AFA Pres Perry Hayes Tells it like it is!

[usfliboi]

AFA US Airways MEC E-Line
April 8, 2003
Message From MEC President Perry Hayes

FURTHER STAFFING REDUCTIONS

The Company notified AFA on April 7, 2003, of further
staffing reductions. It makes no sense that the Company
has hired additional employees in Labor Relations in
the past few weeks, and filled the VP-Inflight Position
and added other positions in Inflight while our numbers
are diminishing and while the service on the aircraft
is being reduced. Evidently, the talent of the leadership
in Inflight & Labor Relations must be diminishing as
well since it now requires more of them to manage fewer
employees who are providing less service than in the
past. It appears that the cash infusion the Company
recently received will not be used in any way that
will be beneficial to the flight attendants.

Here is the bad news:
For the month of May, both the PIT-LGW and PIT-FRA
flights are cancelled. Please refer to Page 12-13,
Paragraph 17 for ITD trip guarantee.

As far as staffing of aircraft in the ITD''s for May,
there are no changes.

Domestic aircraft staffing will be at FAA minimums,
with few exceptions. If a flight attendant signs in
for his/her D trip and if the A, B, and C blockholders
on that trip are all signed in for their trips, then
that trip would be staffed above the FAA minimum. If,
however, the A, B, or C flight attendant calls in sick
or trip-improves, then the Company will not be filling
that vacated position and the trip will go out with
only three flight attendants.

San Juan and Santo Domingo will be staffed with the
FAA minimum plus one LOD/O flight attendant.

For June, all aircraft will be staffed with the FAA
minimum, including ITD flight segments. The 767 in
the ITD will be staffed with five (5) flight attendants.
The A330 will be staffed with eight (8) flight attendants
plus one (1) LOD/O flight attendant on flight segments
that require a LOD/O.

These staffing reductions will result in additional
involuntary furloughs. It appears that there will be
125 involuntary furloughs on May 1 and an additional
354 on June 4. These additional furloughs take into
consideration the 411 flight attendants awarded Voluntary
Furlough 5 (VF5). By the Company''s calculations, the
upcoming furloughs will affect flight attendants in
the class of 08/15/1999. In addition, displacements
will occur beginning May 1st.

ONGOING NEGOTIATIONS

As pointless as it may seem, the Negotiating Committee
continues to meet with the Company to discuss Sick
and Reserve issues. The Company has come up with their
very own convoluted ideas on what was negotiated regarding
sick leave which in no way even comes close to what
AFA believes we discussed or negotiated with the Company.
We have not even begun to discuss the new reserve system
with the Company.

A WORD OF ADVICE

With the further staffing reductions on the aircraft,
please remember the following: You are not required
to work any faster simply because the Company has made
a bad decision. Simply because some number crunchers
who have no idea how to do our job have come up with
another bad idea doesn''t mean you have to work any
harder. In fact, you should spend more time with each
individual passenger while serving in these understaffed
situations so our customers can see just how much we
care. No one says every passenger on every flight has
to be served. We can only do the best we can so just
serve as many as you can. If the Company cares so much
about the customers, they will have to staff the aircraft
accordingly. Don''t rush. Take your time. It''s a flight
from point A to point B. It is not a restaurant or
bar. After all, if you go to McDonald''s, you get a
burger, not transportation.
=====================

Usflibois comments! Im glad to see AFA is being lead by someone who is finally telling it like it is ! I know Perry personally and I tell you this! He is a fight, intelligent, and wont take the crap lying down. Thanks Perry Someone is finally growing some!

 

[jj]

Wow I like Perrys guts.I guess if your sitting in the front you will get great service?

 

[tay]

I am sorry. I do not understand how in the hell this *** company can do this. How in the *** do they expect an International Flight 76 with 5 flight Attendants. What is that one upfront and 4 in the back. And the 330 with 8???Are they out of their minds. Why didn't they give us all this information before? This company sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[USAirBoyA330]

Thank you Perry Hayes! I am finally glad someone had the nerve and guts to tell it like it is. They think we have 5 arms and we can be 6 places at once! I for one will not lift 1 finger more or move any faster. If I get half way done serving....oh well. I will take that manual and make sure I do my job to the T and not one thing more. I will stand by my assigned exit for boarding and unless the plane is on fire I won't move from it. I will spend LOTS of time with every passenger to make sure they are comfortable.
The more times that goes by the more screwed up this place gets.

