jsloan

{H}ow many Toro or Levi's employees do you deal with on a regular basis? The majority of the people on this board deal with UA employees regularly (once or twice a week for some, once or twice a year for others, but still, regularly). It is much better for me, personally, if UA employees enjoy their jobs; happy workers provide better service.

FlyngSvyr

Sell it and pocket the cash. That is what happens with many raffles when it is a high dollar item.

I was involved with youth group that raffled off cars for several years. Half the winners kept the car & half sold them for the $$$.

radiowell

It seems that Kirby has not made himself available to public whenever PR disaster hits. It was the same at HP/US. Let’s take a couple of well publicized UA PR fiascos during his tenure, Dao and Jackson-Lee. I haven’t heard a peep from him, save for this internal memo (actually had to google)

warrenw

Wow... Glad I don't work for UA.

BBFstAir

This is saving the company approx 18mil a qtr. When we make all 3 metrics we get $350 X 85,000 emp =29mil & change....new program will only award a total of 4.5mil per qtr & only 1361 employees will win something. Everyone else gets the shaft

BBFstAir

mh3265a

Kirby has to go but the Board wants him to stay given that deal worked out when Munoz was recovering from his heart attack. Talk about a slap in the face to employees. Basically, work hard, go above and beyond for the *CHANCE* to get some benefit. Absolutely crazy.

topman

Posted on change.org
https://www.change.org/p/oscar-munoz...share_petition

Dear United Management Team:


First of all, thank you for all that you do. While we appreciate your work, we have some concerns. Some of my colleagues and I are feeling some frustration recently, after the recent (and quite frankly egregious) alteration to our quarterly on-time bonus program and everything leading up to it.

First we signed a contract and they didn't offer retro pay or a signing bonus. Shortly after signing our contract, they announced the hiring of Scott Kirby and gave him a generous signing bonus, and bragged about how wonderful it is to have him on board. We rolled our eyes a little, but kept doing our jobs with a smile.

Next we were introduced to the "quick turn", and we got reprimanded for complying with Scott's fantastic new speedy-boarding ideal, and boarded the plane in 22 minutes, beating the 35 minute mark. But we still had a "documented conversation", because that wasn't good enough. It's not the weather's fault. It's the frontline worker's fault that the plane pushed late. Nevermind the fact that we could barely board the plane when there were bar carts and cleaners and bags of garbage blocking our way. We still did our jobs. And we did our jobs quickly. And we still smiled.

After that, they implemented a "point system" that restricted our flexibility with sick calls. We still do our jobs.
(And for that matter, we probably do our jobs when we aren't feeling great, because we can't afford to accrue points. And now, we need to not be sick in order to be eligible for the new awards program. This is disconcerting. Flu season is in full force and we do see colleagues coming to work sick already, when they should be at home in bed.)

We watched our industry friends at Jet Blue, Southwest, American, Alaska, and Virgin America get $1000 tax cut bonuses. When we questioned why we too can't have them we were told "United already had a tax break". Oh yeah? So did American. Why did *they*get the bonus? Because they care about their employees? That's why. Novel idea.

Then we saw a low profit-sharing percentage, which made us feel precisely like Clark Griswald felt when awarded the jelly of the month club membership. We made quadruple that amount 3 years ago in profit sharing. But we still keep coming to work and doing our jobs.

We are watching them strip amenities domestically, dispose of our galley and our workspace on the 757, remove lavatories, and add seats, creating more passengers and less room to move. But we still do our service with a smile and a friendly way about us. Internationally we received a memo stating that staffing would be reduced to match our competitors. We have been working off of two different contracts for well over a year and it is not only confusing, but inevitably frustrating not knowing what has and has not yet been implemented. On the legacy-CO side of the contract, we are working without duty rigs that our colleagues receive. Also, if we are not at top-out pay, on the co-side, we receive our raises a month behind our colleagues with the same seniority. (We get ours the date we came online; they get theirs the date they started training.)

We watched an optional program "bonus bucks" become a mandatory program. We now announce and pedal card membership through the aisle. And we do it with a smile. The cheapened domestic plane has never felt so cheap, as we push this credit card on unsuspecting customers, who really don't want to be bothered.


Last, they took away our quarterly incentive bonuses, and changed it to a deplorable new system that only rewards an elite few. (No surprise, since they are good at only awarding an "elite few"- aka the upper management, and not the entire population of frontline workers.)

Above all, we are still grateful to have jobs, and we still somehow manage to squeak by with this company. We do a thankless job. We cheerfully greet our customers, without so much as a response. We assist a nervous flyer who has never stepped foot on a plane before. We hold the hand of an unaccompanied minor, deplaning to meet his estranged family. We cry with the "Make a Wish Foundation" children, eagerly flying to MCO to fulfill their dreams. We walk an elderly couple to their next gate.......yet, our paychecks are wrong lately, and we wait for months, we go through red-tape, we are handed off to multiple departments, sent on a wild goose chase, to find out where our missing money is.

For many of us, caring for customers is innate. We back up the company, we learn and we promote and we follow United's values. We do what we can to appease the management and do our jobs adequately (and beyond). Most of us have a background in customer service. We come from caring professions. Nurses, counselors, teachers, and even clergy. We do what they want us to do. We stand behind United. It is disappointing and quite frankly, downright disgusting that our caring for the company is not reciprocal.

Thank you very much for taking our concerns seriously and for reading this letter.


Sincerely,

United Airlines Flight Attendants



Writen by Laurie Vesalo, the voice behind all who have signed.

Updates

1. Deleting Petition
   
   I was told to take down this petition. Great job everyone but I’m sorry.

SPLITTERZ

Great post, and you got all of United's Inflight group to sign on this? Great job!

It's not all doom and gloom like you make it seem.

username

The feeling I get is that Kriby looked at some of the few customer-friendly and employee-friendly stuff that got implemented the last few years and said "This is not how you run an airline. We have to cut cut cut (and also eventually get rid of Oscar so I can take over)." I guess as long as the short-term numbers work, he is here to stay and make us miserable again.

oopl

I would sign that petition if it was still up.
Shame shame shame on Scott Kirby and Oscar Munoz.

transportprof

There is an adage embraced in some of the world's C suites that unless employees are complaining, you've left too much on the table. Happy employees = wasted resources, in this misguided worldview.

HoustonConsultant

I'm generally not spending much time with Tom at the Levis plant or Bob at the Toro plant.

I spend an inordinate amount of time with United employees providing me service and giving me special service from time to time. Unhappy employees don't generally provide the best service.

username

Sadly, I think they also do this with customers.

FlyingNone

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Over 1200 comments on the employee website, 99.9% really ticked off. Flashbacks of Smisek.