F/a Sick Calls And No Contacts

[Phoenix]

why does it make me alittle mad
cause I'm the person that has to tell all the rome
customer's
"sorry ladies and gentleman your flight to rome is 8 hours late
because were out of flt attandants"

I am tired of having to tell customers that I am sorry they can't get off the plane because we are out of gate agents to walk down the jetway and move the jetway over to the door of our plane. (Believe it or not, it is not the fault of the gate agents that enough of them are not at work. And in the same way, if you are short crews of pilots or FAs it ain’t their fault either.)

Feel free to direct passengers to the Attaché comment card that they will have plenty of time to fill out on their flight. Let them whine to the people who have the authority to change things, and who really care, NOT.

 

[tay]

Well, it looks like Mark my Words, got the kind of response he was looking for. It must be nice to sit behind your desk and think of ways to stir the pot. Why do you hate flight attendants so much? You seem to know the group more intimately than a casual observer. But please, if you have never been a flight attendant don't presume to know the stress and pressure we face even before we step onto the aircraft. I spent most of my day apologizing for the decisions that someone who sit in his/her cubicle has made in between his/her coffee break and lunch.

 

[Do_it_for_Dave]

The points that were discussed by MMW are valid. Someone must answer for these types of behavior. I hope that the company fully investigate any potential abuse with the AFA groups.

 

[F/AinDay]

The points that were discussed by MMW are valid. Someone must answer for these types of behavior. I hope that the company fully investigate any potential abuse with the AFA groups.

Perhaps you need to read further...the post from Abonny should shed some light for ya!

 

[PITbull]

Do_it_for_Davey,

Where have you been? Oh yea, behind your cubicle.

Someone did answer for these types of behaviors...you just ignored it and so typical.
Hope you read all of the threads....the matter was already investigated by the appropriate people. Always two sides, my friend. MMW only presented what he thought he knew...but didn't know the details.

Knock the chip off your shoulder with the AFA group....and try changing your handle name...that may help your cause a bit.

 

[TheLarkAscending]

The points that were discussed by MMW are valid. Someone must answer for these types of behavior. I hope that the company fully investigate any potential abuse with the AFA groups.

:blink: Jumping on the attack bandwagon out of loyalty? Perhaps one might want to "fully investigate" their decision to skim over the posts in the thread which allowed one to miss the most informative post by abonny? That post, alone, completely breaks down the events as they'd occurred ... which one might realize addressed and answered all of the allegations and accusations made by MMW.

I need a synonym for lackey and an antonym for well-informed.**

**Most creative answers receive 100 points!

 

[MarkMyWords]

OK, where to start.....see what happens when you go away for a few days!

First and foremost, I am not picking on any one employee group. My big beef is regarding attendance and those that abuse the sick policy, whether it be through unnecessary sick calls or abuses of the FMLA. PitBull and I have had this same discussion several times and the reason that I sought her out in this topic was because of her claims that people do not abuse their sick calls and that because of the (unfair) sick penalty for crew members, they have to come to work sick. This scenario proved my previous points that 1 - there is an abuse of the sick policy and 2 - some people will call in sick regardless of the penalty, sick or not. I do hold the work and dedication of the Flight Attendants in the highest regard and know that the majority of the Flight Attendants 1 - do not abuse the system, 2 - do not agree with the abuses and 3 - are being penalized because of the abuses.

My intention in making this post was 1 - to bring attention to a major problem and 2 - making people aware of the results of their actions.

That being said let me address a few things:

Abonny - You are quite the great debater. Thank you for providing additional insight to things that I may have not been privy to. As I have said in the past, I am not an expert on the AFA contract and do not profess to be. I do have some comments regarding your statement and I will try to be brief.

1 - Responsibility does not totally lie with management. Employees should also be held accountable for their actions. Just as I would accept nothing less from management, I will accept nothing less from line employees.

2 - Since I am not a crew scheduler i can not speak to who was legal for what, when. I can tell you that when it first became appearant that the crew would need to be replaced, calls were made to crew scheduling and they were showing ample coverage. Who was taken from what trips and legal for how man days would be up to scheduling to determine. Again, they showed 10 available reserves and could only get 4 to work.

3 - You addressed the call out time of the crew members and when coverage was complete. Yes call out started at 2300, that is when the aircraft got back to PHL. It took until 0134 to cover, because of 3 no contacts and 4 sick calls. As I said, 2 of the CLT F/A's accepted the trip and sicked it 30-45 minutes late, causing them to re-open the trip for coverage.

