Originally Posted by
Blumie
I've had that happen, too. And maybe some members of the ground crew were on break at that time. But that's very different than having to wait while one particular ground crew team is having lunch.
IMHO, this is AA's fault, not the ground crews. AA knows the term of its contract with its unions. It's their responsibility to have adequate staffing available.
Perhaps somebody knows specifics - but on a recent JFK-CDG flight part of the delay was that after one delay, we were told that the shifts for the ground crews that operate the tugs, etc was changing and the new ground crew wasn't ready yet. The captain - who was upset about it - attributed it to lower staffing levels - that there used to be let's say a ground crew - or crews who were assigned overtime to keep things running. Now, it is simply sit and wait until the new crew is on. The other thing he mentioned - and I know information like this from the crews are suspect - which is why i didn't post it before, was that shifts according to the pilot "interlocked," so that maybe one shift started 15-30 minutes before the other ended, providing ample time to ensure flights weren't delayed. Perhaps some of the AA pilots or ex-AAers can comment on what of this is true or if this is a new thing.