The Case of the Missing Water Cooler!

Mysteriously, a water cooler from the International "A" break room has appeared in Terminal Two. Upon see this during his rounds, an upset Donnie said, "This should not be here." Aren't there more important things to worry about?

Hats off to those who were responsible enough to make the needs of the work force a priority.

Welcome to Our New Director of Strategic Planning

After months and months of searching, the Executive Staff of Covenant Aviation Security at SFO finally found their person. It was difficult to find someone to replace our last Director of Strategic Planning, but they finally succeeded.

Oh silly me! That's right. There never was a "Director of Strategic Planning." Perhaps that's the type of job position that you have to create in order to lure someone back. After all, it's not as though you could terminate one of your untouchable management members. Wait, I guess I shouldn't tell that to Rick Tolentino.

Ok, enough with the teasing. If you don't know already, you're probably wondering just who is this "Director of Strategic Planning." It's none other than...drum roll please.........Jeff Pugh!!! As we have said many times before, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Pugh is already making his presence known by instituting a new punishment...err..rule to our dignified team members that wear the yellow lanyards. Perhaps the termination...dammit...I meant "resignation" of Tolentino, was another way to make his presence known and put a little fear into the other managers. If that is the case, more power to Pugh. God knows these managers with virtual invincibility, need a little bit of fear put into them.

Since the "Director of Strategic Planning" is a member of the executive staff, I guess that means that Pugh usurps Herr Filbert's authority. Now, if Pugh really wants to make his presence known, he could do a lot worse than getting rid of Filbert, Terence Cunningham, Shelley Burrell (ahh, never mind on that one. We all know that will never happen!), Larry Perkins, Russ Mackey, Gerardo Sanchez, Anthony Nguyen, Ryan Yee, Dena Crawford, Allen Morse, Indra Singh, have I forgotten anyone?

Now that Pugh is back, will he be insistent on DFOs? Speaking of DFOs, how do those schedules look for all of you? It kind of sucks knowing that people at checkpoint with less than two years on the job were able to get Fri, Sat, Sun off. I fully admit it was a mistake for any of you guys to stay DFO. Oh well, live and learn. You could always complain to your union rep. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

It should be interesting to see what changes Pugh will make. The big question is what exactly does that title mean? Will he be doing more of the same thing he was doing, prior to his previous departure, except with a fancier title and presumably higher salary? If that is the case, then that raises the next question as to why would they insist on keeping Herr Filbert around? Only time will tell.

To Be or Not to Be?

Well, that is the pressing question for DFOs right now. Herr Filbert sent out a memo stating that they will be inquiring as to whether or not DFOs would like to go back to single function. Apparently they're looking for a certain number to go one way or the other. But the more pressing question is why the change of heart?

For years it was all you ever heard from Jeff Pugh, our dear leader from the former regime: Dual Function this, dual function that. I swear the guy had dreamt sweet nothings whenever the topic of dual function came about. In fact, Pugh stated that as long as he was working at CAS, there would never be another CTX person hired.

Well, as we know by now, about a year and half after Pugh's forced departure, Filbert has a different opinion. I always theorized that the reason Pugh got such an erection about dual functions was because CAS somehow got TSA to pay more for dual functions. When you look at coverage and bodies, it never made any sense to have that many dual functions. So if that theory was correct, why would they have a change of heart all of a sudden? That's anyone's guess. I have my theories, but we can save that for another time.

So now that they're going to finally follow the SOP and require all baggage certified persons to be OSARP trained there is something that our 9000 Specialists need to be concerned about, and that is being out of a job. Well, they won't terminate you, but the need for your specialized position must certainly be in play.

Once they accomplish the training of all baggage certified persons, there will be approximately 200+ that will be OSARP certified. That is in addition to the 50 or so 9000 specialists SFO currently has. If I were a 9000 specialist, I would be looking for another job (hey, shouldn't we all be doing that anyway?) or see if you can somehow manage with an $8 an hour pay cut. And don't look for the union to protect you either. CAS is well within their rights to eliminate a classification. Also, don't forget that this is the last year of our current CBA and negotiations for the next contract will be starting again sometime this year.

