With all due respect to P.Rez, I just don't think we have the PHX union back-up on the matter. Someone will get an ass-chewing or a write-up if they refuse to use the scanners because there aren't enough people or if they refuse to download the plane, especially if it causes misconnects. Now what gets me is that one of recent i-learning training sections instructs us that it is unsafe to scan and throw bags at the same time... doesn't seem to lead to more staffing by PHX Management either. It doesn't help that some of the leads who are also our shop stewards sound as if they a mouth pieces for management supporting nearly all of Management decisions on staffing. Promote some team leads into unit lead for even a single shift, and it might as well be a management person we are dealing with, even though they are part of the same union.
The unit lead system basically makes team leads complicit in management's short-staffing agenda, and they end up doing the dirty work of trying to coordinate crews/people/equipment over the ramp, often with frustrating and hilarious results especially when the UL and supervisor don't communicate. I thought P.REZ did take this issue to upper ramp management and their answer was, I believe, basically to call your manager if you need more help or failing that the MOD. The UL position is a fiction dreamed up by PHX management, as far as I know there is no job description or summary of the roles and responsibilities of a UL, so I don't see why people even agree to do it.
Phx lower level management won't speak about the issue to the higher in command because it makes them look incapable. When you work for a tyrant such as DP, many supervisors are scared for their jobs and nobody wants to be in the spotlight for rocking the boat as they may become expendable. The esons, vto, write-ups, read/sign, ect. is all designed to say "see boss im doing good right, you need me." One must realize about this company that DP is first and foremost an accountant. He is numbers person and knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. When you keep that in mind you realize why this company is run the way it is...this company will always try and do MORE with LESS.
Yes, management by intimidation is even more apparent when it's manager on manager than when it's manager on ramper. Often these front line managers are terrified of flights taking a a delay, you can see the stress and fear and their faces sometimes. It's no wonder most of them smoke. You couldn't pay me enough to do that job. PHX management eats their own.
As for DP, his primary concern is turning a profit, plain and simple. The tyranny part comes from creating a management structure so obsessed with cost containment it makes no consideration for the human aspect of the operation. It creates a workplace where the employee must distrust his own managers for fear of being scapegoated or made an example of. This is why, when someone gets an OJI and report it, there's a good chance they'll also get a write-up or an ESON as well. It's why, when something goes wrong on a flight, the team lead or agent is presumed guilty until they can prove otherwise. It's why most of ramp management is filled with low-paid whip-cracking yes-men who can suppress their own personal integrity whenever company business demands it.
And this is the approach to running an airline that's led US to record profits.
jester union backing or none... if it were me in there id probably become the most written up person bec i for one wont scan if there is only one person in the bin and one on the ground and secondly if it causes misconnects then so be it and i would put the blame squarely on mgmt and dp for their failures and i would notify other union reps in the system as well as the local thats just me. even those tests tell ya but apparently mgmt in phx is not much different than say mgmt in any other city... just wait til we become 1 big happy family after the merger 🙂 hey black magic they are incapable as they are also inept... just remember that it takes brains but that is something us mgmt has long lacked in 🙂
Good heavens, refuse to scan? I'd never ever suggest that anyone refuse to scan bags...people have been fired for that. Buuut sometimes the scanners freeze for a bit, or the battery comes loose, or the trigger gets jammed, or it restarts itself, or doesn't transmit the scan data, and so forth... yes, sometimes these things happen and it makes scanning difficult or impossible. Oh well, at least you tried....
