Lets Go Over Today's Paycheck

[El Gato]

FLYUSAIRWAYS, no offense or harm intended, but has it occurred to you that working as a ticket agent or a gate agent is not really intended to be a career? It's a job that is meant to have as much meaning as a theater usher, or a janitor. You don't see janitors or bell boys unionizing and asking for a "livable wage". Why do you feel angry over yours? IF you want a good paying job, i would recommend getting a technical degree as a quick and simple method. Go for IT or Electronics - we need many of those people and the wages they earn are far higher than what you get now. I mean really - you're angry that the company wants to pay chump pay for chump work? What do you expect? And don't start up with the automation nonsense either. You people have had time since 1975 to prepare for the kiosks. The first ones were experimented with back then by TWA, and the unions killed it then but not now, simply because the public is used to it. Go to any train station out there and try to find a ticket clerk. You will find the ticket machine instead. It was bound to happen, you just didn't see it.

The airline of the future does not have ANY ticket clerks except for a skeleton crew of CSA's to guide the technically inept customers(who are very few) on how to use a computer. You know how travel agencies are pretty much now dead due to automation? Your job is next. Res agents? Their day is coming too. Oh sure, they will have some, but it will be a Jetblue/virtual office kind of system. The writing is and has been on the wall for some time. You just didn't notice it.

 

[Ch. 12]

El Gato-

My response regarding the auto-industry was to WestCoastGuy who tried to draw a comparison of the airlines "management problems" vs. those of the auto industry in the last 20 years. He said that the auto industry's mgmt was forward thinking and did not take $$ from its union employees. Always back to the same thing of "airline mgmt is inept"..."it's their fault I'm getting paid so high"..."it's their fault I'm not getting paid high enough"....blah blah.

If he wants to draw a comparison between what the US auto industry did and what the airlines should do, let's look at this proposed scenario for US Airways...

Why not shut down operations in PIT, PHL, CLT, DCA, and Flordia? Then we can relocate to BHM, LNK, and maybe CHA. What does that mean? It means we dump all of the union people in the current cities and pick up new employees with zero seniority in tiny towns that barely support a Wal Mart. Now that has solved the cost issue and the airlines will "benefit" as greatly as the US auto industry did, and in the same way. That is WestCoastGuy's solution.

And I agree, El Gato, the problem in the auto industry remains quality perception. The US auto manufacturers are oblivious and still think back 50 years to when they had a superior product. In their eyes, that is where their product stands. That is the same with the legacies. The quality is not what employees/mgmt thinks it is and therefore the legacies fall further and further behind to the LCCs (the US airline equivalent to import cars).

Now...is the US auto industry actually better and do we want the airlines to follow the same path of slashing jobs and relocating to force low seniority? No...that is where wage cuts need to come in. Bring the pay levels back to realistic, 2004 pay rates...not regulation era, inflated levels.

 

[El Gato]

Ch. 12 - Do you remember the days when "Made in the USA" actually was a positive thing, and not a label that the customer should view with suspicion? "Made in Japan" has now replaced it in the sense of quality and honor. There is a good reason why, and all parties involved are at fault.

 

[WestCoastGuy]

El Gato, you certainly have some strong opinions and views. I respect your thoughts, just as everyone else has their own thoughts and opinions. Have you ever considered sending your resume to USAir? Im sure Jerry Glass would be very impressed. I think there's probably an office waiting for you in Crystal City. You'd certainly fall right into the proper thought process with the current Exec's there.

 

[Ch. 12]

Ch. 12 - Do you remember the days when "Made in the USA" actually was a positive thing, and not a label that the customer should view with suspicion? "Made in Japan" has now replaced it in the sense of quality and honor. There is a good reason why, and all parties involved are at fault.

[post="172420"][/post]​

I hear you. And a Japanese product was inferior to all. Times sure do change.

There is little pride left in US-made products now...interesting.

 

[El Gato]

El Gato, you certainly have some strong opinions and views. I respect your thoughts, just as everyone else has their own thoughts and opinions. Have you ever considered sending your resume to USAir? Im sure Jerry Glass would be very impressed. I think there's probably an office waiting for you in Crystal City. You'd certainly fall right into the proper thought process with the current Exec's there.