Back to the original question of this post. If you're a DFO and considering going single function you do have to weigh some things. Keep in mind that most of the CTX TSOs are plank owners. So unless you're a plank owner yourself, you will be near the bottom of the seniority of the CTX classification. If you opt to go checkpoint, your seniority will certainly increase over time due to the inevitable attrition at checkpoint. Then again, would you really want to stay checkpoint every day where you're treated like children or stay in the bag room where you're treated as an adult? There is a reason why the churn over rate is so much higher at checkpoint than it is in the bag room.

I can't answer the question for you. In all honesty, you're probably better off not going single function for the time being and see how all of this plays out. If CAS gets to a point where they force you to choose, then you will have to weigh your options.

It's too bad that CAS is putting the DFOs through the same chaos that they put the CTX community in for the last couple of years. Keep your chin up, they're liable to change their minds again in another couple of years.

Another Failed Experiment

We've been reporting on the DFO situation for sometime now. The latest news is that DFOs are being offered the chance to go CTX, Checkpoint, or to remain as a DFO. We can't imagine too many DFOs wanting to go up against the CTX seniority, then again, working at the checkpoint is no picnic either.

So the question is this: Is Donnie Filbert eliminating DFOs because of some TSA requirement or is this just his way to separate himself from his predecessor? Since Jeff Pugh got such a hardon whenever DFOs were mentioned, this might be the reason. Or it could simply be because TSA has determined we have too many DFOs. Either way, it is a huge turn of events.

For the longest time, DFOs were the only way to go. Those that had any sense of staffing knew that it really didn't make any sense to have such a large number of DFOs. Covenant Aviation Security's argument has always been that you get more flexibility with DFOs than you do with single function Officers. This argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny when you look at head counts and where help is needed.

For those of you that are a DFO, do you plan on switching or remaining, and why?

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.

One last thing

We just got confirmation that the new hire CTX TSOs will in fact be part time. They will be utilized to fill in the gaps as we previously reported. The bad thing about this is that this will not help the full time CTX TSOs in terms of schedule selection, but it will help for the work load.

There will also be opportunities for full time CTX and DFOs to go part time once the part timers have been hired. This coincides with the recent CAS Infos offering people the opportunity to go part time. This is a 180 from not that long ago when no one could change their full time status.

And as Donnie Filbert has been heard saying about DFOs, "we have filled our quota". This confirms it. So much for Filbert being completely behind the DFO program.

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?

Low morale? What are you talking about?!

Reports are coming in that Gerry Berry has been spotted around SFO. One rumor that is going around is that he is here on the behest of TSA to get to the bottom of why morale is so low. This seems possible, but who really knows. God knows, Berry rarely visits the work location of Covenant Aviation Security's multi-million dollar contract. Let's try to get this low morale thing figured out.

Ok, so first we have the TSA meeting that was about low morale before it wasn't about low morale. Oh wait, it was supposed to be about Engage! and then it got cancelled in favor of some non-controversial topic. Then we had Mindy Pengel doing her own investigation of why morale is low. Perhaps it is time to bring out the big gun of Gerry Berry to get to the bottom of this quagmire.

Donnie Filbert has been making the rounds as well. He's been doing Gerardo Sanchez's job since he's being investigated....errr....on jury duty. Filbert has been trying to make nice while he's been doing this by chatting it up with the work force. Hey, that's fine. No problem with that. Except it seems too little, too late.

So why are all these people that are supposedly so much smarter than the rest of us spending all this time trying to figure out this nagging problem? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that their contract wasn't renewed, instead it was extended for eight months. Oh, which just happens to coincide with the opening of Terminal 2, by the way.

Terminal 2 is scheduled to open April 14. The contract extension was announced on August 11. You do the math. Word has been going around that TSA has not been happy with how Covenant Aviation Security has been handling things lately. The eight months seems to be a "get your act together or else" type of thing.

Management is fond of saying, "don't just bring me problems, bring me solutions." Well, we have some solutions to the problem of the low morale. And it's simple. It's time to clean house.

