PHL Management: "And the Low Cost Carriers are now knocking on our front door..."
BY TINA PERRY, CWA LOCAL 13301 PRESIDENT
This was a statement made by PHL management at a quarterly station meeting held last week. USAirways customer service employees, fleet service, and maintenance workers all were given the image of impending doom, which CWA members translated as management using the opportunity to request further employee concessions.
With the threat posed by Southwest Airlines to PHL, the message from management is that the company will be forced to revisit all aspects of their business plan and that the entire company will have to "pull together as a team" in order to survive.
CWA members in PHL have their own ideas as to what needs to be revisited.
Southwest Airlines customer service agents ratified a new contract early last year that gave substantial increases in salary, severance pay, recall rights, and sick leave accrual, bringing them to the same level or exceeding benefits of the 7 major air carriers. The respect with which the employees at Southwest are treated by their superiors is legendary.
Management salaries at Southwest are consistently the lowest in the industry, while USAirways executives are among the highest, not to mention the structure of managers and the imbalance between the two companies. These things lead CWAer's to believe the only revisiting that needs to be done is at top level management. [I believe it is the case that even one of our third-level executives had a higher income than Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher last year.]
Customer service is an important job, and Southwest recognizes that having happy employees directly relates to having happy customers. PHL employees are not willing to accept any further concession packages suggested by the company, and even the suggestive remarks made by management that more cuts are needed, whether they be in the form of wages or work rules, only serves to bring morale to an all-time low.
"I've given all I'm willing or even able to give" is the repeated response to the question of what concessions employees would be willing to make.
PHL employees are regularly required to give it their all, as staffing levels in PHL are consistently incorrect The staffing model used does not take into consideration historical information for the workers, although it does consider past information for flight schedules and loads. This creates a "perfect day" syndrome for staffing, and we all know in the airline world there are seldom perfect days.
www.cwa.net 12/1/03
BY TINA PERRY, CWA LOCAL 13301 PRESIDENT
This was a statement made by PHL management at a quarterly station meeting held last week. USAirways customer service employees, fleet service, and maintenance workers all were given the image of impending doom, which CWA members translated as management using the opportunity to request further employee concessions.
With the threat posed by Southwest Airlines to PHL, the message from management is that the company will be forced to revisit all aspects of their business plan and that the entire company will have to "pull together as a team" in order to survive.
CWA members in PHL have their own ideas as to what needs to be revisited.
Southwest Airlines customer service agents ratified a new contract early last year that gave substantial increases in salary, severance pay, recall rights, and sick leave accrual, bringing them to the same level or exceeding benefits of the 7 major air carriers. The respect with which the employees at Southwest are treated by their superiors is legendary.
Management salaries at Southwest are consistently the lowest in the industry, while USAirways executives are among the highest, not to mention the structure of managers and the imbalance between the two companies. These things lead CWAer's to believe the only revisiting that needs to be done is at top level management. [I believe it is the case that even one of our third-level executives had a higher income than Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher last year.]
Customer service is an important job, and Southwest recognizes that having happy employees directly relates to having happy customers. PHL employees are not willing to accept any further concession packages suggested by the company, and even the suggestive remarks made by management that more cuts are needed, whether they be in the form of wages or work rules, only serves to bring morale to an all-time low.
"I've given all I'm willing or even able to give" is the repeated response to the question of what concessions employees would be willing to make.
PHL employees are regularly required to give it their all, as staffing levels in PHL are consistently incorrect The staffing model used does not take into consideration historical information for the workers, although it does consider past information for flight schedules and loads. This creates a "perfect day" syndrome for staffing, and we all know in the airline world there are seldom perfect days.
www.cwa.net 12/1/03
