know that the majority of the employees (except those in question) wouldnt think twice about them being shown the door.
There is also a procedure in place for grievance of termination. If the company did not follow proper procedure or have proper documentation, then I would suspect the union would fight the termination even if it were an obvious problem. The union is there to make sure that proper procedures and policies are followed and as long as the proof of violations is there, documented and legal, there would be little the union could do to protect or get back the job of someone in this category.