Staffplan meeting in Phoenix
April 9, 2009
John Hanson, Pres. CWA Local 1171

The meeting started at 10:00 A.M.  IBT/CWA Passenger Service members attending were: Barbara Tobin, Frank Spencer, John S. Hanson, Velvet Hawthorne, and Dan Smith. From the Company: Suzanne Boda, Donna Palidini, Ron Harbinson, Kerry Hester, and a large group of analysts.

Donna Palidini started the meeting by having everybody introduce themselves (name and positions).  The meeting was taken over by Kerry Hester.

Kerry Hester passed out a Staffplan Overview Customer Service Division dated April 9, 2009.  We went over this, page by page.

We got to the point in the booklet that covered Staffplan Overview.  The Company uses the computer program Staffplan to determine operational staffing needs.  It is also used by Jetblue, CO, NW, AA, Staffplan won awards in 2002.

The Staffplan program takes all mathematical inputs, all the history of many other factors along with all the work group rules to come up with the staffing needs for each station…

The Company used JAX as the city to show how it figured out the staffing in all cities.  It gives the Contract Ratios / Transaction Times (ARE YOU READY) Transaction times 4.6 minutes for domestic ticketing, 5.25 minutes for international ticketing, Kiosk (bag check in only) (best of all) 1.5 minutes.  Maybe it's just me, but these times are unrealistic.  Actual time for these transactions takes 10 minutes for domestic, 12-15 minutes for international, and 5-7 minutes for Kiosk.

There were many different items which came out.  The Company said and showed in the JAX scheduling that they do not have just one person on a departure.  They show one to start then a second to help about boarding time.  I asked about the Regional Directors just flat saying no ten hour days.  The Company said where it could be shown to be effective, it could be done.

That began the topic of the lack of staffing.  Barbara Tobin spoke about PHL and the lack of filling about 200 jobs due to many different reasons.  They are working 31 Domestic gates with only 29 agents.  With statistics like that, "The HOUSE OF CARDS WILL FALL."

Frank Spencer spoke how they are down 13 CSS in DCA and nobody wants the job.  He spoke about the lack of proper scheduling in the station at the gates.  Not enough people all junior people working afternoon with no proper scheduling.  He mentions how there are gates manned, but have no flights for hours.  He stated that there was only one person who does the scheduling correctly.

I think that either there is someone is not passing the correct info to Management, or this is the plan to run short.  With this current plan this summer is already looking like we could have some serious problems.

The Management team said they intended to relook at PHL.  Guess what?  It's toooooo LATE.  Summer is almost here and hiring and training now will give us the people in September with the knowledge they need.

When the meeting was over, it seemed like we were where we left off a year ago.  No progress was made on the part of the Company regarding staffing appropriately where it is needed most.

John S. Hanson

President CWA Local 1171

How to contact your CWA Local

Need to call or email your local?  Here are the email contacts for each CWA local that represents US Airways Passenger service.  Just find your location or State. If you are in a US Airways West city, please contact the IBT at ibtad@attglobal.net  to find out how to contact your IBT local.

CURBSIDE KIOSK LOCATIONS-PLEASE READ
June 2, 2009
IBT/CWA Passenger Service Association

CWA ATO MEMBERS-URGENT-NEED YOUR HELP TO PROTECT OUR WORK!

 

Please do all possible to continuously monitor the curbside kiosks if you have them in your location.

 

We have photos and are filing grievances this week in PHX.  The skycaps/bag-runners have been caught on camera actually handling the customers credit card and punching in the info on the kiosk.  This has been going on there all day. 

 

URGENT-Get pictures-witness statements and have them make copies of the vol. overtime sign up sheet each day this happens so we can grieve this and ask for a remedy-anyone on the vol. overtime list should be named on the remedy.

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 Labor and BOD Committee meeting-April 8, 2009

Attending for the IBT/CWA Association was Velvet Hawthorne, Association Chairperson/CWA Staff Rep. and Dan Smith, Co-Chairperson/IBT International Business Rep.

Doug Parker opened the meeting stating that "There was not much on the agenda for the board to approve at the April 9th meeting. We are in a different revenue environment. We have seen a 20% decline in revenue, yet we are doing better then most of the other legacy carriers since we have less international travel then most of them. Higher percentage of our business is domestic travel, which is helping us. Oil prices are down which offsets some of the ancillary revenue. It has been hard to forecast due to volatility. The employees are doing a fantastic job with the on-time departures, and our baggage handling complaints are down."

Robert Isom stated that "in the 1st quarter we made a great turnaround, but our competition is getting tough."

The IBT/CWA Association raised the following issues during the meeting; Allowing the Short term disability-Colonial life representatives to have access to the membership in the workplace. The company is not interested in allowing them to come into our break rooms to answer questions and hand out information to us so we can make an informed decision enrolling in this plan. This individual STD plan, which was set up through the IBT, since we are not offered one through US Airways, is now going to be offered to both the East and West IBT/CWA Association members. It is being rolled out to the Passenger service employees in the next few weeks. The Company is not interested in getting involved in payroll deduction at this time for the STD payment plan either. The Company did not agree to reverse the decision on giving the insurance reps access inside the workplace. The alternative will be to set up off-site meetings with Colonial Life near our work locations.

