Stories of Employee Treatment

[robbedagain]

in my station 2 FT agents get mandatoried OT to cover 2 charters (that mgmt KNEW well in advance) just 20 or less minutes beforee the end of their shift. The union is notified, files a grievance asking for 5 hrs sta mngr says no union rep and mgr agree on 2 hr and to treat it as a OT bypass. yet there were 3 pt agents off at 930am and 530pm no mandatory for them. so the 2 FT agents get 2 hrs each for the settlement of the grievance. i dont know about any other stations but in mine there were 6 pt agents that could have been asked or mandatoried to stay for the charters of course the shift mgr who mandatoried the 2 FT agents said he DID NOT know how to CONTACT anyone......YET HE IS A SHFT MGR!!!! AMERICA WORST AT ITS BEST!

 

[HPearlyretiree]

You failed to mention that they say it with a snicker, as if thats my punishment for being a part of a union. My contract doesn't say that the company can't pay me more than my bottom of industry wages, it just says they can't pay me less. But, your attitude is typical for management. They have no problem violating the CBA when it favors them, but not when it might favor the worker.

Too bad, the union employees always say to work to the contract, nothing else. Too freaking bad that the company will do the same. That's what you get in a unionized environment, but look at the bright side, your dues ensure job protection for bad employees.

 

[700UW]

Actually US paid more for 1st year agents when they were hiring in PHL before the merger.

So it has been done and can be done!

 

[Crzipilot]

Friend had a family member pass away, was close to said family member though they were not immediate family. Friend requested a personal day consisting of one day, and pick the rest of the 4 day trip up on the 1st morning the pairing come through base. Supervisor asked when family member passed, Friend says, well on Monday, Supervisor says, well today is Wednesday, it's no longer an emergency, request denied. Yup....great management there. Needless to say, instead of having to cover 2 legs of flying, they had to cover 4 days of it, go figure...

 

[luvn737s]

Too bad, the union employees always say to work to the contract, nothing else. Too freaking bad that the company will do the same. That's what you get in a unionized environment, but look at the bright side, your dues ensure job protection for bad employees.

Yeah, they can write up airworthy airplanes in order to gin up some safety issue and still have a union to buy back their job at the expense of every other union member. Sweet!

 

[SparrowHawk]

Yeah, they can write up airworthy airplanes in order to gin up some safety issue and still have a union to buy back their job at the expense of every other union member. Sweet!

Don't you have enough threads poisoned already?

 

[Jester]

I've noticed that there's generally little consistency in how discipline goes down. Some things are more cut and dry, such as attendance, but even that is not always the case. It often depends on who you are, what they think you've done wrong, who's responsible for disciplining it, and whatever it is upper management wants the front line to crack down on for a given month. it depends also on what they feel like pursuing and whether or not they feel like making an example out of someone. Vile business, nothing you could ever pay me enough to have to deal with day in and day out. It takes a certain lack of integrity to knowingly apply the rules unfairly.

The bottom line is always CYA, and that's not just at US Airways....

CJ,

I have said it before on this board... one needs to have a friend either in the union or with Management. You are right that Management appears to be "inconsistant" but more times than not, it is consistant... insofar, that the lazy, bad attitudes, the mistake prone and overall screw-offs are treated "unfairly" while someone else may get less harsh treatment. Then again, I have seen the union treat employees the same way... some they will attempt to move Heaven and Earth to protect with no expense spared, while others are given little more than an obligatory attempt to provide a bare minimum defense.

For example, one time I damaged equipment in a rush in order to cover one of my co-workers who I assumed was disconnecting power, air, hooking up push tug, looking for gate checking, etc. only to learn he was napping in the forward bin while I loaded the aft bin's final bags. 5 minutes to push and not even a push tug on the gate! Well, I damaged some equipment trying to get the plane out on time (thankfully, it wasn't the plane), and while the plane went out on time, I reported myself without discussing the true reason for my need to rush, and I filed a report as to the cause. I was told to be more careful, that was it... no suspension, no write-up, no drug test... the Manager knew my work pattern and history, and figured it was an honest mistake while trying to get a plane out on time.

I cannot really say that I have been treated poorly by Managers or Supervisors, even though I think they will do plenty of dumb things in operations. Some say I am "lucky" but I show-up on time, rarely call in sick, work hard, and don't cause too many problems, so I look like an ideal employee compared to some.

So Views Jester.

