Pit Res To Close Today

[etops1]

******** U S A I R W A Y S T O D A Y ********

Friday, July 29, 2005

1/Pittsburgh Reservations closure marks end of an era

US Airways will close its Greentree reservations
center in Pittsburgh at the close of business today,
bringing a conclusion to the airline's 35 years at the
site. Employees will be recognized with a company-
sponsored lunch. They also have been invited to an
evening reception that celebrates their years of
service.

"Today marks the end of an era," said Kerry
Carstairs, vice president for direct distribution.
"Please join me in applauding our employees, friends
and colleagues for their years of dedicated service to
our customers and our company."

Before moving to Greentree in 1970, US Airways
predecessor Allegheny Airlines handled reservations in
a downtown Pittsburgh office building and, later, in
an airport hangar. At one time, more than 1,000 people
worked in two buildings at Greentree. But the dramatic
changes and intense financial pressures of the airline
industry made closure of the office inevitable.

US Airways and the Communications Workers of America,
the union that represents Reservations, offered
several options to help employees work through this
transition period. Some chose retirement, others early
out or furlough packages, and 47 elected to remain
with the company and relocate to the Winston-Salem
reservations center. One employee has chosen to move
to an airport ticket office.

"As we all begin a new chapter in our lives, I hope
your future endeavors bring you much happiness,"
Carstairs told employees.

 

[Severed-N-Happy]

Cheese and stale cookies, eh?

Let the multitude of ticketing and PNR errors and outsourced mis-information to the public in general multiply even moreso, starting tonite!!!!!!



Thank God for the EO!!!!!

 

[ringmaruf]

Wow, a freaking lunch. :down:



Thanks to all of the PIT res agents that have been nothing short of an amazing help to me over the last 5 or so years, since I started flying all the time...you've helped me with some crazy problems...you guys were the best. Godspeed.

 

[AC/CF]

It was truly a wonderful evening. What started out as a small idea grew into a terrific party, thanks CWA. In my opinion, it was just unbelieveable what you and the FFOCUS members did. For you guys to give up a large part of your weekend, to create the presentation you did, and to go to the expense of purchasing some door prizes. I know it was appreciated by all. Thanks

 

[Zeus]

Pineybob, I didn't realize we had to get your approval on employee communications.

 

[ClueByFour]

Pineybob, I didn't realize we had to get your approval on employee communications.

[post="284922"][/post]​

Your propogandist literature would be much easier for your employees to swallow (and probably more truthful) if you did get Bob's approval.

 

[BottomFeeder]

Pineybob, I didn't realize we had to get your approval on employee communications.

[post="284922"][/post]​

Zeus,

PB was just shedding light as to how our Senior Management failed again.



Don't try to spin this one!

 

[ClueByFour]

Clue you should have joined FFOCUS last night. It would have been a good time for you. I think you have a lot of fans in rez. I was surprised at how many I had frankly

[post="284932"][/post]​

Alas, I'm currently abroad, just putting the finishing touches on an 0-dark-thirty rollout.

I actually used to drink with a bunch of the RIDC types when I lived in PIT. All great people. All will be sorely missed. Now that I'm only US2, I fear that with PIT's closure will force me to brush up on my spanish, particularly the explatives.

 

[700UW]

Pineybob, I didn't realize we had to get your approval on employee communications.

[post="284922"][/post]​

Polish that resume up all ready?

Need help packing up the office at CCY's 8th floor?

 

[noname]

PB
You are a hoot! Wish I could've met you when you visited INT RES...
Maybe I will have the chance if FFOCUS visits again before the end of AUG.

 

[longing4piedmont]

I had an opportunity to BLAST US Airways Management on FOUR television stations last night and I made a conscious decision not to.

[post="284930"][/post]​

Well big boy, you have better self control than I would have. All I can say is that CCY had better be glad I was not there. In the end the tv stations would not have been able to use many of my quotes. I WAS so looking forward to the chance and no phone call from CCY would have cooled my jets.

You see, what CCY has done to this airline and the employees who work here is inexcusable in my opinion. Not only are the employees now going to suffer, but we as customers are suffering as well. When the agent on the other end of the phone can not answer a simple question because they do not understand ENGLISH, you have a disaster on your hands.

But then the fine cracker jack management team at US will tell us they "saved" the place. BS. All they did was set it up for another opportunity to haul in the millions for doing absolutely nothing but destroying the airline.

I took the gloves off a long time ago and they will not be put back on until the last of the brain trust is gone from the company including the sorry excuse for an operations manager, uncle AL.

I simply could not have sat there on Friday night and watched 500 people who have given their hearts and lives to this company, leave without so much as a thank you or a visit from CCY. That would have been the last straw for me. They could have at least sent Lime Boy where he could earn his keep until the end by spinning more lies.

Get the feeling that I'm still HOT? Good...... and I intend to stay that way until the end.

 

[tadjr]

From the CWA
PLEASE POST AND DISTRIBUTE TO YOUR CO-WORKERS
Additional stories are on www.CWA.net


8/2/2005
Pit Res closing is a stark reminder that it is the employees who pay the price for mismanagement of the airline...
The following article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describes the Pit Res employees' personal loss and tragedy behind management's decision to sub-contract their work to non-airline call center companies. Besides the economic impact on long-service employees, the subcontracting has lead to numerous customer complaints as inexperienced, non-airline call-handlers attempt to resolve the complex issues of US Airways passengers.

