Alpha Golf

Well looks like no one else has posted it so:

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — Northwest Airlines plans to lay off about 120 customer service agents and replace them with skycaps in an effort to save several million dollars a year, a union says.

Northwest plans to have skycaps help its self-service customers check luggage, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, union for both the skycaps and the agents.

The company plans to make the move starting June 1, the union said. It said the move violates its contract and has asked for an arbitration hearing.

Northwest, the nation's fourth-largest airline, plans to hire about 80 skycaps, who make less than $10 an hour helping travelers with their luggage at curbs, union officials said. They would replace agents who make about $20 an hour.

About 50 customer service agents will lose their jobs at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, about 50 in Minneapolis and 15-20 in Memphis, the union said.

"They feel they have been let down and betrayed by Northwest," Robert DePace, president of the union, said on Tuesday.

Currently, Northwest has about 100 skycaps at its three hub airports.

Northwest spokeswoman Mary Stanik said the airline is hiring more skycaps in response to the increased use of self-service devices. She would not comment on the number of layoffs.

DePace said skycaps are paid less in base wages because they get tips. But those workers would not be allowed to take tips at self-service kiosks or behind the ticket counters, DePace said.


ugh.....

bhatnasx

"ugh..." is right. I'm tired of things going towards more automation. I welcome a friendly smile & a knowledgeable employee helping me out. I can understand the push towards the check-in kiosks - but sometimes its easier to deal with a person versus a machine. And often times is better (and more professional) to deal with someone that's is more presentable & more educated & knowledgeable & more comfortable with dealing with paying passengers (no offense to skycaps). I wonder if all these skycaps are going to be satisfied making less money & doing more work & dealing with customers - will NW train them to deal with irrate customers as I've seen quite a few pissed off people in line over the years?

Alpha Golf

I don't mind kiosks. But when I want an agent I want a capable, trained agent.

mot29

Interesting that the skycaps at MSP, DTW, and MEM are NW employees and not employed by an airport service agency.

At ONT, all (I think) the skycaps work for Sierra Aviation and at least one of their jobs is to move bags from the back side of TSA screening back to the airline's belt. (At ONT, you checkin, then bring your own bag to TSA and wait while they screen it, then the skycap brings it back to the airline.)
Sierra also handles NW's bag problems when the ticket counter is closed. There is a sign on the window of the Baggage Service office saying that if the ticket counter is closed, and Sierra employee can get the bag out. Already dealing with irate customers some of the time.

FlyingNone

From what I've read in other newspaper articles about this, the skycaps will be there to assist only with tagging bags. It should be interesting to see what will happen on days with irregular operations (weather, mechanical delays) etc. how the skycaps will be able to fill the shoes of CSA's in rebooking and reaccomodating passengers - something they are not trained to do. What a jumble of confusing direction the passengers will probably get - a total disservice, not to mention the "kick in the face" to the CSA's who need the job.

TRVLRZ

This is just another case of NW not being able to balance both the bottom line and offering a relatively pain free, seamless, value for the $$$ service.

I feel bad for the CSA’s and have always felt they were over-worked and under paid. If people think the lines are bad now, just wait!

When you start replacing your front line personnel with contracted drones who have no apparent vested interest (other than a <$10.00 an hour job) you will get exactly what you are paying for.

thomasrich

Probably right in line with this, I returned to BUF after a week on the road, and while waiting for my checked luggage I noticed the NW baggage claim office locked up and a self service kiosk for tracking lost luggage outside the door. I hate to think that when my bag ends up getting misrouted (which all knows happens from time to time) that I won't even have the opportunity to vent to a real person. Probably just have to crank back and give the darn machine a good kick in the side!

kyushuman

I agree Alpha, but my biggest problem is that (due to more and more codeshares with DL, KL, and CO, along with my Asian address maybe) I don't WANT to see an agent. I'm told by the kiosk at least 50% of the time that I NEED to see an agent. In fact, I am guessing I've been able to check in at a kiosk successfully in the US about 20% of the time. So now I get fewer CSAs to help me because "it's already so automated". But not for me.

This really annoys me--they are ready to move forward into the future of technology WELL BEFORE they have figured out how to deal with the technology! Yuck. When I can actually USE the kiosks 90-95% of the time successfully, I won't mind this.

TRVLRZ

To say that we all feel a little sick to our stomachs over the sight of endless lines at a human-less ticket counter is putting things mildly. What sickens me more, however, is that by taking that extra-long glance at the rest of the ticketing lobby, I am seeing that NWA is the ONLY airline WITHOUT CSAs at the counter. I was non-revving a couple of weeks ago at O'Hare, and all available CSAs were out in front of the counter teaching passengers how to use the very machines that are replacing them, the time it took to process one passenger?..approximately 12-minutes versus the normal 3 to 5 with the human touch.? Why? Yes, of course the obvious...that's its new, blah...blah...blah...BUT what I was witnessing that day was a cluster-f--K of grand proportion...weather closures and oversell, on the last weekend of Spring Break. To anybody who understands our line of work, you can all picture what was happening in your minds...just think of that atmosphere at O'Hare, 7 years ago winter blizzard...it was about the same. The SAD part is, while we weren't the only carrier experiencing the oversells compunded by weather delays....WE WERE THE ONLY AIRLINE WITH JUST KIOSKS to process those passengers affected. Everyone in the terminal was talking about the idiocy of Northwest...the passengers being affected will neer forget...the sight of stranded passengers wandering aimlessly around the O'Hare ticket counter area asking other airlines if they knew where our people haD GONE TO will forever remain imprinted on my mind....this is going to be our turning point downward if we all can't do something to stop this direction management has taken. To say it is the wave of the future is sightless on their part. Perhaps what they don't understand is that kiosks will only perform to about the level that they are at right now...one of convenience for the passenger not the company. To make them convenience for the company and not the passenger is giving passengers just one more HUGE reason not to fly Northwest, and it is not what our competitors are doing. Just take a look at the ticket lobbies on your next layover..look real hard.