 

[mlt]

Piney,
Yes, you missed something. The company has arbitrarily decided to reduce the staffing without consulting AFA. In the last 6 months the staffing on the A-330 has gone from 13 flight attendants to 8. The 767 has gone from 8 to 5. Staffing was not included in the package when flight attendants cast their vote.

 

[tay]

Here is an idea...Since we are only on the planes for safety purposes, why not just stay in our jumpseats the entire flight. If there is an emergency of course we will respond. Why not take all service off. The next step???? USairways lobbies congress to reduce Faa staffing requirements.

 

[NAPAUS]

THANK YOU PERRY HAYES!!! What are u out of ur mind!!!!!. Perry Hayes is a spinless whimp. If he was a TRUE leader he would call on his members to VOLUNTARILY REDUCE THEIR LEVEL OF SERVICE!!! Immediately do the bare minimum and pass out comment cards to the pax''s imforming them of the staff reductions and the inability of the crew to serve the pax''s. Guaranteed, as in the past, PERRY WILL DO NOTHING OTHER THAN BLOW HIS OWN HORN. We voted him out one other time -now it s time for a RECALL of our MEC. There are many many capable leaders in the flight attendant group would would step up and take over..Where are Joanne Trihey,Karen Lascoli, Carol Autsin,Terri Graff? to name a few. I plan on starting a letter writing campaign to DAVE and letting him know we will NOT stand for this. We will pass on the information to our charmain preferred and dividend miles members. They are the ONLY ones who can change things.. Make no mistake about this, it is another BRILLANT IDEA from Sherry Hendry(inlflight vp)...im sure there is a big bonus inline for her to get as much cost reduction OFF THE BACKS OF HER F/AS!!!! F/A''s COME ON NOW...STAND UP AND FIGHT...ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!!!!

 

[tay]

Piney,
You will understand if you are on a flight to London, on the 767 seating in Evnoy class, and you only have one flight attendant at your service rather than 3. It may seem trival to you, but our service is designed based on the number of flight attendants on each aircraft.

 

[PSA1979]

Piney
What would you have us do? Would you work a 14 hour day and not take a break? Well, we can''t just continue to give great service when we are so understaffed!!! On the A330 there are 220 seats in coach and now it looks like only 4 flight attendats to work back there. I am not willing to bust my a** and send myself into an early grave while working 12 overseas flights a month (that is 6 round trips, our max). I can''t work less, I am sending kids to college. It''s not like we just sit around and read on the full flights. So, if you travel to Rome, don''t expect good service. We will do our best, but you just might have to hold that dinner tray for at least an hour until we can get back to you and if you only get 2 drinks, sorry, but there are 219 other people waiting for drinks too.

Passengers need to realize we are human and can only do so much. We used to get up before the plane had levelled off and start the service. Well, those days are gone. Our safety is more important than an extra cocktail!! Perry wasn''t telling us to slow down, only do what we can, and not kill ourselves trying to satisfy everybody. Work at the same speed you normally do. That makes sense, as we usually work pretty fast now.

 

[CLTBWIDAYSYR]

----------------
On 4/8/2003 1:28:38 PM PineyBob wrote:


OK now help a stupid PAX out on this one?

They cut wages and staffing in order to save the company? Correct?
Each work group agreed to those terms? Correct?
So now you are tasked with much harder working conditions?
So your response is to work at the same pace and possibly annoy some customers who may not be served?
The net effect being that some may chose another carrier?
So load factors decrease, resulting in further cutbacks in the number of flights and more furloughs occur.
Load factors decrease to the point US Airways is no longer viable and all lose their jobs!

Does this sound right? Did I miss something?

