http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/2004/10/24/business/9997432.htm?1c

Posted on Sun, Oct. 24, 2004





Don't downsize the compassion

Fairness and good communication can help companies like US Airways, and their employees, get through troubled times.

By Jane M. Von Bergen and Tom Belden

Inquirer Staff Writers


Johnna Kelbaugh, 70, couldn't believe what she was hearing last Sunday as she waited nearly an hour for her luggage in the US Airways baggage claim area at Philadelphia International Airport.

A voice on the public-address system announced, "Due to the fact the employees have had a 20 percent cut in pay, it will be up to an hour and a half until you get your bags," recalled Kelbaugh, of Fairless Hills, who was returning from Las Vegas.

"I turned to the woman next to me and said, 'Did I hear that right?' "

I think I would be on a direct line to Chris, Deb, etc. to find out who was responsible for this announcement and make sure they were canned immediately. This is someone who obviously doesn't care about the airline. Dead weight. I don't think management would see kindly for this kind of stunt.

What is the excuse they would give to these long waits prior to the pay cuts???

:mad: :mad: :mad:

US Airways at PHL is the worst for receiving your luggage and this has nothing to do with pay cuts, this has been going on for years!!!

:mad: :mad: :mad:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/today/sky.htm#cuts

Ben Mutzabaugh, in his "gossip column" in USA TODAY even picked this story up this morning... one would hope our friends in CCY would investigate.

Well, it's truly unfortunate that a US employee should say this. Certainly moral is rather low at US at the moment as difficult times continue. In any case, it's certainly not something that any employee should say under any circumstance.

Hopefully pax will call or send complaints to CA. If this is true, the employees involved should be identified and fired as they are unworthy of employment at any airline in either the best or worst of times.

Barry

While nobody would "like" to hear this announcement, especially if your waiting for baggage, I am not surprised that something like this happened. Probably other either direct or indirect things like this have happened, and have just not made it in to the news. I have noticed a handful (seems more than normal) flights cancelled due to "no crew available" since the 2nd BK filing. I have read news reports about people calling in sick, or doing things by-the-book which can delay operations.

Of course no union leader is going to be quoted in the newspaper condoning this activity, they could be fined or possibly imprisoned if they are found to be instigating sick outs or other unrest among labor groups.

I have a neighbor that works at the airport, and they report moral very low at US, and that the employees are just wating for the day to come when they are told they have no job/to clean out their locker.

I am really frankly surprised that the US Airways operation is still running more or less in tact without major and fundamental issues going wrong like this one that we read about in PHL or worse. This kind of thing is always difficult at a company as the Inquirer pointed out, and I don't think US had particularly good labor relations which might have softened the blow slightly. Also the pay cut was across the board for an employee making $17,000 or $50,000.

Before we say the person should be fired, we should ask ourselves some questions such as:
Q: Have I ever personally lost 20% of my pay in a job?
Q: If I lost 21% of my pay, plus other previous pay cuts, plus reductions in benefits, plus work rule changes, plus no more job security, would I be able to sustain something like a high standard and provide a similar quality of

Of course all of you ar technically correct in a textbook sense, e.g. you should not see degridations in any part of the customer experience as a result of either the BK or the pay cuts. That is what the web site says too. But you always have to include those pesky "human factors" "human nature" factor in to any such equation. So while it looks good on paper, you might have a company of demoralized employees that will cause you operational problems or even might deliberately inhibit production because of deep seeded resentment probably directed at perceived high paying cushy management jobs.

Once you have some standard of living or something then it is very difficult to go back. If you have never had it, then it is easier. Like if you've always made $.50 a day, then you aren't going to miss making $50,000 a year.

This is one reason perhaps why Southwest or JetBlue employees are said to be happy, etc. Perhaps many of them never worked for an old line legacy carrier that had better benefits, pay, and work rules. So they don't miss it because they didn't have it.

I think in any legacy airline for a long time to come you are going to have employees and customers alike wishing for the "good old days," and to some extent this may lower productivity.

I have noticed in companys I've worked for with downsizing, even well after the downsizing, people sit around and lament about the prior "good times" and the current "how bad things are." Again, they have something to miss, where as someone brand new off the street cannot so easily miss some benefit or perk they never had.

Certainly moral is rather low at US at the moment

Actually it is morale which is low - we don't want to impugn the morals of the employees. :o

...Before we say the person should be fired, we should ask ourselves some questions such as:...