'End of an era' as reservations center in Green Tree shuts down
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Near the entrance to US Airways' Green Tree reservations center sits a small collection of plastic Hawaiian leis and a handmade sign urging departing employees to wear one "so everybody can wish you a farewell."
Today, however, there may not be enough to go around.
After four decades of taking calls and booking tickets for US Airways passengers, the airline's last 281 Pittsburgh-based reservation agents and managers will hang up their headsets and leave the fifth floor of a gray, boxy suburban office building for the last time. Their final shift will end at 6 p.m., and a farewell party will follow at a
local Holiday Inn.
Their departure, sure to be emotional and tinged with sadness, marks yet another end to the once-proud US Airways network in the Pittsburgh area. In the last four years, the Arlington, Va.-based carrier has cut more than 9,000 jobs, pulled hundreds of flights and stripped Pittsburgh of its hub status. After today, 3,500 US Airways employees will remain in Pittsburgh.
In the early days -- when the carrier was known as Allegheny Airlines and then USAir -- much of US Airways' traffic funneled through Pittsburgh, the largest hub in the airline's system and the site of many airline support operations, including reservations. The center started on the second floor of an old airport hangar, where bookings were taken down on index cards and passed along to sorters via a conveyer belt. It moved to the more automated Green Tree location in August 1970.
Longtime reservations employees still remember what it was like in the 1970s and 1980s -- when US Airways was profitable and fun. They recall fondly the parties, the company gifts, the friendly relationship with management and the start of lifelong friendships at work.
With the carrier in its second bankruptcy and attempting to merge with Tempe, Arizona-based America West Airlines, the mood in the Green Tree office is dark. Commemorative US Airways posters have been torn off the walls, US Airways-branded staplers have been taken and many of the seats once filled with friends have been emptied.
The office exodus began in May, when the airline began carrying out its decision to consolidate reservations work in Winston-Salem, N.C. At the time 750 people still worked in two buildings at Parkway Center, a Green Tree office park. As the weeks passed, though, employees began leaving in bunches, either retiring or accepting transfers or taking cash buyouts to leave the company early.
With so many people leaving at one time, the office settled on the plastic leis as a way of keeping track of the exits and honoring those on their way out.
Longtime customer-service representative Lois Smith plans to exit the building -- and the company -- in high style tonight. Smith, 54, after 20 years with the airline, intends to wear a gray T-shirt reading "Unemployed" and walk out of the building with a boom box playing "Take This Job and Shove It" or "That's What Friends Are For." Outside, a group of ex-US Airways employees are expected to give the departing workers a final round of applause -- a bow to the tradition of "clapping out" reservations employees on their last day.
"I have been clapping people out for years," Smith said. "I hope there is someone there to clap us out." Sadly, she added, "I am never going to see any of these people again."
The shutdown of the center is not without hard feelings. Local union official Chris Fox, who represents the customer-service employees in Green Tree, claims US Airways has been docking the pay of departing workers who spend too much time away from the phones on their final day, saying goodbye to colleagues. Employees see it as an insult from a company that asked them to accept deep cuts in pay and benefits several times in recent years, Fox said. The shutdown of the center is not without hard feelings. Local union official Chris Fox, who represents the customer-service employees in Green Tree, claims US Airways has been docking the pay of departing workers who spend too much time away from the phones on their final day, saying goodbye to colleagues. Employees see it as an insult from a company that asked them to accept deep cuts in pay and benefits several times in recent years, Fox said.
The airline denies employee pay is being docked on the last day. "We recognize this is a very emotional time for employees who have worked in that center for several decades, and we want to make sure that they have ample opportunity to find closure in their departure from the center," said US Airways spokesman David Castelveter. "But at the same time we can't lose sight of the fact that we have customers who have high expectations of our company, and we are trying to find the right balance in these final hours."
Morale, though, continues to dip in the final hours. Not much work will get done today, predicted one employee leaving after 27 years.
"At this point, who cares?" said a female employee who asked not to be identified. "What are they going to do, fire us on our last day?"
Reservations agent Nina Palladini, 48, pausing while on break from her shift earlier this week, called today's closing the "end of an era," conceding that it made her sad to think about not spending her days in Green Tree anymore.
"I am going to miss the people," she said.
She also lamented the recent move of some call center jobs overseas to Mexico and El Salvador and the recent shift toward online booking. Palladini, pointing to her colleague Audra Spriggle, said that when customers called with an emergency or to ask for help with a stressful situation, "It's people like me or her who say, 'I'm really sorry.' You can't get that on the dot.com. I think that is where USAir was so successful -- the personal touch."
Barbara Miller, who retired in December after 34 years in US Airways reservations, upset her friends with her decision not to attend tonight's party.
But, "I just don't want to celebrate the closure of that office," said Miller, 55, who lives in Bridgeville. "I loved the people I worked with; I loved everything about the airline. I just want to remember it my way. To me, it's not a celebration. It's a sad time."