 

[ContUNITEus]

CJ,

I have said it before on this board... one needs to have a friend either in the union or with Management. You are right that Management appears to be "inconsistant" but more times than not, it is consistant... insofar, that the lazy, bad attitudes, the mistake prone and overall screw-offs are treated "unfairly" while someone else may get less harsh treatment. Then again, I have seen the union treat employees the same way... some they will attempt to move Heaven and Earth to protect with no expense spared, while others are given little more than an obligatory attempt to provide a bare minimum defense.

For example, one time I damaged equipment in a rush in order to cover one of my co-workers who I assumed was disconnecting power, air, hooking up push tug, looking for gate checking, etc. only to learn he was napping in the forward bin while I loaded the aft bin's final bags. 5 minutes to push and not even a push tug on the gate! Well, I damaged some equipment trying to get the plane out on time (thankfully, it wasn't the plane), and while the plane went out on time, I reported myself without discussing the true reason for my need to rush, and I filed a report as to the cause. I was told to be more careful, that was it... no suspension, no write-up, no drug test... the Manager knew my work pattern and history, and figured it was an honest mistake while trying to get a plane out on time.

I cannot really say that I have been treated poorly by Managers or Supervisors, even though I think they will do plenty of dumb things in operations. Some say I am "lucky" but I show-up on time, rarely call in sick, work hard, and don't cause too many problems, so I look like an ideal employee compared to some.

So Views Jester.

Wow, that is a great story. I like it.

There are departments where you just don't get into trouble. We, the F/As would some times exchange stories between our department's treatment of employees and that of the pilots, for instance. I'll tell ya... there was a huge difference. I remember recalling this specific conversation with a pilot in which he explained that he was going to nonrev to Europe after calling in sick. I had asked him if he was out of his mind. He responded that he had done this already three times in 2010 without ever being called on the carpet for it. Pilots just don't get in trouble for a lot of stuff that another regular employee would get in trouble for.

Once again, there is a huge gap in equality when you deal with people from different departments. As in the above example, it takes a lot for a pilot to get in trouble for stuff. Nonreving after calliing in sick is a terminable offense in lots of departments, not in the Flight operations department though. At least not in the west side of flight ops.

Pilots, because of their professional status, can do a lot of things without ever being worried about their jobs. F/As and customer service will be treated like dirt in many instances, when compared to pilots.

 

[Kev3188]

That was back in the no union days, when management could do nice things, and sometimes the employees took advantage and never paid back. But, now, the managers just say "too bad, its not in your contract, tough luck, can't help you"

That's their choice, then. I've yet to see a CBA that explicitly bars people from being nice to one another. If you can show me one, I'd love to see it.

You failed to mention that they say it with a snicker, as if thats my punishment for being a part of a union. My contract doesn't say that the company can't pay me more than my bottom of industry wages, it just says they can't pay me less. But, your attitude is typical for management. They have no problem violating the CBA when it favors them, but not when it might favor the worker.

Exactly. A published pay scale is a scale of minimums, not maximums. People seem to forget that a lot.

 

[SparrowHawk]

You have to remember that there are some people with a blind hatred of Unions. A hatred that rivals and perhaps exceed the KKK's hatred of blacks. People hate for a variety of reasons, some rational, others less so. One common opinion is that being in a union or a person of color somehow gives an advantage and this is the prism through which all information is processed.

My filter is that of individual liberty which is why I've never worked union and likely never will. It also means however that I support the rights of individuals to band together to promote their common interests, This is a key element of a free society and dates back to the trade guilds of medieval Europe. This is the same reason I oppose any laws or attempts to regulate Labor/Management relations by the Federal Government.

 

[CallawayGolf]

You have to remember that there are some people with a blind hatred of Unions. A hatred that rivals and perhaps exceed the KKK's hatred of blacks. People hate for a variety of reasons, some rational, others less so. One common opinion is that being in a union or a person of color somehow gives an advantage and this is the prism through which all information is processed.

My filter is that of individual liberty which is why I've never worked union and likely never will. It also means however that I support the rights of individuals to band together to promote their common interests, This is a key element of a free society and dates back to the trade guilds of medieval Europe. This is the same reason I oppose any laws or attempts to regulate Labor/Management relations by the Federal Government.

So you are in favor of eliminating the Department of Labor, the NLRB, and the RLA? If so, we're on the same page on that issue.

 

[700UW]

Once again you show you dont know about labor laws, the NLRB has nothing to do with the RLA, they enforce the NLRA, the NMB enforces the RLA.

 

[CallawayGolf]

Once again you show you dont know about labor laws, the NLRB has nothing to do with the RLA, they enforce the NLRA, the NMB enforces the RLA.