4 - The times that you quoted for departure are inaccurate. The pushback time was 0551 and the off time was 0621. Those times were ACARS generated and not doctored. Please do not try to suggest there was some conspiracy to change times for crew legality issues.

5 - Your comments regarding early contacts of reserves and issues with child care, etc. The crews were contacted as soon as it was feasible to do so. If the aircraft returned to the airport and was not fixable in a "reasonable" amount of time, the trip would have canceled. As for child care and other reserve issues let me say this. I understand the strains of being on reserve, especially for those that have been forced onto reserve. In the PHW, these people chose to bid PHW knowing they would be reserve. Since the International departures leave only after 5p and if/when things go wrong, they are going to go wrong late in the evening. These F/A's should have contingency plans to 1 - be in base when on duty and 2 - have child care and other issues sorted out ahead of time when they know they are on duty.

6 - The issue of contacting Supervisors is a Crew Schedulign screw up and again there should be some accountability there too.

7 - Regarding Crew rooms - It was not scheduled as a 3 hour layover, it was because of the no contacts, out of base assignements and subsequent sick calls that they delay went s far as it did. Had the CLT F/A's not calle doff sick the crew would have been there between 3 and 3:30.

8 - The issue of meals. Were you aware that we made every attempt to secure meals for customers and crew? No, I am sure you did not. Were you aware that the kitchen was closed? No, I am sure you were not. Were you aware that we tried unsuccessfully to get the kitchen staff to come in and prepare meals but we were unsuccessful? Of course you didn't. You can not pull 270 meals out of thin air. Customers were served meals prior to arrival in PHL. Snacks and beverages were provided in the boarding lounge. We did the best we could with what was available.

9 - With regards to the airplane being ready at 3am, were you aware that there was another A330 in PHL at that time? When the FCO flight returned to PHL the second aircraft was going through a scheduled maintenance check and was not available, but became available around 3am. That aircraft could have been used at that time, had the crew been there.

10 - with regards to understaffing - WE BARELY GOT 8 F/A'S TO COME OUT, WHERE WERE WE GOING TO GET A 9TH!

I stand behind the facts that I presented earlier and appreicate your insight to additional facts that you brought forward. While this was an ugly situation, hopefully we learned something from it. We can all sit here as scream that we are short staffed until we are blue in the face but I don't think it is goign to change anything. I agree that we could have additional employees in nearly every department, but not to the fluff levels that the unions claim they need to make things work. Sorry, when scheduling says that there were 10 people available to work and we could only get 4, there is a problem on both sides of the table.

 

[wrx]

I do hold the work and dedication of the Flight Attendants in the highest regard and know that the majority of the Flight Attendants 1 - do not abuse the system, 2 - do not agree with the abuses and 3 - are being penalized because of the abuses.

You should see the American Airlines Flight Attendant sick list. It's at an all time high of 1,400 plus. I can't blame these 1,400 plus for being out sick. With our new tainted t.a. that includes reduced layovers to be scheduled at FAA minimums and being reassigned over and over again, who can blame them.

 

[xoxo]

I would just like to say something about F/A's calling in sick when they are not sick at all. It happens. But, it happens at EVERY job. I do not care where you work ..what you do...you could be a doctor..lawyer...teacher....student...work at Mcdonalds.....(you get my point) everyone has called in sick when they were not at least one time in their life..and if you havn't ..well good for you..but you are in a small percentile if you say you havn't. I personally know someone that is now furloughed..but..worked for U for 3 years..and never...NEVER called in sick. I wish I could have done that..but..there were times when I was so sick I could not get out of bed. There are alot of us who have flown sick(I have before)...because they were afraid to call in sick because you get a phone call and letter wondering why you were sick and where is your doctor note..sometimes you are sick and do not need a doctor to tell you that you have the common cold. I personaly do not want a sick f/a serving me anything. h34r: So, I look back at when I flew sick..and wonder why I did that????? If I do not like to be served by someone sick..then I am sure noone wanted to be served by me. The new sick policy stinks. Now what do you do when you are really sick??? I am furloughed..so I do not worry about it now..but I still feel for the f/a's now..who are really sick..and have to deal with the new policy...... :down:

 

[usacrew3]

