calfo
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2001
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- 204
Item 2: Management Can’t Stand Heat—Removes Kitchen
In another appropriately desperate maneuver from a management team completely void of compassion, heart, imagination, and ideas, the order has been given: all union publications will be removed from our crew rooms.
You might think we’d be outraged by such a naked abuse by our managers—but wait: do we need any other indication that we are sinking management’s ship? That they are threatened by our union comm? That they see us gaining the upper hand?
As history teaches us, the first thing any nascent dictatorship does is take over the means of mass communications. So now, instead of being able to read something of actual value like The LEC TImes, our pilots will be treated to “Comm One Starring Fred Abbott” aka “Flying the Desk: Volume I through Volume XXXXIV”.
Do not think of this as a set-back; think of this as the amazing victory over management that it truly is. Believe us, this is just one of many victories for us to come.
Now, along similar lines, we find it odd (not really) that while management has found the time to clean the filthy union publications from the crew rooms, the filthy crew room itself in EWR remains, um, filthy. Yes, there are a couple of new recliners still with the tags attached to remind us how new they are, but the carpet is still putrid, the men’s room (2/3rds of us have not been in the ladies’ room) is still fetid, the existing furniture is covered with a variety of stains ranging from old mustard, to dried drool, to we-don’t-want-to-know-what-that-is-but-it-sure-is-a-weird-color. That plus the, um, aroma that has lingered so long it should be arrested for vagrancy.
When Fred Abbott and his entourage made their way to EWR a couple of months ago, he was grilled about the conditions in the EWR crew room as compared to those in the what used to be the more management-friendly confines of IAH and CLE. CLE has roughly the same size crew room as EWR with about 20% of the pilots as EWR, it is pristinely clean with new furnishings, carpeting and paint, and has an elevator so the pilots do not have to leave their bags unattended in the WX room. IAH has rows upon rows of comfy chairs and a men’s room (2/3rds of us have not been in the ladies’ room) large enough to serve the 1st Cavalry Regiment (and their horses)—and it’s a clean latrine. Oh, they have an elevator, too. And an escalator. And maybe valet service.
Apparently, management thinks cramped and filthy accommodations are good enough for our EWR pilots. Apparently the EWR chief pilot’s office thinks so, too. Of course, they don’t have to hang out there—they can hide in their offices. Let this serve as our notice that these accommodations are not acceptable and remind Fred (both of them) of their half-hearted commitment to fix the problem.
Item 3: Subtlety Once Again Evades Management
Following closely on the heels of our plea to all pilots to bid all vacation comes this glinting gem from our Management Department of Subtle-As-a-Brick-to-the-Head:
Those of our pilots who attempted to do the right thing in bidding all of their vacation were faced with this ominous-looking WARNING:
WARNING: You have chosen to set your yearly vacation election to 35 days for the 2010 vacation year. No days will be available to you as Monthly Bid Vacation.
Are you sure you want to continue?
OK / Cancel
Uh, yeah, we want to continue. We especially want to continue knowing, as we do, that there is never any Monthly Bid Vacation to bid anyway, especially in any month we would want to bid vacation.
We also liked the little touch, and we do mean little, of creating the OK button in a font so small that it you need Windows Magnifier For the Nearly Blind to find it. Especially after the BIG WARNING.
While it’s not terribly disheartening that management keeps trying to create petty and annoying hurdles like this, what is disheartening is knowing that someone in management is actually getting paid to come up with them.
Another fine product from Lame-O! If it’s really obvious, it’s Lame-O!