I think employees can complain to management as much as they want, but when that criticism becomes public while they are on duty, that crosses the line. Tell me it's acceptable for a mechanic to walk thru a plane (while on duty) and say, "Because of our 20%+ pay cut, we may not have performed maintenance properly on the plane."

Jeff

It's devastating that the FTEs at US are taking a 20% + cut.

And yes, many of us have been through something similar before. My income dropped 38% after the bottom fell out of the market. I've been able to recover some of that, but it will be a few years before I'm back at my former numerical gross income from 2000 (not accounting for inflation).

. . . you always have to include those pesky "human factors" "human nature" factor in to any such equation. So while it looks good on paper, you might have a company of demoralized employees that will cause you operational problems or even might deliberately inhibit production because of deep seeded resentment probably directed at perceived high paying cushy management jobs . . .

A fine excuse, but still not an acceptable explanation for why one decides to target pax who bring business to the airline for their own individual angst. This is an issue of individual character and integrity no more. no less. It tarnishes the majority of US employees who are indeed good folks trying to do the job right.

Life is an imperfect thing, and unfortunately those who follow the rules and do their job correctly are not always rewarded ( it's a hard thing for us as parents to teach our kids work ethics and character knowing that even this may not be enough to insure their success or happiness ). But character counts very much in this world regardless of what one is paid or presumes they should be paid.

I work in the health care profession where down-sizing and shrinking reimbursements have caused much havoc and discord. And to be frank, my job sucks at times. So although I'm down in the dumps on occassion, I don't take it out on my patients and I would never think of doing so. It just isn't the right thing to do no matter how much the boss or the world dumps on me.

Perhaps I'm measuring things relative to my own life experiences and expectations, but they've served me pretty well thus far. Fortunately the majority of US employees continue to bring a positive outlook to their jobs and the actions of recalcitrant employees tarnishes the efforts that these fine folks are making.

Barry

Before we say the person should be fired, we should ask ourselves some questions such as:
Q: Have I ever personally lost 20% of my pay in a job?
Q: If I lost 21% of my pay, plus other previous pay cuts, plus reductions in benefits, plus work rule changes, plus no more job security, would I be able to sustain something like a high standard and provide a similar quality of...

I was in a .com job when that all went to hell, and took a 15% cash and other benefit cut, so I'd say that's in a similar position. It was a small company, so there was a different environment in that we all knew each other and knew we'd all have to keep working together if we wanted to keep a job. We increased our hours and decreased our pay.

If someone couldn't keep up with the new level, then we had to talk to them and see if they wanted to work somewhere else. It was a tight situation for a while, and there were a number of people that we had to let go because they couldn't keep up to standards. At the end of it, we'd cut the total employment by just over half.

Since then we've been able to recover and do reasonably well, and just recently got our first raises in quite a while. If I'd decided I didn't want to take the chance and pay cut and longer hours, I could leave and go somewhere else. I think the current employees have to figure that out, and if they don't work with the management structure (and vice-versa) then they're just going to make the problems worse. (I currently think that none of them are interested in working with each other and they just want to argue and issue press releases.)

I think I would be on a direct line to Chris, Deb, etc. .......
No need to call. Trust me on this one.

Before we say the person should be fired, we should ask ourselves some questions such as:
Q: Have I ever personally lost 20% of my pay in a job?
Q: If I lost 21% of my pay, plus other previous pay cuts, plus reductions in benefits, plus work rule changes, plus no more job security, would I be able to sustain something like a high standard and provide a similar quality of


No, we should not ask ourselves those questions. They are completely irrelevant to the situation.

It is completely understandable that the employees of US are frustrated, tired, feeling put down, and every other bad thing imaginable ... BUT

You do not take these feelings out on your customers. Reactions like this are worse than just plain silly, they are damaging. Enough of them and the 80% of pay you get today will very soon be 0%.

If the employees do not feel they are being justly compensated at their current job, they should try to find employment elsewhere that will pay them what they believe they are worth. And if they can't, then either accept that and make the best of it or else move on.

There is no good that could come from an attitude like this.

