These Crew News Sessions simply baffle me.
In the latest PHX session, flight attendants asked when we will replace the AWA bulkheads (
🙄 ), and when we are going cashless, instead of asking some of the questions that really matter:
*When will we have a joint contract? It's been five years. Please give exact details of where the negotiations stand, and offer us a negotiations schedule for the next 6 months. Are you sitting in on the negotiations, Hector? If not, who is, and please provide a bit of a background for us with regards to who is negotiating for the Company.
*Why, Hector, are you implementing a "Quality Assurance" program for Inflight Services, onboard the aircraft, before addressing the serious morale issues, namely due to working under Bankruptcy Era contracts? How about offering us a fair, livable contract, then implementing a Uniform/ Onboard Quality Control Program? Would not it make sense to make your internal customers feel appreciated
first, so they can then feel better about taking care of our external customers? Thoughts, Hector?
*Why, after five years, are America West flight attendants still paid less than their East counterparts? Is it amusing to you that while you are saving substantially on labor costs, flight attendants continue to lose their homes, and struggle to put food on the table? You may not hear about it, Hector, but it is happening in increasing numbers,
everyday.
* Because East and West are paid differently, does the Company somehow benefit from the infighting and general disdain this disparity creates between the two work groups?
*Do you see a morale issue, and can you attribute it to the fact that flight attendants area the last group (aside from the pilots) to receive their contract, pay raises, and work rule improvements?
*Are you aware that the reserve systems on the East and the West are severely flawed, and why is it that you don't feel the need to expedite a joint contract and do anything about it? Please don't say that something IS being done about it; I again remind you we "merged" five years ago.
*Why are reserves on the East being deducted 3+30 from their guarantee when they can't make it through 40 inches of snow to get to work, and yet the line holders simply have to make up the time? How do I make up my 3+30? Now, my guarantee has been reduced to 69+30? Have you ever tried to drive through 40 inches of snow in the pitch dark at 445am? Where is the general common sense here?
*Why do 85% of the East reserves have vacation in January and February, causing a complete meltdown of the East system during the past three snowstorms? Who designed these vacation matrices, and what type of discipline is he/ she receiving? Will he/ she also be responsible for personally giving me my 3+30 back that was taken from my already paltry guarantee because we were under a State of Emergency in Philadelphia?
*Why is the Company calling me on my vacation to work trips, when they assigned this vacation to me in the first place? I didn't choose it, I received what was left. It was your choice to award me 15 days of vacation in Jan and Feb, not mine. And now, you instruct a sweet voiced crew scheduler to call me to help, and shower me with kindness and gifts, when only two weeks ago I was assigned another trip at the gate after arriving home from a 5 day trip, and this same sweet voiced scheduler was screaming at me to "go to the gate, or else..!"? My, how her attitude changed!
We're humans, not robots. Fix the system. It's been five years.
*I can only speak for the East here, but why is the Company so comfortable with the LTO reserve system? If we had a reserve system where we could actually possibly break guarantee, flight attendants would've been coming out of the
woodwork to work trips during the last three storms. Under the LTO system, there is no incentive to work, only to receive guarantee. Hector, are you familiar with the LTO system, and the limits it sets not only on the flight attendants, but Crew Scheduling, when they need us the most? And you still are in no rush to offer us a joint contract with a fair, workable reserve system?
*Why are Inflight Supervisors meeting flights in PHL and assigning the deadheading flight attendants onboard to head out on another turn, or another two day, after they've been away from home for five days already? Why isn't that Inflight Supervisor stepping into a "Stan Herman" tracksuit and heading out on the two day themselves? Heck, the past three times I've been in the Crew Room during the past three snow emergencies, the Inflight doors were locked and closed-- presumably, the Supervisors couldn't make it to work? Granted, it was 6:30am, and the roads were indeed treacherous.....
Make no mistake, I believe that every single employee realizes the financial situation the airline find itself in, and do not expect everything and more. What we do expect is a fair contract, with improvements, after five years, that addresses the severe scheduling, benefit, pay disparity and work rule issues we are enduring. While the bulkheads, trash bags, and cashless cabin delays are issues that need to be dealt with, it would seem that taking care of your employees first would pay dividends to both the Company and our customers, more so than new carpeting on the walls.