You sure draw incorrect conclusions from fairly simple statements. I asked if SH was in favor of eliminating three prominent federal intrusions into the private sector and employer-employee relationships. I never said that the NLRB had anything to do with the RLA. Here, I'll make it more simple for you:

Are you in favor of eliminating the Department of Labor, Yes or No?
Are you in favor of eliminating the National Labor Relations Board, Yes or No?
Are you in favor of eliminating the National Labor Relations Act, Yes or No?
Are you in favor of eliminating the Railway Labor Act, Yes or No?
Are you in favor of eliminating the National Mediation Board, Yes or No?

I say yes to all; do you agree Sparrow Hawk?

700, do you understand the questions now?

 

[SparrowHawk]

You sure draw incorrect conclusions from fairly simple statements. I asked if SH was in favor of eliminating three prominent federal intrusions into the private sector and employer-employee relationships. I never said that the NLRB had anything to do with the RLA. Here, I'll make it more simple for you:

Are you in favor of eliminating the Department of Labor, Yes or No?
Are you in favor of eliminating the National Labor Relations Board, Yes or No?
Are you in favor of eliminating the National Labor Relations Act, Yes or No?
Are you in favor of eliminating the Railway Labor Act, Yes or No?
Are you in favor of eliminating the National Mediation Board, Yes or No?

I say yes to all; do you agree Sparrow Hawk?

700, do you understand the questions now?

Well this falls under the category of "Be Careful What you wish for"! I say yes to all of those things and more. Let's get rid of the law prohibiting secondary strikes as well. Let's NOT have a Federal Right to Work law leave it to the states as intended in the 10th Amendment.

If you look at history those laws weren't enacted to protect employees as advertised. After 10 bloody years of Gun Thugs, Local Militia and Law Enforcement unions ultimately prevailed in organizing the coalfields of Appalachia. That would not, could not stand in the eyes of FDR's fat cat supporters in steel,coal railroads and other industries faced with union organizing. There was a great deal of violence and secondary strikes used to bring the companies to their knees. So the Federal Government had to make it "Fair" and we got all these laws crammed down our throats in the name of fairness and to eliminate violence which of course they never really accomplished.

See it's a simple numbers play, 18,500 steel workers vs one steel company in a community and guess what? Company loses every time. So the Big Business of the day did just what they do today. They lobbied the President and Congress and got their way and now the average Joe & Jane are screwed.

When you create a truly free market you end up with winners and loser and sometimes the loses and gains are of epic proportions. Companies with enlightened Management will pay and manage their people in such a way as to keep unions out. Others will not and be organized. Ultimately wages will reach fair market value through competition and IMO will rise for airline workers.

 

[CallawayGolf]

Well this falls under the category of "Be Careful What you wish for"! I say yes to all of those things and more. Let's get rid of the law prohibiting secondary strikes as well. Let's NOT have a Federal Right to Work law leave it to the states as intended in the 10th Amendment.

If you look at history those laws weren't enacted to protect employees as advertised. After 10 bloody years of Gun Thugs, Local Militia and Law Enforcement unions ultimately prevailed in organizing the coalfields of Appalachia. That would not, could not stand in the eyes of FDR's fat cat supporters in steel,coal railroads and other industries faced with union organizing. There was a great deal of violence and secondary strikes used to bring the companies to their knees. So the Federal Government had to make it "Fair" and we got all these laws crammed down our throats in the name of fairness and to eliminate violence which of course they never really accomplished.

See it's a simple numbers play, 18,500 steel workers vs one steel company in a community and guess what? Company loses every time. So the Big Business of the day did just what they do today. They lobbied the President and Congress and got their way and now the average Joe & Jane are screwed.

When you create a truly free market you end up with winners and loser and sometimes the loses and gains are of epic proportions. Companies with enlightened Management will pay and manage their people in such a way as to keep unions out. Others will not and be organized. Ultimately wages will reach fair market value through competition and IMO will rise for airline workers.

Works for me. The free market determines wages and the ultimate winners and losers in the great economic struggle. The President and Congress are limited by the Constitution to act only within the enumerated powers granted to them by the people. Regulating interstate and foreign commerce is a far cry from telling employers and employees how they must conduct their private business decisions. Be it "Big Business", "Big Labor" or just two people seeking a mutually beneficial arrangement, the Feds have no authority to act or treat one person or group differently than it treats everyone else. The level of Constitutional illiteracy in Washington is quite staggering from just about everyone who steps inside the halls of Congress, the White House or the Supreme Court. Getting away with violating the Constitution for 200 years doesn't make it right.