The first that needs to go is Mindy Pengel. Other than being a figure head, what exactly does she do? Yes, she has to deal with TSA and all the bureaucratic BS that goes along with that. Yet, for someone who not only keeps Donnie Filbert, but also publicly praises the incompetence of his tenure, the question the everyone needs to be asking is why is she here?

Which leads us to the next person that needs to go. In the year or so that Donnie Filbert has been in charge, he has clearly demonstrated he is not up to the task. From the fiasco of the itchy uniforms to the completely screwed up spring bid, he has shown to the work force that he not only is incapable of the job, but he also clearly doesn't care since he rarely interacts with the work force.

The next that needs to go is obviously Gerardo Sanchez. Why this man has kept his job for this long is truly a marvel. How many HR investigations does this man get before it's patently clear that he needs to go?

After you get rid of those three, perhaps the others will have the fear of God put into them and will finally get their crap together. If not, well, there's never any lack of room on the chopping block.

There you have it. An analysis of the problem and a solution to it. What more could you ask for?

Fool me once

The topic of conversation these days seems to be what is going on with the baggage supervisor promotion. The official word from Donnie Filbert is that the interviews concluded just this past week.

Those that are paying attention know that's utter BS. Someone had the guts to ask Mindy Pengel precisely about the promotion. She had the audacity to ask this person if the promotion should be based heavily on things such as attendance, work ethic, etc. or on the interview. Well, duh!

That was when she passed the buck to Filbert who responded that this promotion is going to be his responsibility to see what's going on with it.

Here's the real reason for the delay. Gerardo Sanchez is out of the picture currently. The PR reason for being out is he is back on jury duty. Those that have served on jury duty know this is highly dubious to be called back two or three weeks after supposedly already serving. So that right there is extremely suspect.

The reason Sanchez is out is because he has been suspended pending an HR investigation. Several people have been called in to HR for interviews regarding Sanchez. We don't know exactly the reason for the suspension or investigation we just know that Covenant Aviation Security is trying to keep a tight lid on it.

Of course there are possible numerous reasons for the investigation, since Sanchez has done numerous things over his tenure to warrant it. We will wait and see what happens.

As usual, stay tuned here for the latest info that Covenant Aviation Security doesn't want you to know.

A little less conversation, a little more action please!

Mindy Pengel had two meetings with supervisors Thursday and Friday. Odd, considering that Wednesday would seem more logical since that is the overlap day for most supervisors. Not much was discussed, apparently. And no other managers were there.

The intent was to discuss the low morale at Covenant Aviation Security. Ok, excuse us for patting ourselves on the back a little, but Pengel would need not look any further than this blog to get a sense of why the morale is so low. Why would she limit her scope only to the supervisors? Yes, they certainly have reasons to be pissed (hey, how is that Barbara Alvarenga move working out for you Floor Supervisors), but they're not the only ones by any stretch of the imagination.

Speaking of Alvarenga, look for her welcome back message from Herr Filbert in today's CAS Info. Yeah, she doesn't need to look very far to get a sense, does she? Why has she allowed Donnie Filbert to bring back someone who was an absolute disaster when she was here previously? Especially when there are probably a dozen or so supervisors that could easily fill that position with poise and complete competence.

It's just more of the same crap! The more things change, the more they stay the same. And it seems we're trying to revert back to the original days of chaos and dismay. Woo hoo!

If Pengel truly wanted to get a sense of why morale is low, she'd be talking to us. She'd be asking for our blunt and brutally honest assessment, and she would be prepared for the slings and arrows she'd ultimately receive. But, let's not forget that Pengel is steeped in the law enforcement culture where there is a definite chain of command and those at the top only interact with those at the bottom in a purely superficial way.

So no, we don't think she really wants to know. We don't think she cares. If she cared, she would have fired Filbert four months ago when those bid lines originally came out. Everyone and their brother knew that Filbert's brilliant idea for those schedules in March weren't going to work. Even managers told him they weren't going to work. And what happened? Well, you all know what happened.