So now we are back to beating up the flight attendant group. Just keep in mind that when you arrive at your position and start your day you are paid no matter what the other groups that affect your work do.
A flight attendant is not paid until that door closes and the plane is on its way. So the next time you decide to overbook a flight by 60, the next time you decide to take your time checking people in, refusing flight attendants to board an aircraft at the gate because you cant be bothered to open the jetway door - it happens. The next time you decide that you would rather sit in Envoy and discuss politics with your fellow cleaners and not clean the plane and delay the plane for three hours just because Dave is arriving off of an international flight. The next time you dont cater the airplane with the minimum supplies needed to serve our passengers give a thought to the people you have really crapped on, your fellow employee the flight attendant who now has to suck up to the 260 passengers who are angry at being lied to, who have been treated rudely and if they only knew what really happened to cause their flight to be delayed would never fly on us. So dont be surprised when flight attendants who are being called in the middle of the night don't show up. Flight attendants have had it just like the rest of you.
By the way, the other night a friend was called at midnight to work a flight that returned to the gate. He got up, showered and got in his car only to have scheduling call him back and tell him to forget it the flight was now going with the original crew.
Who is running you guys!

 

[xoxo]

usacrew3,
I agree with you....I also have a friend that almost the same thing happened...except it was 5am..and he was called and then tooka shower and was almost out the door and they called back and said never mind..then 10 min. later called again, told him to come to airport again...then by that time he was on his way and 10 minutes later..guess what scheduling called AGAIN and said forget it....he was at the airport by that time..so he said "look, I am gonna be in the crew room if you need me" He was mad.....and I would have been too!!!!! And to those non f/a ..non pilots....those are just 2 small examples that usacrew3 and I have given you of how scheduling screws with us. It happens ALL the time!!!!Not just every now and then......ALL THE TIME!!!

 

[xoxo]

Piney,
They give you a "show no go" pay.....which if you are not flying at all and you are not anywhere near your monthly flying guarentee...then it is worth nothing.....we get a guarentee amount of pay everymonth...but when you are junior and ready to be furloughed you will not reach that guarentee...so therefor..your pay is bad...real bad....I hate to give numbers and tell what I was making when I got only guarentee..but I will tell you...$1150.00...a month...nothing more nothing less...I received that amount for 5 months.....I have(had) 740 in rent...300 in car note plus phone , cable....you can figure it out......I basically was begging for food!!!!!! And had no gas in my car most of the time...I am glad I am gone...I make just as much on unemployment...pretty sad.....

 

[wrx]

This is where the management style of US is ultimately going to cost more than it saves.

It sounds like US Airways management is taking a page out of the American Airlines management book. If they're you better hold onto your hats and glasses, because this will be the wildest wild yet! Now you know why we got that nickname (S.N.) at AA!

 

[xoxo]

wrx,
I have a close freind that works for AA and I have heard all the stories.....they are pretty bad. Yes we have heard of the S.N. thing here at U. She is sick of it there at AA too. She only has 4 1/2 years there...but she flies alot...41/2 years at U is almost furloughed..soon to be sadly....

 

[MarkMyWords]

Bob -

Once again you touched on something very important and nearly non-existent....incentive. Under one of the previous management teams there was a task force put together to address just such an issue, finding an incentive program to help lessen sick abuses and inspire employees to strive to improve their attendance. Dear old Uncle Al offered the following statement when it came to incentives. "If your pay check isn't motivation enough for you to come to work every day, then you don't belong here." What a slap in the face. The man has outlived his usefullness and has shown his lack of respect for employees and customers alike. He needs to go.

I agree that there should be an employee incentive program here. That would go a great distance to help curb some of the abuses. The policy would have to have a variety of levels and rewards. Let me give you an example of one of the problems that we have with the present attendance policies. Let's say I am a customer service agent and I am sick and call off for today. Legitimate sick call. With the current policy, if I cam back to work tomorrow and wasn't feeling 100% and then called off the following day, it would cost me 2 occurences, because the sick calls were not in conjunction with one another. You are allowed only os many occurences before you are on a dependability level. So when I call in sick today, in all likelyhood I am going to call off for a couple more days because the thinking is, if you burn one day, you may as well make the occurence count and call off a couple more. This is a problem with the system and the management.

I agree 100% the entire sick policy and lack of a reward system are wrong. Again, there are faults on both sides of the table and management should be taken to task to fix their part of the problem too. If they would do the right thing, perhaps it would help avoid similar situations also.