Pit Fab To Close

[calibrator]

is getting kickbacks as the vendors cannot produce the same quality and never meet the timelines.

You don't know even how true and sad that statement is!

At Pit they had managers selling scrap parts when I first started until it came to light at which point they started cutting all the precious metal and expensive parts in half in order to stop the illegal selling from kick-backs.

Then there was stores and resale where they sold off everything for pennies on the dollar only to have people including a few shrewd employees buy this stuff back and make themselves money. One such guy an Ex mechanic started a business selling Jet Engine parts to airlines like Delta and others, he made a small fortune, true absolutely true. I know this individual very well. He is still running his own aircraft parts company thanks to U for giving him the start. He worked with me in the Jet shop and became friends with the manager who later was fired and become, the last I heard, a real live bum after a divorce while this mechanic became rich.

Corruption, kick-backs, good ole boy system is was really what brought down U while everyone believes it was the unions. The unions only mean the "Union Of Employees" who worked there, they didn't have the power to become part of corruption of kick-backs and sell outs. Pit was ripe with this stuff and anyone who could see past their nose knew it but it was accepted as normal U practices, you do your thing and leave us alone. Then came hard times when all this corruption bubbled to the surface and the firings started until they hired the king of dishonestly; Siegel and his merry band of depraved co-cohorts who believed they would rule the world until Siegel met his match where the others hung on long enough to milk the rest of the cream from the pot and let everyone else drown in the sediment.

 

[700UW]

One or two high ranking directors were let go after US sold parts for 50 cents on the dollar then bought them back for 100 cents on the dollar another high ranking mtc finance person was let go after US bought the "workbrain" system of attendance and she ended up working as VP for the company that produces work brain.

 

[traderjake]

Well Presti did not care and you are right, US has never had a real plan to run mtc efficently.

I suppose the IAM wanted no part of paying mechanics to push back airplanes. That was real efficent.

 

[700UW]

Lets see US flies into 89 mainline stations since the Sept of 02 till Jan of 05 Mechanics only pushed at 8 stations, after Jan of 05 mechanics pushed planes at no stations and before Sept of 02 mechanics only pushed at 30 stations.

Don't let the facts get in your way.

And remember the company agreed to that.

 

[Awa Contract]

AWA just started using workbrain a few months ago - boy talk about bugs - this system has more than its share. It is refered to as lamebrain here.

 

[700UW]

We have called BirdBrain and HairBrain.

Funny US uses it and then HP got it.

 

[Awa Contract]

To my knowledge we started the introduction of it almost 1 year ago. It is still not in full use as far as I know.

 

[700UW]

We have used for over well over one year probably almost two.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Gee, reading all this about parts being sold etc., brings back a incident that happened to me years back. I needed a landing gear bracket for a DC-9. Knowing I couldn't get the bracket until the middle of the next day from Pit., I went over to a friend of mine at another airline on the field and asked if he had the bracket and if we could borrow it. He did and we borrowed it. The next day, the bracket came and and I returned it to him. I thanked him for letting me borrow this $1400.00 bracket. He said what $1400.00 bracket.? His co. only pays $250.00 for the bracket. I almost fell over. I doubled checked our price again, and it was $1400.00 we pay. I called several people in Pit. but couldn't get anyplace. From then on, I knew U was being taken, but nobody really cared. This was quite a few years back! And I have never forgotten that incident after all these years.

 

[AP Tech]

A few years back back I remember the program "Ideas That Fly", employee's put groups together and came up with ideas to save the company money. Many good ideas were submitted, some used some not. You earned points for dollar value realized in company savings. Funny thing was when you looked at some of the top teams at the end, more than their fair share had members who were in the purchasing department? Those teams cleaned up with ideas such as "I can buy XXX at $1 vs the $10 we are now paying. I always thought that was a purchaser's job. shopping around for the best deal? Just one example of waste....

 

[calibrator]

A few years back back I remember the program "Ideas That Fly", employee's put groups together and came up with ideas to save the company money. Many good ideas were submitted, some used some not. You earned points for dollar value realized in company savings. Funny thing was when you looked at some of the top teams at the end, more than their fair share had members who were in the purchasing department? Those teams cleaned up with ideas such as "I can buy XXX at $1 vs the $10 we are now paying. I always thought that was a purchaser's job. shopping around for the best deal? Just one example of waste....

I still have my untouched unused Parker pen and pencil set labeled, Ideas That Fly.

The ones who made the most had a member of management on their team, they filled their homes full of everything you can imagine, to the tune of thousands of dollars. When it was over many of the ideas that brought in the big prices never materialized. I got a set of dishes via that waste of time and money. One day a big shot upper management guy of maintenance walked into one of our meetings and looked straight at me with a big smile asking me what I thought of that program. I shot back instantly saying that it was a total waste of time, money and manpower just another fee good do nothing plan. He totally ignored me and went on to the next guy. Even that program was corrupt with management making sure "their" teams were approved and others denied. I know of one manager who started his own company not long after he took all the prizes, his retirement and half of our instrument shop work with him to the point where they start cutting back headcount until it got to me and I was also history.

I look back and it's amazing that company lasted as long as it did considering all the underhanded dealings that went on for years on end, this was just Pit, I can't speak for other stations.


I still believe that in the long haul this new U will never really get off the ground and become a real LCC, too much history with too many people that lived that history still attached to get any real lift.

 

[AP Tech]

I know that deal, proven time over time inhouse was cheaper, yet the contract went to that ex supervisor. Imagine that, and this is only one small department in one city........ :down:

 

[traderjake]

We all must remember whom we are dealing with here.
A Frequent Flyer.
It amazes me to think how much time this individual must have on his hands.
Get a life PineyBob, and don’t worry about ours!
Don’t try to tell me how committed you are to travel LCC you would jump ship if it was convenient and cost affective.
How about going and stirring the Shxt somewhere else!

Where does the money in your paycheck come from?

It doesn't come from the IAM. It comes from customers like Bob.

You may not care what they think or if they take their business elsewhere but I do.

Lets see US flies into 89 mainline stations since the Sept of 02 till Jan of 05 Mechanics only pushed at 8 stations, after Jan of 05 mechanics pushed planes at no stations and before Sept of 02 mechanics only pushed at 30 stations.

How many mechanics did USAir hire to push back airplanes after the PSA and Piedmont mergers?

The USAir IAM has a long history of featherbedding.

 

[Phantom Fixer]

Where does the money in your paycheck come from?

It doesn't come from the IAM. It comes from customers like Bob.

Maybe you don't care what they think or if they take their business elsewhere but I do.

"Trader-Jake"

Nobody is trying to imply that we don't need Piney Bob's business. We need Bob's business along with a few million more like him. The FF is the bread and butter of this industry...as we know the liesure traveler is not a high yield deal very often.

My beef with Bob is his eagerness to poke his nose into aspects of our lives that have No relationship to his situation as the end user of our product. Regardless of whom represents the AMT's of the combined U ?..and regardless of where the Combined U performs its work? , Bob is still going to have a seat and a drink on one of our aircraft unless this operation goes belly-up , which I doubt highly.

The AMT's of the combined companies have issues to resolve...and between ourselves it shall be resolved.
Nobody to my knowledge tells Bob about his business...or whats what about his business. That's his battle to fight. I just saying when it comes to our issues with the Company and our elected Labor Representation...he should show us the same level of respect that we show him and his job by simply clamming up and butting out for a welcome change.

If my point fails to register with you?....God help you....it is a simple matter of respect and not poking your nose where it doesn't belong.

 

[traderjake]

You post something on a public web board but the public is not allowed to comment?

That's ridiculous.