Fred Testa, who ran the Philadelphia International Airport in 1999 and 2000 and now heads the Harrisburg International Airport, admitted that Philadelphia has caused US Airways problems but argued that the company cannot be blamed for that. In fact, Testa claims airport workers have created other headaches for US Airways, perhaps out of frustration at the company's request for more employee concessions. When a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge granted the company's request for a 21 percent, across-the-board pay cut in October, Testa noticed that planes arrived in Harrisburg from Philadelphia with people but no bags. The same thing happened around Thanksgiving, he said.

"It is very well known that the Philadelphia workforce is a tough, tough bunch of cookies," he said. Having run the airport, "I make it a rule not to fly through Philadelphia."

US Airways, concerned about what could happen this weekend in Philadelphia, is asking for employee volunteers to serve as baggage handlers, ramp agents or customer service employees. It has also told union officials representing flight attendants and machinists that "they have a responsibility to make sure their members show up for work and take care of our customers," a company spokesman said.

That goes for operations this weekend at Pittsburgh International, too.

The Findlay-based airport struggled yesterday with more holiday travel issues. Motorists found lines stretching at least the length of a football field as they tried to leave the airport's huge parking complex yesterday morning and early afternoon. One motorist said the line at one point backed up farther, to the airport parking garage.

Grant-Oliver Parking, which runs the parking operation, typically has four booths open to motorists to pay their parking fees before leaving the parking lot. When one employee called in sick, that was reduced to three. And as employees started to take lunch breaks, that left only two pay booths open, causing back-ups, said Dave Paga, manager of Grant-Oliver Parking.

JoAnn Jenny, spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, said the problem was exacerbated by the high volume of traffic leaving the airport. Because of delays and cancellations caused by weather, US Airways crew shortages, and computer glitches experienced by Delta subsidiary Comair Christmas weekend, many travelers were just getting here yesterday, she said.

About 600 vehicles left the airport between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. yesterday, and Paga said the lines at most stretched 100 yards. Jenny said motorists who were caught in the traffic tie-up did not have to pay extra for the time they spent waiting. She added Grant-Oliver will have extra staff on duty later this week to handle traffic during the New Year's weekend.

"We expect it to be busy later this week," she said. "We don't expect problems because they will have extra staff."

Philadelphia has to be one of the cities where organized labor has its greatest strength-- MTV's The Real World Philadelphia almost got iced because Viacom used non-union labor to renovate the house. There was also some coverage last year about city improvement programs moving slowly due to the high labor costs. It's the city where Teamsters physically attacked anti-Clinton protesters and dozens of shots were fired at scab bus drivers during a Greyhound strike some years back. I have heard the teachers' and the police unions are also very strong; the extent to which you relate this to the poor performance of Philly public schools or the police department's shielding of bad cops I'm sure will relate to your overall perception of labor-management issues.

And for the obligatory anecdote, I have a friend who used to work for a Philadelphia university-- and suffice to say not exactly a Republican-- who related seeing a middle-aged colleague from another institution physically assaulted by a half dozen workers. The victim's crime was, seeing his booth still had not been set up 15 minutes before the college fair was officially supposed to open, he began moving boxes and setting up equipment himself-- apparently infringing on the convention center's union rules.

This is not to paint all Philly union members as goons by any means, but in this kind of city-- where even unions for medical doctors exist-- the handful of malcontents whose shenanigans contributed to the Christmas weekend chaos are in the position of power, not USAirways or any other employer.

The most humourous part of the article was that the former director of the Philadelphia airport will not fly through it. What chance do us peons have?

The full article is at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04364/433992.stm

I was looking just now to see if anyone had posted the excerpt to today's PG article (re: Philly staff tough cookies). Its an interesting read and worth seeing in full.

Anyway the reason I was checking to see if it had been posted is that I found it really ironic that there was a quote from the former manager of the PHL airport saying "he makes it a rule not to fly through PHL". I dont know what better source to use to justify such an action. Kinda like the CEO of McDonald's saying you should be careful eating their food because it will give you a heart attack.

So funny question - how many airlines serve Harrisburg (where he currently works) and does US fly anywhere other than PHL from there? Just trying to figure out if our friend Fred can actually fly anywhere ;)

MDT has service to PIT and CLT on US as well.

Anyway the reason I was checking to see if it had been posted is that I found it really ironic that there was a quote from the former manager of the PHL airport saying "he makes it a rule not to fly through PHL". I dont know what better source to use to justify such an action.

Or it could be that he has other reasons for avoiding PHL -- he left under the cloud of scandal...

Or it could be that he has other reasons for avoiding PHL -- he left under the cloud of scandal...

IIRC, after he was fired by Mayor Street (after a short tenure as Director) he was immediately escorted from the Airport by the police. He's probably not even welcomed back into PHL...