----------------​

Piney,

Usually I agree with most of what you say, but this time you've lost me. The Airbus A-330 still will have 266 passengers...THAT DID NOT CHANGE!! The 767 will still have 203 passengers. More work, fewer employees making 30% less. More of us will be laid off. Meanwhile, up at CCY, new high paying job positions are created for inflight services. More management doing less work. DID I MISS SOMETHING???? Can they really expect me to believe since we are (basically) half the size we were two years ago, that we need more management staff to cover a work force that has been reduced by 1/3??!! Bob, are you listening here? Would that not P*iss you off? I will never treat my customers badly simply to get back at management...that would be stupid and suicidal. But don't preach such garbage as you have above to a group of people who have just been shat upon (again). If we didn't care about what we do, we wouldn't have been listed number one in the AQI last week after facing lay off after layoff and pay reduction after pay reduction. I have been told time and time again that I should be grateful I have a job and that if I don't like it I should go somewhere else. Well I am grateful I have a job, and I don't want to go anywhere else. I want the place I work now to get better and I want to help do that by staying as long as I can. You sit back on the sidelines and infer that just because I think this absolutely s*ucks, it means I am somehow a disloyal employee. That Piney is arrogant and insulting. It's like saying just because I don't agree with everything my government does, I'm a bad American and should move out of the country. We have every right to be angry. Perhaps Sherry Hendry can learn from us and lay off some of her office staff. Perhaps then she can learn to do all of their work PLUS her own. Perhaps then I'll respect such dribble that is currently coming out of her mouth.

 

[NAPAUS]

Stewart, U know better than i do that Perry is USELESS> I still can''t believe our mec voted him in. For the record, i have served for many years as an AFA. rep..and am actually still very involved. I''ve been here for over 22 years, ur 24 as i remember. So dig deep in your memory ....what did Perry ever do for u????. NADA>>NOTHING. I can vividly remember just weeks before he was"put in office" after Karen was recalled..he told me to my face.. I WILL NEVER do UNION work again..i''m just here for the ride..im over this co..the lazy flight attendants etc. shall i go on and on???... and NOW hes on the new BOD...Perry is self serving and A YES MAN!!! calling our f/a ''s L A Z Y is nasty and insulting to say the least. !!! We never knew how hard Karen., Carol, Joanne, Dee and many others worked for us..HE could and will NEVER hold a candle to ANY of them!!! I was one of the few that supported these cuts,,WILLINGLY,.now i feel we''ve been RAPED and there is no one willing to investagate and pursue the RAPIST!! USAIRWAYS current mgmt is taking advantage of us....and Perry''s in bed with them., All the righteous indignation in the world will never convince me hes USELESS..and u know what stewart, I KNOW U FEEL THE SAME, deep down inside!!!

 

[DCAflyer]

Where I blame Perry, et al is not ironing out the work rule changes BEFORE the TA ratification. That is rather like going to the bank, saying I need a mortgage, but I don''t have time to shop around, so you, Mr. Banker, give me $150,000 and come talk to me next week to tell me how much interest you will charge. This invited the pillaging of the flight attendants, both senior and junior. This is why we have VF5s and upcoming involuntaries. This is why there is not time for even the reduced service U now offers its customers. This is how staffing was able to be reduced and why work rules were plowed through. This would have NEVER happened on Karen''s watch. She was much more practical and had better relationships with management. I miss her so much.

 

[firstamendment]

----------------
On 4/8/2003 12:24:41 PM tay wrote:

I am sorry. I do not understand how in the hell this *** company can do this. How in the *** do they expect an International Flight 76 with 5 flight Attendants. What is that one upfront and 4 in the back. And the 330 with 8???Are they out of their minds. Why didn''t they give us all this information before? This company sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

----------------​

Actually there will be 6 on the 767 and 9 on the 330. You forgot the lodos....Still sucks. Is this temporary? Summer is coming up and that is the season, even if we do have a war going on. Are loads THAT bad?

This decision is a new low. What a way of telling the employees great job for a number one ranking in customer service.

What''s that pain I feel? Oh yeah, the salt being dumped in the wound.

 

[mlt]

DCAFlyer,
Your comments are a dead give away!!!! Management posing as a flight attendant.

 

[usfliboi]

Napaus why dont you run for office since you have such a spine? Please why cant there be an adult conversation without name calling? DID you even bother to read the eline? Amazing! Piney management responds to one thing and one thing only!! We know how to deal with them. Having passengers write in and complain DOES NOT WORK! Media attention etc bad publicity is the only way to make changes.