We discussed the micro-management of the membership in both reservations and airports. We expressed how the agents constantly feel pressured at work due to on-time performance goals and the need to meet adherence goals. We want to offer the customer better service, which in turn costs us some precious time during our busy day, but we don't want the company to just focus on the on-time issues and the numbers, we feel they are loosing sight of the delicate balance of customer service and a reliable product. We were assured that there are tools being set into place to help us do both, with the gate readers and the new streamlined boarding process they are training us on in the next few weeks.

There was also a request to review the Buddy pass costs since the price of Oil during its peak was the main reason for raising the fees. The final answer was really a conflict between Doug Parker and Scott Kirby. Doug agreed it was solely for the increased costs of Oil and Scott stating the loss of revenue is why they are not lowering the fees now. We don't know if the company will consider changing the rates based on the discussion we had. The other Union reps at the meeting were also interested in seeing those fees lowered.

We also had a response sent to the leadership of the Association on the workbrain issues that were raised in the last labor meeting. A report was sent out to each local leader and a review of the company's response to specific problems will be posted on the cwa.net in the next few days.

A meeting to review the staffing model for the airports was held with the operations and labor managers the following day while we were in Phoenix. Attending that meeting was Barb Tobin, Pres. CWA Local 13301, John Hanson, President, CWA Local 1171, Frank Spencer, Area VP, CWA Local 2252, Dan Smith and Velvet Hawthorne. CWA Local 1171 President John Hanson is composing a report from that meeting and it will be posted on the cwa.net site as soon as it is completed.

 Labor Advisory meeting report - February 4, 2009

I attended this meeting with IBT International rep. Dan Smith, Co-Chair of the IBT/CWA Association, on Wed. Feb. 4Th at 11:00 AM PST in PHX at company headquarters along with the other Union leadership.

Doug Parker , CEO, opened the meeting with some data and comments; "We lost approx 220 million this quarter.  800 Million for the year.  Fuel prices were 1.4 million worse in the past year and we could not pass on the costs to our customers due to the economy being very murky.  We don't like what we are seeing out in the economy.  Our domestic sales look better then our international sales. Other major carriers are hurting in their intl. cargo sales, but we are not experiencing the same right now.  Our revenue picture year over year is declining.  Our employees have done an amazing job overall and we are on the right track.  Demand for travel is way down right now."

Scott Kirby, President, made a few comments "Pricing environment is weak other carriers are running 0 day advance purchase and the low cost carriers are still not raising their fares, despite the losses which causes us to keep our fares down right now."

Daniel Pon- VP of HR had a review of the new HR system.  The Company claims they have tested it many times and the errors are minimal.  They have a payroll ATM card so if there is an issue with getting checks to a location or a mistake on an individuals check, the Company said they can get that corrected in 2 hours or less.  The look of our checks will not change. 

Each union had about 10 mins. to discuss operational problems in our groups.

Dan and I  raised the workbrain issues going on system wide.  We were advised that they are planning on installing workbrain in each location-east and west, in the next month or two. Donna Paladini, Vice President, Airport Customer Service, advised that she would set up a conference call with Dan and I and include the IT person to review the specific problems.  We mentioned the lack of computers for the agents to use to verify their workbrain clock in and out and swaps.  They said we need specific documentation to show them the errors occurring in the different ATO's.  I emailed her to ask her what type of documents we should be able to provide, she has not yet responded to us.  We asked what the IT people have done to fix any of the problems, they did not have any specific answers.

We raised the problems system wide with uniform issues. Part time-upgraded to FT and not being given the FT allowance.  Name tags for the CARS in PIT.  Winter coat back orders.  Suzanne Boda, Senior VP East coast is going to follow up with Camille Soto and get back to me on the answers to these issues. 

Reservations main concern was not having a dedicated General sales dept. in INT once 20% of the calls from Manilla will be routed back to them very soon.  Kerry Hester is going to meet with Vonda Hardy, CWA Local 3640 President, and I in INT RES this Tuesday to further discuss this since she was planning a trip to INT RES this week anyway. Kerry said the company is now willing to allow FT people that want to downgrade to PT to do so very soon.  There have been a few senior agents that requested this almost a year ago and the company, even though they claim we are overstaffed in RES, would not entertain the idea at the time.

PIT Local President, Deb Gula, had many issues and concerns with their operation, bids, admin office hours, health and safety problems, as well as workbrain errors causing discipline.  Suzanne Boda said she would set up a meeting for Deb Gula to meet with the Station manager to work on these problems.  She has sent me an email advising me that she will make sure this is done and the meetings are done in PIT on a regular basis to resolve local issues.  She has emailed me today to tell me she advised the PIT  manager to set these meetings up and get these problems resolved ASAP.

One main issue is the staffing, which we have heard from many of the locations.  Robert Isom has assured Dan and I that he will set up a meeting with us to review the staffing formula, but he did claim we are overstaffed in many locations.  He did not give specifics, but I did tell him of the issues we are having with the on time departures and not having enough agents to work the gates and our folks getting written up due to the lack of agents working gates in many locations.

Frank Spencer, Area VP of CWA Local 2252, sent me some details of the staffing during the inauguration in DC and the mess that the members had to deal with because of poor planning and very little overtime offered in advance.  Robert Isom said he was looking into this and he wanted us to know that they did plan months in advance for the problems, but obviously, their planning was inadequate.  He said he owes Frank Spencer, the area VP an answer to his email about the fiasco there and will follow up very soon.

In Unity,

Velvet Hawthorne

IBT/CWA Association Chairperson