[post="172452"][/post]​

WestCoastGuy, are you a communist or something? Think you are "entitled" to an easy ride and nothing but good times in life? Do you believe you should be payed absurdly high pay for absurdly low work, even if the guy next door is doing it for half of what you get and doing more? You sound like the type...

First, I am a worker for them. No shame in saying it, because this company has rewarded me very well throughout the last few years. I take great pride in my work, and I believe that I have been compensated well for it. I never expected to be overpaid for menial tasks, where others such as yourself have. I would work as a ticket agent for no more than $8.00/hr, as I once worked the ramp at JFK for no more than $6.00/hr. Why? Because that is what the job asks for. No degree required, no skills needed, anyone can do it. A 19 year old just out of school can do it with ease and a smile on her face.

I would not want a job in Crystal City, for the reason that I am not qualified for managerial tasks, and I don't believe Crystal City should even exist. What sort of knucklehead decided that you can have your corporate offices separate from your operations offices? One hand never knows what the other is doing, and thus we have the miscommunications and problems we have. Closing CCY and consolidating all functions in CLT is something that should be part of the Transformation Plan, IMO.

Get your head out of the sand and wake up. This is not 1977 anymore. People who work for airlines are NOT special anymore, and there is nothing glamourous are exciting to it. It is mass transit, whether you like it or not and the sooner you get used to that fact, the longer you may have a paycheck from it.

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

I remember hearing the same thing said for the US auto industry 10 years ago. Now because of successful, forward thinking, talented management, not only is the industry fighting off foreign competition, the workers are still well paid and the company's are making money. Just shows what a successful company can become without picking the pockets of its workers.

[post="172009"][/post]​

Ya think so?

Read this: http://www.detnews.com/2004/insiders/0408/24/c01-249387.htm

Disgusting.

 

[El Gato]

PineyBob, what is your problem? You get robbed or something? Did the illegal mexicans landscaping your lawn ask for more money at the last minute off of you? Maybe a CSR from Verizon found out that an Indian outsourcer was better and cheaper than her, so she took it out on you when you called?

Don't be so damned upset. The mess around you is EVERYONE's making, from Dubya all the way down to the stoner kid who buys imported video games from Chinamart. You claim to have pride in the USA....prove it. Get into politics, or better yet open a business with the intention of bringing jobs and respect back to this country. Until then, don't dish me that line of sad sack BS. This is a capitalist nation - you only have yourself to blame.

 

[WestCoastGuy]

El Gato....I really get a good laugh out of your postings. It's better than the Sunday comics. Keep em up.

 

[El Gato]

El Gato....I really get a good laugh out of your postings. It's better than the Sunday comics. Keep em up.

[post="172479"][/post]​

Likewise. I think your postings are ok too.

 

[El Gato]

PineyBob,
You have just identified yourself as: A racist.
A neocon, not a libertarian.

Why? You just said that you prefer to speak to "white" people. That is racist sounding to me. What I said there about illegal mexican landscapers is justifiable, as it is a nationwide phenomenon that the landscaping business happens to employ them by and large(for now). When I said about outsourcing, I said "India". Did I say a race, or lineage? No. Thank you for exposing yourself as a bigot; you may put your white sheet on now.

Why? A true libertarian(like myself) believes that capitalism should be an unbridled and free process, using a darwinian evolution almost to weed out the expensive, overpriced, and useless in our world. No protections - out with the old and in with the new. Is it inhuman? You bet it is. But that is reality. Deal with it.

I really wish you had not said that. It's one thing to attack me for what I say, but to inject racist remarks into it is just low....

 

[El Gato]

PineyBob, one more thing. Why do you say "laundry" on their heads? If that is not a racist remark, then what the hell is? People in various portions of this world HAVE to wear turbans on their heads to protect from the midday sun and other purposes as well. Is that offensive to you?

 

[BoeingBoy]

Now Bob,

I personally find El Gato's comments amusing. I can just see him/her hunched over their keyboard, oblivious to the real world, expounding on subjects with little or no knowledge.

Jim

 

[El Gato]

Now Bob,

I personally find El Gato's comments amusing. I can just see him/her hunched over their keyboard, oblivious to the real world, expounding on subjects with little or no knowledge.

Jim

[post="172511"][/post]​

BoeingBoy, what makes you an "expert"? I have just as much knowledge of what is going on here as you do, so what praytell thee makes you so superior?

Let's try to get back to the subject at hand - the future of the company.