While nobody would "like" to hear this announcement, especially if your waiting for baggage, I am not surprised that something like this happened.
...
I have a neighbor that works at the airport, and they report moral very low at US, and that the employees are just wating for the day to come when they are told they have no job/to clean out their locker.
...
Before we say the person should be fired, we should ask ourselves some questions such as:
Q: Have I ever personally lost 20% of my pay in a job?
Q: If I lost 21% of my pay, plus other previous pay cuts, plus reductions in benefits, plus work rule changes, plus no more job security, would I be able to sustain something like a high standard and provide a similar quality ...


well, i have been in this sort of situation before... and, yes, morale was low, and, yes, there were lots of unpleasant, unkind, and downright rude comments made... but NOT in front of the customers! and it was not easy to hold the tongue still sometimes!

as to whether the person should be dismissed or simply reprimanded in some way depends on a lot of things, including length and quality of service record and extenuating circumstances (maybe they thought the mic was off!)... someone should look into it, of course.

clearly, the person needs to know that this is NOT acceptable and is NOT to be repeated... but, really, the actual handling of the baggage is more important than the announcement... and good maintenance and alert pilots and professionalism at security checkpoints and reservation systems that work well are all more important.

we all get frustrated at times when travelling, on both sides of the counter... given what they have had to work with, the US employees have done really well and kept their spirits up admirably... which is why i am not inclined to "fire" someone for one harmless but annoying P.A. announcement... unless it is clear that there is a pattern and it is not going to get any better!

and, for the record, operations at PHL have had some problems for a long time... i don't know why, but it would be nice to see them improve!
i am guessing that it is more on the port authority layer than the airline
layer that those problems exist, although i may be misunderstanding how things are organized....

What is the excuse they would give to these long waits prior to the pay cuts???

:mad: :mad: :mad:

US Airways at PHL is the worst for receiving your luggage and this has nothing to do with pay cuts, this has been going on for years!!!

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Bobinspain is correct and I am waiting for someone to address the long standing issue in Philadelphia. I am in the Tech field and we have been hit by major layoffs, salary cuts and freezes. We would never put our feelings in front of the customer. This is typical of Philadelphia unions - they enjoy putting their member on the unemployment line. :mad: I feel sorry for the sheep that are members of these unions. This is just the latest excuse. With US changing to rolling schedule, they might have to actually work more, no long down times... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I was afraid that things like this would start to happen. In a US focus city an employee was heard to use the "21% excuse" in not wanting to look up a customer's DM number!

Come on folks: It's not the customers fault!!

Stupid, juvenile remarks like this only help make things worse.

Lets just hope that these situations remain few and far between. THe vast majority of US employees have continued to carry on.

And I will say that the words of support and empathy that have been expressed by customers mean a great deal indeed.!

Wait till Christmas. I am sure employees will put their families first over the company. I predict chaos unfortunately.

Come on folks: It's not the customers fault!!

...

Lets just hope that these situations remain few and far between. THe vast majority of US employees have continued to carry on.

And I will say that the words of support and empathy that have been expressed by customers mean a great deal indeed.!

^ ^ ^ I have had great experiences with US employees as of late. I still think they are among the best in the industry! I continue to book US flights in hopes they make a speedy recovery :)

-Chris

Put PhillyFive and the family in the "front line folks still are the best" category.

In the last week or so - we returned from a Europe run (767 - nearly empty Envoy), had 4 tickets to the Caribbean which needed repricing and credit vouchers issued, and rearranged a planned trip in a few days to Grand Cayman (US is not flying due to IVAN damage).

All were fine experiences, with the customer contact people working hard and in good spirits, despite the pressure they must all feel, to take care of everything - and always asking if there was anything else they could do....

The bad experience is still the exception in my book..... :)

Once you have some standard of living or something then it is very difficult to go back. If you have never had it, then it is easier. Like if you've always made $.50 a day, then you aren't going to miss making $50,000 a year.

This is one reason perhaps why Southwest or JetBlue employees are said to be happy, etc. Perhaps many of them never worked for an old line legacy carrier that had better benefits, pay, and work rules. So they don't miss it because they didn't have it.

Iad.


MOst of your post is right on JS, but WN and B6 have benefits and pay as good as or better the legacies. As far as the work rules go, I thnk that many
legacy employees (if not their unions) would welcome more flexible work rules if they resulted in better pay and more secure employment.

MOst of your post is right on JS, but WN and B6 have benefits and pay as good as or better the legacies. As far as the work rules go, I thnk that many
legacy employees (if not their unions) would welcome more flexible work rules if they resulted in better pay and more secure employment.

There is one BIG difference to WN and B6 though: They are profitable....