This from a AS employee:

At my airport, our counter is next to NW. I was over there chattin' today, and one of your employees showed me a job listing in your computer for "skycaps" @ MSP, DTW, an BNA. The starting pay is like $9.06/hr and "tips are NOT to be accepted"! The agent says that they will all be gone here (SMF) by the end of 2005, leaving just 5 rapmers. WHAT KIND OF CUSTOMER SERVICE IS THAT? What if someone needs to make a change to their ticket, or file a claim for lost bags? This sucks for all NW employees, and I really feel sorry that you guys have to put up with this $#!^. All of us in this lame-assed industry are keeping a close eye on NW, just to see how far management is going to go.

I really like NW, especially when non revving (thanks for first almost all the time BTW), but I just don't think the average NW customer is gonna put up with this kind of stuff. Let's face it, the average age of your pax looks to me to be like 75 or so. Do you really think that they are gonna really use those kiosk machines?

I realize that there are a lot of different personalities on this forum. I also know that each and every one of us has some type of vested interest in NW and it’s employee’s. The approach that NW management is taking is obviously not intended to “enhance” the PAX’s experience. More importantly are the NW employee’s who will be lost when this shuffle goes through. If we all take a moment to send Richard Andersen a e-mail expressing our concerns and displeasures it may/might open his/managements eyes.

wldtrvlr

A link would help so we could read the whole story, but from what you posted it accounts for all 120 at the hub airports. That tells me that there will be an agent available to at least supervise the skycaps. When I went to check in at ORD last week, everything was going wrong in getting to the airport. Problems at the hotel with Check out, extra charges on the rental car bill, bus left, waited for the next one, etc, etc. My Hour ahead of time turned into about 35 minutes. Kiosk told me to see an agent. Four "agents" out helping with Kiosks, me and one other lady checking in, the agent by the kiosk tells me "she" (refering to the first class agent, I am in first class) is busy with someone trying to check in INTL 30 minutes ahead of time. I said 4 of you here and she is the only one that can work a terminal. The First class CSA went to another terminal and checked me in by the deadline.

My point is that today there is one main agent working the computer, usually at the first class counter and the rest are kiosk pushers. I don't think they will go totally to skycaps. I have noticed it at DL also where they have phone banks near the check in counter so if there is a problem you call reservations and they handle it.

TRVLRZ

My daughter used to work for AS and a few years ago introduced me to a site/forum that the airline employee's used very much like this one.
My post was from their forum, nothing official just forum talk. I think that the views and feeling they expressed say it all however.

azj

I think people are not fully understanding what is happening here. Skycaps at the hubs are indeed NW employees. They're eliminating CSA positions and creating Skycap positions. All NW employees, especially CSAs that are probably being affected can bid into those positions. That means you'll still ge thte same knowlegable staff, doing exactly what they were doing before. The only thing is that their job title has changed and they've taken a HUGE paycut. The CSAs that have high enough seniority and aren't being affected by the layoffs will still be there at the counter and at the gates doing exactly what they've been doing. This seems to be tied into the total redesign of the ticket lobbies in MEM, DTW and MSP.

What NW is doing is getting concessions from their agents, without negotiating them. I believe the Skycap position is also within the same union and without section 6 negotiations occuring and the unions unwillingness to open early or open concessionary talks, this is the route NW has chosen to take.

I think it's rather ruthless and definitely a bit on the evil side... But I don't forsee any real changes other than perhaps more personalized e-ticket machine experience. They're not totally doing away with agents, so let's not jump to conclusions. IF you want an agent, you can still visit one at hte coutners.

Perhaps Vegas agent can shed some light, but my above comments are how interpret these moves.


AZJ

thezipper

all I can say is that it really seems to be causing a major cluster... at DCA on sunday and there was like one guy, could tell he was asian and just "not getting it"... after playing around for about 10 min, got some help which caused a 2-3 min check-in to become over 15 min!! ... now mind you they dont have that many kiosks at DCA, so he was holding up the line... and no one else had access to the CSR coz they were helping him. I don't mind using the kiosk, but when I have irreg ops, like on sunday, and need the CSR's help, I EXPECT that they will be able to help me and not be playing "type AX5B93 on the keyboard"... for those who don't fly all that often.

TRVLRZ

So will it be like the porters at hotels checking in guests and the concierge will be the manager on duty?

Seriously though, in all my years of travel I have never used a skycap and have not paid a whole lot of attention to them in the past. One thing is for certain, NW will get what it pays for whether it be a $9.50 an hour skycap or a $17-$20.00 CSA. That in turn will have a effect on us the PAX.

I am in no way trying to demean skycaps. I have however seen the crap that CSA’s receive when flights are canceled, there are delays, PAX needing to be re-booked on other airlines and lost luggage issues. Getting paid $9.50 to catch that kind of heat is scary. What kind of training goes with a $9.50 an hour job? Traditionally the turn over is much greater in lower paying jobs. What incentive will the skycaps have to take on the responsibilities of a position that was formerly paying $17-$20.00 an hour?

azj

Travelrz - read my post. They're not getting rid of CSAs. The Skycaps are NW employees at the hubs. These new "skycaps" are going to be agents in disguise. There will be people around for IROPS!!! Let's not act like airliners.net idiots and jump to conclusions.


AZJ