They need to get a UL out there at night who actually knows what they're doing. Too bad all the good ones moved over to N1...
Gates per unit lead per shift:
R1: 7
R2: 7
R3: 6
R4: 6
R5:
15
I've never had a problem with the UL's out there, at least they're on R5 by choice which only proves that they are insane. Maybe the "good" UL's are so good because they have the cake ramps. IMO the international gates (the sometimes R6) should get their own UL for each shift.
I have no idea what your talking about
Unless I'm discussing specifics I should not be taken seriously. Sorry for the confusion; I'm just a mouthy jerk that tries to stay in the know. Welcome to PHX. B)
Case in point: At PHX on the ramp and especially in the bag room, if someone has a beef with someone (eg. talking too much on the cell phone, reading a newspaper, co-worker is making faces -I'm serious, folks!-, etc.) they usually run straight to a manager and start tattling. That really bugs a manager as they have bigger fish to fry and they usually end up making a mountain out of a molehill.
I can see this in the bag room, especially in the mornings. It's seems like it's a repository for the crabbiest, most wound-up anal retentive lot of rampers you're likely to encounter. I'm not just saying it to say it, it's established in my mind and reinforced with dozens of minor incidences over the years that have kept my mind blown and eyes a-rollin'. The schoolyard drama in the bag room is palpable, and therefore to me entirely hilarious. I'll take any gate any shift over the bag room any day (unless it's raining).
Sure the ramp has plenty of drama queens and blowhards, but snitches not so much. These days it's an excellent way to shoot yourself in the foot, besides.
Ratting others out is a part of the culture. You have to watch your back as PHX fleet does eat their own.
Not sure what you did in PHX or how long it's been since you were there but I don't think that's a fair indictment of the entire PHX ramp. Yeah there are some bad apples in there ( though a lot less now than when I started) but it's my perception that there's a lot more people watching each other's back than there are whiners going to management. Your post paints a mental image of agents tripping over one another to report their inventory of transgressions to the managers and this simply is not how it is. Again, can't speak to how it was five years ago only the present day.
I don't know who that particular poster is, but LAS sent some kick ass rampers down to PHX. You should be honored to have them.
This is entirely true, I've had a lot of time to work with and talk with them a lot of them. Some were given very short notice they'd be coming to PHX, some are commuting with their families the next state over or some other part of the country. It seems the company invested a decent amount in trying to train the transfers in PHX procedure via the mentoring program; can't speak to the success of effectiveness of this but it's my hope that our people in PHX have been as welcoming and helpful as possible to these guys and gals, I know I've tried to be, regardless of whatever idiocy I might post here.
Or maybe you're just bitter because your move to PHX suddenly necessitates you having to learn how to perform a pushback?
Derp derp derp. PHX has very specific pushbacks depending on the gate and aircraft, some of these are rather tricky and quite challenging. Some of the folks that have transferred in took team lead positions when they'd never done it before, maybe they were cargo or bag room for years. Given how busy PHX is, how tight and congested the ramp is and the very specific pushbacks I'd think PHX would probably have to be about the worst place to have to learn how to do it.
I got respect for those trying to hang in there; I can only imagine how difficult, challenging and stressful it is to have to transition to PHX in the lead position because it is not easy; in some ways it never gets easy.
Here's another question for you what exactly is a Unit Lead . Don't see it in my contract, employee handbook or ground ops manual anywhere must be something special just for phx . I know there is no such thing in vegas and talked to a philadelphia
friend and said she had never heard of such a thing . it must just be a mirage in the hot sun of phoenix
.
The functions of the UL were once performed by a supervisor, there used to be one supervisor per ramp, or five sups for just the ramp per shift. Now as you know it's one manager per two ramps (or concourse) and one UL per ramp. It's quite possible that, at least in the pm's, they may go to one manager per every three ramps, or just two ramp managers per shift. This is kind of a big deal because when people note how there are always managers out and about on the ramp and how they have an iron grip on everything that goes on it seems to me that the indications are this is and has been changing, albeit slowly.
Not sure what you'd like to see in place of a UL; as I said it used to be a manager. The concourse manager is concerned mostly with administrative/staffing stuff and the UL is an operational coordinator for a given ramp; in PHX the unit lead is an operational necessity. That's simply my perspective based on how the operation is currently staffed and configured.
You are correct in that is not a recognized position, just a shift assignment. Management doesn't want to recognize it as such and so as far as I know there's no official job description for the position. They don't want it to be a biddable position because they want to control which individuals can be unit leads. The union of course has a different position on this, and maybe C. Lenzi or P. REZ can better describe what that is and what's been discussed with management on the issue.
In furtherance, I can attest that the union in PHX is, so far as I can tell, larger, busier, and more professionally ran that it was when I started. The boards are being updated regularly with topical and current information and concerns and there are a lot more shop stewards today than there were a couple of years ago where it seemed like they were down to seven or eight. I know these guys are racking their brains and trying everything to increase turnout at the union meetings but there's only so much they can do short of kidnapping people. Is unionism and union influence as strong in PHX as it is in the other hub cities? Probably not, but it is coming on slowly and with a lot of hard work and time from these guys.
PHX is getting better and will continue to once people become less concerned with how it was and more interested in what it can be...yeah I get defensive about it but it's only because I'm crazy enough to love working there.