So let's go back and ask the poignant question once again: WHAT DOES A MANGER HAVE TO DO IN ORDER TO BE TERMINATED?!

Yikes!

So was that employee appreciation day good for you? Well, we hope that you're not one of the several people that we're getting reports from that are having digestive issues with the oh so tasty hot dogs that Covenant supplied for us yesterday. Take heart! It will pass...literally and figuratively, of course.

It's unfortunate for the Donnie Filbert regime. They just can't seem to get anything right these days, not even something like hot dogs! Perhaps we can be fortunate in that the Filbert regime will eventually pass too.

Promotion news?

Has anyone heard anything about what is going on with promotions? As far as we know no one has been interviewed for the Checkpoint or CTX positions. Mr.Sanchez is on jury duty, so does that mean that the world stops? Is he the only one that will be deciding that it will be "business as usual?" Has anyone in either community heard a word? We keep asking questions, but get no answers. Let's try something new, how about you treating us the way you would expect us to treat you? What a novel idea! Are there any takers? Who will step up and show us that things have changed? Will it be you, Mr Filbert, or you, Mr.Perkins?

"We think we do a great job with training and scheduling"

"Well, you know, we are trained -- and you talked about it, we're trained at same standard operating procedures. We think we do a great job with scheduling and training. Training is our forte, training and experience. We've been able to keep screeners for a long time. We have 600 of the original 1,000 in San Francisco. We're happy with that. It comes down to training and experience. If you can keep your screeners, you will do well." - Gerry Berry, December 28, 2009


Ok, so must we ask the obvious question here? This quote is from Gerry Berry that he gave with David Asman on the Fox News Channel shortly after the Christmas underwear bomber attempt. Asman's segment that night was about the possible unionization of airport TSOs. We'll leave that subject to the rest of you to decide.


What is most interesting is the apparent illusion that Mr. Berry is under that CAS does not a good, but great job with training and scheduling. And where does he get this number that 600 of the original 1,000 are still there? While we don't have any hard numbers in front of us, that seems not very accurate.


Asman goes on to press him about flexibility and judgment calls, something that was started by TSA with Engage! and Coach! about two years ago. Berry gets backed in to a corner and implies that at CAS there really isn't any of that going on.


Ah yes, folks! I really hope that you haven't forgotten about Engage! This was that program that we all went through for two days (four days if you had to attend Coach!) where it was impressed upon us to use our gut and make judgment calls, all for the betterment of security. We all know, though, that CAS doesn't practice that at all. In fact, it's business as usual and quite the opposite. We get someone like Donnie Filbert, who doesn't know the SOP very well, instating procedures that AREN'T SOP, yet claiming they are. We all know that CAS does not allow for any flexibility at all!


We'll avoid getting into the discussion of SOP in specifics since we can not allow any SSI discussion here. But we all know that flexibility is not part of CAS's vocabulary and Berry is even more out of the loop if he really thinks there is.


You can all read the transcript from the original interview here. Skip to page 4 if you want to get to the Gerry Berry interview.

DFOs no longer the bastard step-child?

CORRECTION: Someone correctly reminded me that the last baggage supervisor promotions actually took place in the summer of 2007. There were also two subsequent promotions to supervisor in the BSR, one of which was eventually moved out to the bag room and the other one that happened a year and a half to two years ago. Thanks for the correction!
_______________________________

For several months now, DFOs have been shut out from promotions that weren't DFO specific promotions. DFOs weren't allowed to apply for checkpoint STSO promotions, trainer, BDO, or recruiting positions.

Many will recall during the Jeff Pugh regime, dual function was the only way to go. In fact, when the dual function program first started, more opportunities was a key selling point as to the reason why you should crossover.

That seemed to change with the Filbert regime. DFOs seemed to become the latest of positions that did not curry favor with management. Baggage folks know about this all too well. They've been experiencing it now for almost four  three years. The last baggage promotion, other than CTX 9000 specialist, happened almost four years ago!

Jump ahead to last month when CAS posted promotions for checkpoint supervisor and lead. Once again it seemed that DFOs would be shut out. In fact, a couple of DFOs applied and were sent rejection letters because they were DFOs.