IIRC, after he was fired by Mayor Street (after a short tenure as Director) he was immediately escorted from the Airport by the police. He's probably not even welcomed back into PHL...

That may be true, but Mayor Street isn't exactly the poster boy for honesty and integrity. His administration has had plenty of problems, corruption accusations, etc.

That may be true, but Mayor Street isn't exactly the poster boy for honesty and integrity. His administration has had plenty of problems, corruption accusations, etc.

Quite true. The city of PHL has a role to play in this meltdown too. Like the TSA in PHL the city is using US' problems as cover for more than just a little of their own ineptitude.

And for the obligatory anecdote, I have a friend who used to work for a Philadelphia university-- and suffice to say not exactly a Republican-- who related seeing a middle-aged colleague from another institution physically assaulted by a half dozen workers. The victim's crime was, seeing his booth still had not been set up 15 minutes before the college fair was officially supposed to open, he began moving boxes and setting up equipment himself-- apparently infringing on the convention center's union rules.


Another example why the economy of Pennsylvania has stagnated and is hemoraging population to southern (Right to Work) states.

Philadelphia has to be one of the cities where organized labor has its greatest strength-- MTV's The Real World Philadelphia almost got iced because Viacom used non-union labor to renovate the house. There was also some coverage last year about city improvement programs moving slowly due to the high labor costs. It's the city where Teamsters physically attacked anti-Clinton protesters and dozens of shots were fired at scab bus drivers during a Greyhound strike some years back. I have heard the teachers' and the police unions are also very strong; the extent to which you relate this to the poor performance of Philly public schools or the police department's shielding of bad cops I'm sure will relate to your overall perception of labor-management issues.

And for the obligatory anecdote, I have a friend who used to work for a Philadelphia university-- and suffice to say not exactly a Republican-- who related seeing a middle-aged colleague from another institution physically assaulted by a half dozen workers. The victim's crime was, seeing his booth still had not been set up 15 minutes before the college fair was officially supposed to open, he began moving boxes and setting up equipment himself-- apparently infringing on the convention center's union rules.

This is not to paint all Philly union members as goons by any means, but in this kind of city-- where even unions for medical doctors exist-- the handful of malcontents whose shenanigans contributed to the Christmas weekend chaos are in the position of power, not USAirways or any other employer.

I just wanted to add that unions may be the last real defense for the american worker. Clearly politicians care more for the corporations that the employees, so we can't even count on elected representatives to look out for our interests. Don't be so quick to demonize them.

IIRC, after he was fired by Mayor Street (after a short tenure as Director) he was immediately escorted from the Airport by the police. He's probably not even welcomed back into PHL...

I wondered when I read the article why a guy would leave a job running a major facility such as PHL for........ Harrisburg? This certainly wouldn't qualify as a step up in stature. I guess he avoids PHL because he'd be less than welcomed there. Lucky him!

I just wanted to add that unions may be the last real defense for the american worker. Clearly politicians care more for the corporations that the employees, so we can't even count on elected representatives to look out for our interests. Don't be so quick to demonize them.

I have to disagree and say that self-employment is the last real defense for the american worker. Unions are the last real defense for the american worker with an entitlement mindset.

I just wanted to add that unions may be the last real defense for the american worker.

Agree. Unions are what brought fair labor standards to this country. However, I do feel that unions need to improve with respect to competitiveness and discipline within their ranks. At any rate, the one-sided "blame the unions" and "blame the corporation" arguments about US' demise are just too simplistic and strike me more as political rants.

Every worker is responsible for his or her own success. When unions behave this way, they get their workers believing that management or customers or unfair competition are blamable for their lack of success. This is wrong.

Agree. Unions are what brought fair labor standards to this country. However, I do feel that unions need to improve with respect to competitiveness and discipline within their ranks. At any rate, the one-sided "blame the unions" and "blame the corporation" arguments about US' demise are just too simplistic and strike me more as political rants.

The problem with unions was and still is that their primary purpose is to expand the number of jobs and to protect the members from being fired.

No where had they ever considered the profitability of the company until recent economic times, which is mostly the fault of management.

However, the presence of the union, in their traditional form, tends to lower the performance of the entire group to that of the lowest common denominator.

Workers who are energetic or smart and could get ahead on their own are not so subtly told to dial it back so the rest of the members don't end up looking like bums or laggards in comparison.

The union will fight as hard for the lowest performing member as they will for the highest performing member. There is generally no delineation between workers as far as raises go (except for job classes)---and for the most part, people move up to higher paying jobs based on seniority, not based on skill or demonstrated performance on the job.

I agree that unions were instrumental in getting fair labor laws passed, but the way that a union is structured almost automatically guarantees mediocre job performance at best.

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