Item 4: Thank You, Station Managers Everywhere. Just a Reminder: We Could Do It Without You—But You Couldn’t Do It Without Us
This comes from our EWR Grievance Committee. As you can see, the erosion of Captain’s Authority continues unabated with the help of those who have never been a pilot and those who used to be “just a pilot”:
“I’ve been coordinating in the office for a week on behalf of Captain X and have not had an opportunity to put pen to paper. Captain X did a [Florida] turn a little over a week ago and upon arrival there were significant delays returning to EWR. As some of you may know, some station managers indicate they “own” the aircraft while it’s at the gate and that was actually reiterated to me on the phone by [an ACP]. I’d suggest the station manage the boarding process, fueling, catering, you name it and when you want to give us the plane back, call me, I’ll be in the restaurant. This is an attempt to infringe upon the Captain’s authority and we don’t need to accept it and we need to let management know if that’s how they want to play, we can play that way, i.e. I sure hope the station manager has time to manage all the things required to get off the gate at push time and I’ll be in the seat 20 minutes prior to whenever you’ve told me that I can have my aircraft back.
“Captain X initially told the station that he’d like to get boarded up and push close to on time, hoping the delays would get better, however, the station manager did not agree. As we all know, this works often enough to justify doing it and if you are a turn guy, which I am and Captain X is, you know when this is a good idea and when it’s not. All of that would have probably gone unnoticed to management, however when the station closed the door to push the aircraft, they broke something and now they were on a mechanical and it was a significant fix and a wait for parts. Based upon Captain X’s calculations, they were going to wind up flying into the morning around 5 – 6 am, and he let the station manager know at 6 pm that was not going to happen – he didn’t see himself landing anywhere 12 hours from that point in time. We don’t forecast fatigue, but essentially, when you are faced with reality of flying into the morning; one could easily assume that you could say I can’t see myself doing that.
“There was discussion about taking a [famous sports team’s] charter aircraft and letting the company replace it, which they would not. Finally the flight equipment subbed with a B737 and the passengers continued—at least that’s my understanding of the events. At this point they reassigned Captain X and his FO to ferry the broke aircraft, once fixed, to IAH. He was told the parts would arrive after midnight and the ETD would be 0200, which is when he asked his FO if he was up for that and the FO replied, “I got up early this morning with babies at home and planned on a FL turn, my answer is - I don’t think so”, at which point, Captain X said he felt the same way, so they indicated they were too fatigued to continue on the present reassignment, get them a hotel and they’ll do it in the morning. That’s what happened and the aircraft was fixed at 0145 and ferried in the morning to IAH, arriving within a few hours that it would have originally arrived, with a rested crew that continued home to EWR via a DH.
“At this point the issue has been resolved with Captain X and the office as far as what transpired and there should not be any more issues that arise. However, Captain X and the FO have yet to be paid fully for the pairing and I’ve instructed Captain X to talk to [his ACP] and if he meets with resistance, we will roll in with a grievance and take issue with this from the moment the station manager assumed command of the aircraft. I told Captain X that fatigue calls are paid on a case by case basis and in this case it’s reasonable to assume that you set out for a simple Florida turn and all of a sudden the best staffed airline wanted you to fly all night to position an aircraft in IAH and then DH back to EWR at some point in your career. I told him he has the full support of the union. Once again, I think Captain X’s specific issues have been resolved, but the larger issues remain – comments about who is in command of the aircraft when it’s at the gate and if they don’t get their full pay, we’ll file a Level One grievance.”
Item 5: In the, “It’s Good to be the King” Department…
Bethune Gets A Deal From Madoff Victim
by William Heuslein, 06.29.09, 10:23 PM EDT
Former Continental Airlines chief nabs Manhattan apartment at a discount from widow of friend of fraudster.
Gordon M. Bethune, the retired chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines, has purchased a Manhattan apartment in the landmark Beresford co-op from Bernard Madoff victim Anne Strickland Squadron. The sale price: $5.88 million.
On the day that Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the largest Ponzi scheme in history, newly available public filings show that Bethune recently paid $5,882,500--all in cash--for Squadron's three-bedroom apartment, which has views of Central Park on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Bethune got a 26% discount from the original asking price of $7.95 million for the third-floor unit, which the widow bought in 2002.
