The Newspaper Articles That Came Out Today!

Here are the links in case you haven't seen them.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/08/company-neglects-safety-sfo-bag-screeners-say

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/08/whistle-blowers-fear-retribution-employer?category=16

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local

Could any of this possibly be true?

What say you?

What ever happened to.....?

The petition that was submitted to management concerning a certain manager that alienated the majority of the CTX workforce? For all their time and effort, Nada!

Management went through the motions and interviewed the usual suspects, but as usual they swept in under the rug. Well, don't give up! The Feds eventually did get the "Teflon Don." So, all you petitioners should stay hopeful.

The Iron Man Striketh

Covenant's own Iron Man has taken on a new crusade of late. Ironic that we're talking about crusades when the issue at hand is facial hair. Anyway, he has made it his mission in life to harass, harangue, and intimidate those men that have facial hair, even if they have a religious or medical exemption.

Of course, it is company policy that men be clean shaven unless exempt for the above stated reasons. Now if we're going to be honest, many men probably are taking advantage of this loophole. Be that as it may, if ya got a note they have to let it be.

Not content with this, Gerardo Sanchez is personally going after men with facial hair, now stating that it has to be a full beard or nothing. I suppose if you have a note being very specific about the facial hair as to what and how much you need to grow that this might be an issue for you. But what if your note isn't specific? What if all it states is that you need to be allowed to grow facial hair? To my uneducated brain, it seems that if the company continues this line of harassment with employees that they could be asking for a law suit. We're waiting in hopeless anticipation for the union to respond to this.

Iron Man speaketh

Gerardo Sanchez called a meeting with the baggage supervisors the other day.  Terence Cunningham was in attendance as well. A number of issues were discussed. And all reports have indicated that Sanchez was well behaved. Perhaps he's finally learned his lesson? Nah, not a chance. Just recently people witnessed him going on a tirade against someone in one of the bag rooms. So much for new beginnings.

You have to be curious. Why does management continue to keep this buffoon around? He's incompetent. He is a hot head. And my God, have you ever had to sit through one of his superfluous talks where he goes on and on with these mindless metaphors? Hopefully you haven't, because we've heard that can be highly mind numbing as well as just bizarre. He has certainly done enough over the years to warrant terminating him.

So why do they keep him around? Is it because he deals with baggage and all the other managers don't want to touch baggage? Who knows?

What we do know is that he is outright despised by many working in and around management. And we certainly know that the work force abhors the man. Then again, that latter part is a resume enhancer at Covenant Aviation Security.

Couple news items

We're getting word that the announcement for CTX STSO is happening this week. We guess they were waiting for Gerardo Sanchez to come back from his sabbatical. We haven't heard anything definitive about the PAX STSO promotions yet. Perhaps they're getting ready to announce that as well.

And it seems as though DFOs are in fact DOA. The word around town is that DFOs are officially capped out and that the prospect of hiring CTX TSOs is an ultimate reality.

It seems that Covenant Aviation Security has forced themselves to do this since staffing is at a precarious level in the bag rooms and over time doesn't seem to be covering the gaps. This holds true with the recent announcement that 9000 Specialists are once again allowed to do over time, but only if DFOs or CTX TSOs do not take that over time slot.

Sanchez has also been spotted in bag rooms doing work there instead of in his office in the BSR. Perhaps he's avoiding those folks due to the recent HR investigation?

No word yet on the Checkpoint Lead interviews either. We'll keep you abreast of the situation as we hear more.

Iron Man Returns!

Gerardo Sanchez is coming back from suspension. Uhhh...wait, not suspension, jury duty. Yeah, that's right. The question remains, though, is he coming back to be terminated or will he once again prove that he is untouchable. The latter seems the most likely thing. Any hope that any of us might have of any manager succumbing to any sort of punishment is a waste of one's time. So that is why it's important to keep asking the question: What does a manager have to do in order to lose their job?

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.

Baggage sup interviews have begun

As the title states, the interviews have started and apparently it's a long list. That's good that a lot of people applied. And it seems as though the company has changed its stance on CTX 9000 Specialists being allowed to apply. Once again, that is a good thing.

All we can say is that we wish all of those who applied the best of luck. We genuinely hope that Gerardo Sanchez will choose the most experienced and qualified people for how many ever spots they intend to fill. Although if history shows us anything, that will not be the case.

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?

Vacation Bid Woes

It has come to our attention, mostly because sometime we're not as observant as we should be, that because of this rebid a number of people's vacations could serioulsy be screwed up.

Apparently if your new schedule has different days off than when you originally bid for Week at a Time, then the company is unwilling to adjust your vacation time. Instead they'll just credit you the PTO. Ahhh...how nice of Covenant!

One CTX TSO has been diligently trying to resolve this issue but is getting nowherre with scheduling or ATM Baggage Gerardo Sanchez. Their reponse to all of this? Don't worry about it!

Fortunately, an SEIU shop steward has been making the rounds and taking notes of this to use as leverage in a lawsuit if it comes to this.

This is in violation of the CBA as we are allowed to bid for a WAT vacation to include our RDOs. Just because Covenant doesn't want to be bothered to make the necessary adjustments due to THEIR rebid, doesn't mean we will allow this violation to take place.