Covenant Aviation, LLC. is CLEARLY....

 ...unhappy with the number of call outs on Christmas day. Just what type of employees do they think that they  deserve?  They have never displayed any type of appreciation nor respect towards the workforce -- the same workforce that has enabled them to extend a three year contract into one that has just entered its fourteenth year.

Their thinking is, "if we don't open up the vacation time off schedule, everyone will have to be here."  This is just another example of the incompetence of the management team. 

Isn't it better to know well enough in advance so they can prepare for it? Employees will take time off regardless, so why not plan ahead?

But what do we know?

Business As Usual!

It seems that CAS is at it again. Names are being circulated around concerning a position that has not yet been posted and for one that was recently announced.

From the information that was supplied to us, these people are on levels and are management favorites.

When, if ever, will CAS change their ways? We keep hoping that this company will start doing the right thing. But, it doesn't appear to be part of the corporate culture. The sad thing is that it starts at the top.

A sucker born every minute

You may or may not remember a post a month ago outlining exactly what happened with the Assistant Terminal Manager position recently filled by Barbara Alvarenga. Well, we have uncovered some new information on that position.

If what we can gather from this job posting on SFO's web site, then the Floor Supervisors that were dangled that promotion never had a chance. We don't know exactly when the job posting was posted, but the filing deadline was February 12, 2010. If Covenant Aviation Security, i.e. Donnie Filbert, was serious about leaving that position opened to their Floor Supervisors, then why would they have posted this on SFO's and other job websites around the same time they posted it for the Floor Supervisors?

One can only safely assume then, that Covenant Aviation Security never had any intentions of giving that position to their Floor Supervisors. Of course, we already knew this, but this gives us hard evidence of this fact.

We really hope that the Floor Supervisors are content doing the menial work of managers without the pay and title to go along with it.

The original job posting has been saved for posterity just in case SFO takes it down.

A walk down memory lane

People tend to live in the moment. We all generally have short memories as well. But that's where people like us step in. With the re-emergence of Barbara Alvarenga, we figured it would be a good time to refresh or just inform people of some rather recent history.

About a year and a half ago, Covenant Aviation Security posted a job posting for "Certified Assistant Manager." The MIT's at the time, and a handful of supervisors were ultimately cast in that role.

So what was a "Certified Assistant Manager"? Much like the Floor Supervisor, MIT, Jr. Supervisor, Assistant Training Manager, Director of This, Deputy Director of That, it was a Covenant Aviation Security creation. That is, there is officially no such position within TSA.

A "Certified Assistant Manager" was essentially an ATSA (Aviation Transportation Security Act) certified supervisor given a managerial title and all the duties that went along with being a manager. However, in TSA's bureaucratic ways, they busted Covenant Aviation Security for this position while doing one of their audits. Why, you might ask? Well, the problem was that the "Certified Assistant Manager" was listed on the TSA books as an STSO. They were not listed on the books as a manager. What that meant was that TSA was paying for this position out of the same budget that is set aside for all ATSA certified personnel. Where if it was an official Covenant Aviation Security manager, that would have come out of CAS's own budget.

What to do, might you ask? CAS's solution to the problem was simple. They told the "Certified Assistant Managers" at the time that they could either be demoted in title and pay by becoming the CAS created position of Floor Supervisor, or they could find work elsewhere. Naturally, they all gracefully accepted this praise worthy move and gladly accepted the demotion.

Oh, but it gets better. Covenant Aviation Security dangled a promotion in front of these newly designated Floor Supervisors. They dangled the Assistant Terminal Manager promotion to get many of them to take this position. Just in case you did not know, the Floor Supervisors are all salaried STSOs. Not that regular STSOs have a lot of opportunity for overtime, there is at least a chance. These Floor Supervisors have no chance of that. In other words, they have to work actual overtime if their Over Lords deem it necessary without having to pay them overtime rates.