And here we thought that our managers, former and current, only did this to the employees.
In another appropriately desperate maneuver from a management team completely void of compassion, heart, imagination, and ideas, the order has been given: all union publications will be removed from our crew rooms.
You might think we’d be outraged by such a naked abuse by our managers—but wait: do we need any other indication that we are sinking management’s ship? That they are threatened by our union comm? That they see us gaining the upper hand?
As history teaches us, the first thing any nascent dictatorship does is take over the means of mass communications. So now, instead of being able to read something of actual value like The LEC TImes, our pilots will be treated to “Comm One Starring Fred Abbott” aka “Flying the Desk: Volume I through Volume XXXXIV”.
Do not think of this as a set-back; think of this as the amazing victory over management that it truly is. Believe us, this is just one of many victories for us to come.
Now, along similar lines, we find it odd (not really) that while management has found the time to clean the filthy union publications from the crew rooms, the filthy crew room itself in EWR remains, um, filthy. Yes, there are a couple of new recliners still with the tags attached to remind us how new they are, but the carpet is still putrid, the men’s room (2/3rds of us have not been in the ladies’ room) is still fetid, the existing furniture is covered with a variety of stains ranging from old mustard, to dried drool, to we-don’t-want-to-know-what-that-is-but-it-sure-is-a-weird-color. That plus the, um, aroma that has lingered so long it should be arrested for vagrancy.
When Fred Abbott and his entourage made their way to EWR a couple of months ago, he was grilled about the conditions in the EWR crew room as compared to those in the what used to be the more management-friendly confines of IAH and CLE. CLE has roughly the same size crew room as EWR with about 20% of the pilots as EWR, it is pristinely clean with new furnishings, carpeting and paint, and has an elevator so the pilots do not have to leave their bags unattended in the WX room. IAH has rows upon rows of comfy chairs and a men’s room (2/3rds of us have not been in the ladies’ room) large enough to serve the 1st Cavalry Regiment (and their horses)—and it’s a clean latrine. Oh, they have an elevator, too. And an escalator. And maybe valet service.
Apparently, management thinks cramped and filthy accommodations are good enough for our EWR pilots. Apparently the EWR chief pilot’s office thinks so, too. Of course, they don’t have to hang out there—they can hide in their offices. Let this serve as our notice that these accommodations are not acceptable and remind Fred (both of them) of their half-hearted commitment to fix the problem.
Item 3: Subtlety Once Again Evades Management
Following closely on the heels of our plea to all pilots to bid all vacation comes this glinting gem from our Management Department of Subtle-As-a-Brick-to-the-Head:
Those of our pilots who attempted to do the right thing in bidding all of their vacation were faced with this ominous-looking WARNING:
WARNING: You have chosen to set your yearly vacation election to 35 days for the 2010 vacation year. No days will be available to you as Monthly Bid Vacation.
Are you sure you want to continue?
OK / Cancel
Uh, yeah, we want to continue. We especially want to continue knowing, as we do, that there is never any Monthly Bid Vacation to bid anyway, especially in any month we would want to bid vacation.
We also liked the little touch, and we do mean little, of creating the OK button in a font so small that it you need Windows Magnifier For the Nearly Blind to find it. Especially after the BIG WARNING.
While it’s not terribly disheartening that management keeps trying to create petty and annoying hurdles like this, what is disheartening is knowing that someone in management is actually getting paid to come up with them.
Another fine product from Lame-O! If it’s really obvious, it’s Lame-O!