Well, as of today, that has changed. Those individuals that received those rejection letters were called by Larry Perkins today informing them that the company has changed their position on the promotions and that dual functions will in fact be allowed to apply. CAS will be reposting the promotion for dual functions to apply.

Most likely the company didn't voluntarily change their position, it was likely due to outside pressure from the union. If that's the case, it's a good thing all around.

While we do applaud CAS for ultimately doing the right thing, it's just a sad state of things when they couldn't come to this conclusion beforehand.

So if you're a DFO and did not apply before, we strongly recommend that you do now. What's the worse that can happen?

Find Mindy!

Reports are coming in that Mindy Pengel has been MIA for at least three weeks. She's reportedly on vacation but some are starting to wonder if that's really the case. It's also odd that she wasn't at the Labor/Management meeting on June 24th.

So where is she? One can only guess. Perhaps she really is on vacation. But her absence lately is noticeable and seems to be longer than what a normal vacation length would be. Who knows, maybe she'll pop up in the next couple of days to give Donnie Filbert his walking papers? Ahh...one can hope!


UPDATE: We can all rest easy. Someone posted on FB that Mindy has in fact, been spotted on at least three separate occasions last week. She was seen sporting a bright, neon green cast. That might explain why she's been absent for so long.

Minutes from the Labor/Management Meeting on June 24, 2010

Below are the minutes from the Labor/Management meeting that took place on June 24, 2010. And here is the Google Docs link, if you'd like to download and peruse it offline.

Labor/Management Meeting

Not much has come out between the meeting with management and the union.

Gerry Berry did in fact make the meeting. Yet, Mindy Pengel was noticeably absent. She was apparently on vacation. Coincidence??? Donnie Filbert and Lavon Smith were there as well.

From what we've gathered, many of the issues that were raised from last week's meeting were brought up to management. And they are apparently willing to work with the union on many of those issues.

Management did admit that a lot of the problems are because of lack of workers, something they claim they are working on.

I hope CAS and TSA realizes that we're a year to less than a year away from having Terminal 2 open and that they better get working on it now.

To be fair, a lot of the hiring issues is because of TSA's typical government way of doing things. The ability to hire someone is dependent on TSA's bureaucratic policies and thy say when and how many to hire. CAS could alleviate some things by hiring more part time employees, but they're still reliant on TSA's approval.

We'll report more as we hear it.

Rebid problems already?

Early reports are coming in saying that there are already problems with the rebid (big surprise, huh?). Apparently the SCC was begging people to do overtime on Saturday and Sunday. And apparently some of the supervisors from the SCC were already lamenting this rebid. It's also been reported that pier B is short everyday.

We can't say that we're really surprised. It doesn't seem as though they'll ever get this whole scheduling thing figured out. Once again, it's time for management to tell us what exactly they have to do in order to get fired. Here at Security First @ SFO are in agreement with others in stating that it is time for the higher ups to clean house. The first on the chopping block needs to be Donnie Filbert followed by Terence Cunningham.

New Newsletter from the Union

We have to give our kudos to the Union for calling out Covenant managers. First it was Larry "The Hitman" Perkins, now it's Terence "Stone Cold" Cunningham. For those that don't know, Cunningham is the manager in charge of scheduling. He's Covenant's "idiot savant," strong emphasis on the idiot part.

The next person Security First @ SFO would like to take on is Donnie Filbert. But we guess there's time for that since his job is safe.

Look for the newsletter in your breakrooms. I will post pics of it when I get to a computer.

UPDATE:

Here are the pics:

Herr Director Makes an Appearance

Apparently, our fearless leader Donnie Filbert made an appearance in the UA Bag Room today (6/7/2010). According to witnesses he was only there for 5 minutes and spoke only to the supervisor on duty. Have any of you seen this mythical creature recently? Of course, here at Security First @ SFO, we have a feeling he was only there just so he can make the accurate claim of, "See, I mix it up with the peons!" And we know he doesn't have the balls to interact with "the peons" for fear of getting attacked over this debacle of the rebid.