A new corporate culture!?

[airknocker]

Chuck knows of what he speaks. Management at PIT has gone full bore in trying to wring the last drop of morale from mechs&utility. Since acceptance of the proposal, actions taken against the workers have increased and almost appear to be a plan to drive older AMTs into retirement due to even poorer working conditions. After every major war, the victors with any brains holds out a hand to the vanquished and begins the healing process to sow the seeds of a new future without conflict. The exception was the Treaty of Versailles, which set Europe up for WWII by punishing Germany following hostilities and not providing the assistance needed to recover. We don't know how far up the chain of command these management marching orders originate, but if this is Dave's idea of labor friendly we are all in for a big disappointment.

 

[JonC]

[blockquote]
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On 9/27/2002 841 PM 757fixer wrote:

Hey,I work in that same top 10 station,and us slugs on midnights that keep the place running while 90% of the employees are home sleeping didn't even get a thank you.So much for a change in corprate culture.I'm not impressed Dave!
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I hear you! I work in TPA Base Maintenance and its a joke - we have often one foreman, two planners, and twenty mechanics for four airplanes on night shift on the weekend. They want to know why planes are taking forever and even hint that its some sort of a slowdown. No, its because we have NO PEOPLE. Remember the work that was supposed go away last December and required the layoffs? It never went away, the 200s were just replaced with Airbus C-11 and cockpit door mod aircraft.

It irritates me that midnights, when the rubber meets the road in our business, is always inaquately staffed. One of the guys said it perfectly - they think that airplane fairies come in the night and fix the airplanes for the little boys and girls every night.

Anyway, I think the corporate culture change is temporary at best. I still have that ominous feeling that US Airways is still being offered around as bait for any airline looking to buy, either now or in the future. WIth the way that the new stock is being divied up, looks like the Bama Boys and the pilots could sell us with little trouble.
[/blockquote]

 

[a320av8r]

Take some mechanics from the tugs and have them work on airplanes.

 

[autofixer]

flaptrack, Never assume...because it makes an --- out of you and me. 777flyer is not a pilot and if I recall, he/she IS in management.

 

[757fixer]

We wanted to get off the tugs in exchange for the $2.00/hr the company said it was worth.But the bone heads in the IAM don't listen,don't ask,and don't care.They told Dave r&d was not on the table.By the way r&d has become mainly a utility function.Just another example of the IAM insuring that unskilled labor gets skilled labor pay at the expense of the truly skilled.Bring on AMFA!

 

[Meriel]

[P]757Fixer --[/P]
[P]That's disgusting that y'all never saw even a thank you (much more something off the grill). When we get a station gold star, everybody ought to have some way of participating -- because it sure took everybody to earn that top 10.[/P]

 

[757fixer]

Thanks for your support Meriel.As MS.Clinton wrote It Takes a Village.I suspect our paths have crossed at a christmas party or someone's retirement party.Hmmmm!

 

[UAL777flyer]

flaptrack,

First let me say that no, I am not a pilot. As someone else pointed out I am a management employee. However, I'm not a manager, so I don't make policy or dictate it. Have I taken a leadership role? Absolutely. I do what I can each and every day to help this company succeed. I help co-workers without being asked and work very well in a team atmosphere without which my department couldn't get their job done. have I put my ideas to work? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. My co-workers and I come up with ideas continually. They may not always be re-inventing of the wheel, but we are always looking for better ways to do things and new ways to improve our failing position. However, UA suffers from an ailment that seems to be prevalent in this industry: the disease of we've been doing X for 25 years, so why should we do Y? amongst many of it's managers and directors. So, in many cases, good ideas that should be explored further don't get elevated to the proper level due to certain managers and directors not agreeing with the idea, not wanting to look bad, or fill-in your own excuse. I'm not saying this goes on everywhere at UA, but it does go on. Which speaks to the whole idea of needing a change of culture. I speak from lots of experience in that area. I spent over 11 years at TWA. I was a Manager in my last position before coming to UA. I would try to find new ideas and new ways of doing things and make suggestions to my boss. However, it was the same old, well, I've been in this business a long time and we've been doing it this way, so why should we change? Here's an example. One big problem we had at TWA was that we were paying a ton of money for crew hotel rooms that would go unused each month. Well, we started seeing trends that showed this number was climbing to an alarming figure. So my boss asked me what we could do about it. At that time, our entire SOC/Crew Scheduling dept was in STL, but our Hotel Desk was still based at JFK. And they were only a M-F 9-5 operation. Individual station operations personnel were in charge of ordering unscheduled rooms or canceling unnecessary rooms for crewmembers in their station. As you can probably tell, this system simply had too many fingers in the pie and too much room for costly screwups. So I suggested that we (SOC) take over the Hotel Desk and handle the ordering and canceling of rooms from our department. We were a 24 hour, 7-day a week operation, so there would always be someone there for the crewmembers and hotels to deal with. It would stop the multiple hands in the pie problem by having the buck stop with one department. But my boss didn't want us taking on that responsibility. It was far easier to blame someone else for the screwup than to assume the role yourself. So the issue died without even being explored further. Would it have worked? I think it would have. But it needed to be analyzed further. It had the potential of saving TWA thousands of dollars each month in unused hotel rooms. But the idea wasn't even allowed to reach the light of day.

Would I just leave? I don't think this example applies to me because my attitude is positive and I work my butt off each day trying to fix problems. I'm not lazy and I don't poison my work environment with negativity. And as for making a positive impact for my company, I do that each and every day. If you'd like more examples, PM me and I'll be glad to give them to you.

P.S. Sorry for the long post.

 

[Dea Certe]

It seems to me the easiest way to change a corporate culture is for each employee to change their attitude. We must let go of old resentments and anger about what has happened in the past. We must try to stay positive and come up with constructive suggestions instead of harping on what has happened and take a look at where we want to be. I know I want to be proud of where I work. The best way I can do that is to do my very best with what I have to work with. Attitude goes a long way into changing a workplace.

I may be naive, but I believe Dave wants the best for US Airways. I think he is open to our suggestions, we have to do our part by presenting these ideas in a constructive, positive manner.

If I can't come to work without whining, complaining and grouching around, it's time for me to brush up that resume and get a new job. I will not inflict negativity on my coworkers and especially not on my customers.

I say let's all do our best to do the most we can for all our passengers. Let's help out our coworkers where and when we can. Let's stop the finger-pointing blame game and get on with the business of turning US Airways into the best airline around. WE have the talent, the employees and the product to do so. So, let's just do it!

 

[NCYankee]

I've been thinking about Meriel's question regarding how to boost morale without spending money. I'm a res agent in INT, and one thing I can think of offhand (although I must admit this is in the be careful what you wish for category) is to have middle management be more visible and more accessible. It doesn't help morale when the regional director is rarely seen and when you happen to run into her in the elevator she won't meet your eyes or say hello.
I know many of us feel like decisions about how we do our jobs are made by people who don't even know what we do(and don't care, as long as the numbers are skewed the right way.)