Item 4: Thank You, Station Managers Everywhere. Just a Reminder: We Could Do It Without You—But You Couldn’t Do It Without Us
This comes from our EWR Grievance Committee. As you can see, the erosion of Captain’s Authority continues unabated with the help of those who have never been a pilot and those who used to be “just a pilot”:
“I’ve been coordinating in the office for a week on behalf of Captain X and have not had an opportunity to put pen to paper. Captain X did a [Florida] turn a little over a week ago and upon arrival there were significant delays returning to EWR. As some of you may know, some station managers indicate they “own” the aircraft while it’s at the gate and that was actually reiterated to me on the phone by [an ACP]. I’d suggest the station manage the boarding process, fueling, catering, you name it and when you want to give us the plane back, call me, I’ll be in the restaurant. This is an attempt to infringe upon the Captain’s authority and we don’t need to accept it and we need to let management know if that’s how they want to play, we can play that way, i.e. I sure hope the station manager has time to manage all the things required to get off the gate at push time and I’ll be in the seat 20 minutes prior to whenever you’ve told me that I can have my aircraft back.
“Captain X initially told the station that he’d like to get boarded up and push close to on time, hoping the delays would get better, however, the station manager did not agree. As we all know, this works often enough to justify doing it and if you are a turn guy, which I am and Captain X is, you know when this is a good idea and when it’s not. All of that would have probably gone unnoticed to management, however when the station closed the door to push the aircraft, they broke something and now they were on a mechanical and it was a significant fix and a wait for parts. Based upon Captain X’s calculations, they were going to wind up flying into the morning around 5 – 6 am, and he let the station manager know at 6 pm that was not going to happen – he didn’t see himself landing anywhere 12 hours from that point in time. We don’t forecast fatigue, but essentially, when you are faced with reality of flying into the morning; one could easily assume that you could say I can’t see myself doing that.
“There was discussion about taking a [famous sports team’s] charter aircraft and letting the company replace it, which they would not. Finally the flight equipment subbed with a B737 and the passengers continued—at least that’s my understanding of the events. At this point they reassigned Captain X and his FO to ferry the broke aircraft, once fixed, to IAH. He was told the parts would arrive after midnight and the ETD would be 0200, which is when he asked his FO if he was up for that and the FO replied, “I got up early this morning with babies at home and planned on a FL turn, my answer is - I don’t think so”, at which point, Captain X said he felt the same way, so they indicated they were too fatigued to continue on the present reassignment, get them a hotel and they’ll do it in the morning. That’s what happened and the aircraft was fixed at 0145 and ferried in the morning to IAH, arriving within a few hours that it would have originally arrived, with a rested crew that continued home to EWR via a DH.
“At this point the issue has been resolved with Captain X and the office as far as what transpired and there should not be any more issues that arise. However, Captain X and the FO have yet to be paid fully for the pairing and I’ve instructed Captain X to talk to [his ACP] and if he meets with resistance, we will roll in with a grievance and take issue with this from the moment the station manager assumed command of the aircraft. I told Captain X that fatigue calls are paid on a case by case basis and in this case it’s reasonable to assume that you set out for a simple Florida turn and all of a sudden the best staffed airline wanted you to fly all night to position an aircraft in IAH and then DH back to EWR at some point in your career. I told him he has the full support of the union. Once again, I think Captain X’s specific issues have been resolved, but the larger issues remain – comments about who is in command of the aircraft when it’s at the gate and if they don’t get their full pay, we’ll file a Level One grievance.”
Item 5: In the, “It’s Good to be the King” Department…
Bethune Gets A Deal From Madoff Victim
by William Heuslein, 06.29.09, 10:23 PM EDT
Former Continental Airlines chief nabs Manhattan apartment at a discount from widow of friend of fraudster.
Gordon M. Bethune, the retired chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines, has purchased a Manhattan apartment in the landmark Beresford co-op from Bernard Madoff victim Anne Strickland Squadron. The sale price: $5.88 million.
On the day that Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the largest Ponzi scheme in history, newly available public filings show that Bethune recently paid $5,882,500--all in cash--for Squadron's three-bedroom apartment, which has views of Central Park on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Bethune got a 26% discount from the original asking price of $7.95 million for the third-floor unit, which the widow bought in 2002.
And here we thought that our managers, former and current, only did this to the employees.