These demotions all took place in November of last year. Lo and behold, in January of this year there was a job posting for Assistant Terminal Manager. The fascinating thing about that job posting was that it was only opened to Floor Supervisors. In this regard, Covenant Aviation Security kept to their word. "Go Floor Supervisor and we'll keep you up there for promotion."

February, March, April, May passed. Nothing. Not a word. Not a peep. Whatever happened to that Assistant Terminal Manager promotion? No one knew. Tick, tock, tick, tock. By now, most everyone had completely forgotten about the promotion. Hell, the Floor Supervisors themselves probably forgot as well.

And then, a little over two weeks ago word leaked out that Barbara Alvarenga was back as the new Assistant Terminal Manager. Well., golly gee willikers! So THAT'S what happened to that promotion! Donnie Filbert brought back his old United Airlines buddy!

The question that remains and should be continued to be asked is why has Filbert been allowed to bring back an absolute incompetent person? Why is Mindy Pengel allowing this?!

We know it might be easy for some of you to dismiss this story because it has to do with STSOs. But we shouldn't be. This is not some atypical thing that Covenant Aviation Security does. This is THEIR Standard Operating Procedure. The lesson to be learned is that if they're willing to do something like this to their STSOs, they're willing to do that and more to the rest of us. And they're wondering why morale is so low?

Overreacting is our game

We got word that if any Officer misses an MPT test bag, that Officer is now off X-ray pending a one hour session of TRX and a half hour talk with a terminal manager. Ok, if this isn't a sign that Covenant is panicking, we don't know what is. The word is that this ever brilliant idea came from the one and only Donnie Filbert. Perhaps this is a reaction to Covenant not getting their contract rubber stamped and only extended.

What we want to know is exactly what that discussion with a terminal manager is going to entail? Every single manager has not been ATSA certified for several years now. So how is someone who never works the X-ray and hasn't been certified for several years going to be able to give guidance to an Officer that fails one of these tests? Frankly, this just reeks of intimidation. In other words, you better perform better or we're going to start threatening you with discipline or worse yet, termination.

Imagine that you do fail one of these tests. You now can no longer operate the X-ray. You then have to go up to the training lab and do an hour of TRX. And then comes the meeting with a terminal manager. You'll get called in to their office. You're afraid of being punished. They start interrogating you as though you're a perp being accused of a crime. How in the hell does that improve anything? How does that make security better? What the hell is a manager going to say to that Officer? WHEN WILL THIS STOP???!!!

Covenant, get your stuff together! The intimidation factor that you have been so reliant on all these years is starting to deteriorate. It's not working and we're not going to sit idly by and let you people get away with it. You may have local TSA in your back pocket, but we're on to you. Enough is enough!

It just gets better and better

Hey, Floor Supervisors! You remember several months ago when you agreed to become a Floor Supervisor with hopes of being an Assistant Terminal Manager? You know, that promotion management dangled in front of you in order to get you to take a salaried position? And do you remember that Assistant Terminal Manager position that was posted back in January? I bet you guys wondered whatever happened to that position, huh?

Does the name Barbara Alvarenga ring any bells? Oh, come on! You remember her! By all accounts, she was a disastrous manager from way back when. She left Covenant Aviation Security years ago to take a job with Good Will. Good for her! Oh wait! You didn't hear? That's right, SHE'S BACK!

Barbara Alvarenga is back and she is our new Assistant Terminal Manager! She will be back starting on Monday in which she will be auditing the next new hire class, presumedly to refresh her on the current SOP and what not.

Every time we think there's nothing Covenant Aviation Security can do to surprise us, they go ahead and find something to get us shaking and scratching our heads about.

And this next message is to all of the TSA and CAS management that read this blog. Let's be clear. This blog is not spreading information that the work force doesn't or won't eventually know about. Just because you, the management, know that we know, doesn't mean that we haven't always known about the things that take place. Trust us, we know. And we almost always find out. But since most of you are so out of touch with what goes on, you keep your heads buried in the sand and only when that hole collapses do you become aware. This blog has just coalesced it in to one easy to find place.