What They Didn't Tell You!

Several weeks ago, Jeff Pugh brazenly announced that CAS had the cash to give us all raises.  Incoming president Mike Boles stated that he wanted to have this new CBA in place by the beginning of August because: " the hard working men and women at SFO deserve nothing less."

What they didn't tell you was that the money for your raises was coming from the "givebacks" that the company wants to implement.  

 

Boles wants you to focus on the 2.1% wage increase and nothing else.  He doesn't want you to focus on "double time" pay when you work on a holiday.  He doesn't want you to focus on the 15 minute break per 4 hours of work.  (The employees who work 10 hours lose a 15 minute break!)

 

 He doesn't want you to focus on the cost to you if you get admitted to a hospital.  The first 1,000 dollars comes out of your pocket, and then you pay 20% of any additional charges up to a maximum of 3,000 dollars a year -- for a single employee, that is.  The maximum is 6,000 dollars for an employee with a family. 

All this comes at the same time that they want you to show " world class customer service."  With the atmosphere that this company has created, can they really expect any employee to smile?

If this offer doesn't show you just how this company really feels about their employees, what will?

This company is stooping to new lows in their effort to increase their "profit" margin!

As we approach the start of our new shift schedule

remember that the company, who puts profit before security, expects you to follow your schedule.
The company that plans to eliminate our dental plan, parking allowance, and other benefits needs you to do the right thing.  The company that has never shown us any respect or appreciation is counting on you to forget, for the moment, their threats. 

So, the question that begs to be asked is, "Just what kind of response does this company deserve to get from us?"  What will the first day of the new schedule be like?  How many of you will call off?  Just how will you let the company know how you feel?  Will it be Kincare or FMLA?

As usual the choice is yours; do what you think is best!

Airport X-ray Machines Are Still A Health Hazard!

X-ray airport scanners.
You know those "backscatter" full-body X-ray machines at airport security gates? Europe banned them several months ago because of health concerns, but the machines are still in use in some airports in the States. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says the amount of radiation emitted by each scan is minuscule, but independent research suggests the dose to some parts of the body is at least 45 times higher than the TSA claims and may even increase cancer risk, particularly for the elderly and women predisposed to breast cancer. Since you're already going to be exposed to radiation by flying, avoid the extra rays and ask for a pat-down, says John Sedat, Ph.D., a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco.

Whose bright idea was it to....

fire the checked baggage baggage handlers and to use screeners instead?

Let's take a screener away from resolving alarms and have that person do the job of a baggage handler. That's a brilliant solution!

Management knows that screeners are paid slightly more than a baggage handler, right? Isn't this the reverse of cost cutting? Plus, the TSA is paying for screeners who will perform screening duties; they are not paying for screeners to act as baggage handlers.

This appears to be the same creative "smoke and mirrors" that CAS was using for our training room personnel. You remember, they had them on the books as front line employees and charged them to the TSA when their salaries should have been paid by CAS. Maybe they thought that no one would notice.

How do we protect ourselves?

With everything that the TSA has, and will, throw at us the next question should be, how do I protect myself from a loss of employment?

The simple answer is to follow the SOP 100% of the time!

Not sure, or don’t remember what you have read way back when? Tell your supervisor that you need and want to refresh your memory about the SOP procedures. Document when you told your supervisor and where you were. (Such as Pier B, Pier C, etc.) Have a witness who will be able to verify that this actually took place and jot down the time.

Once again, do not let an unresolved alarm go. Do not release a person or their property until you are absolutely certain that the alarm has been resolved. Do not look at the length of the line or the number of bags waiting to be screened. Do what we have been hired to do. Our only function is to provide security according to the TSA SOP standards.

A PiP is not an Occurence!

We recently learned that CAS has been intimidating some of the newbie checkpoint screeners into signing an occurrence form for failing a certain procedure that they were unfamiliar with.

We will not, and cannot, go into details relating to the exact procedure that is causing a PiP to be issued. But, CAS needs to do the right thing by making sure that everyone becomes familiar with this procedure and they also need to educate the "newbies" as to their rights.

Intimidation is not the proper course of action! Let's not take advantage of those who are less informed.

Nothing but the Best

When speaking in public, it is not uncommon for an executive to talk up his or her product, even when he or she knows that his or her product may not in fact be the superior product or trust the reliability of his or her product. So it's no surprise when someone like Gerry Berry or Jeff Pugh or whomever will say that we are the best and even if we're not, we're definitely better than our TSA counterparts.

So why is it that when issues or problems arise, we are always punished or forced to do more than what is required? Let us count the ways: When people failed hand wand tests, instead of addressing the issue or individuals head on, Ryan Yee's training department response was simply to make us do additional steps in the hand wand regardless if it was required. When people failed certain X-ray tests, we were forced to do across the board bag checks on bags that had certain item/s in the bag. Or not being allowed to do pat downs below the waist while at the walk-through, even though it is allowed by the SOP. Now the latest is TDC. Because individuals failed tests, we now have to do 100 additional steps (ok, I know, an exaggeration) that are not required by the SOP. And we're once again being punished by having our STOOLS taken away! The logic behind it is well, it makes for better security, right? Ehhh...who cares if it really does? Just as long as we can show TSA that we did something, everything's all good!

This is another perfect example of what a bureaucratic paper pusher that Yee is. He doesn't care about addressing real issues and finding real solutions. All that matters is that he does something to address it. And of course, local TSA is complicit in all of this as they don't really care either just as long as TSA HQ is satisfied. Naturally, the argument to all of these additional steps/punishments will always be, "It's going above and beyond. That is better security!" Sure, go above and beyond by doing additional steps that aren't proven to be better security while focusing our collective attentions on unnecessary procedures when we could be missing real potential threats. I guess we really didn't learn anything from Engage!

Anyone that has flown out of a TSA airport will regularly see their TDC Officers sitting at comfortable chairs with a FIXED light, while we have to stand and often use faulty/inferior hand held lights. Just how does that make for better security?

With all of these additional, unnecessary requirements at checkpoint, there really is no wonder why so many DFOs decided to jump ship and go baggage, regardless of what their seniority would be (yes, there were a number that went checkpoint, but mostly because of seniority).

And where is SEIU? They allowed the company get away with being in violation of the CBA fo how long, even though it explicitly requires the company have chairs for us at TDC.

5.3 Employee Seating

The employer shall supply chairs for X-Ray machine operators as consistent with all safety, health and other regulatory requirements. Chairs shall be supplied for exit monitors during non-operational hours, or when employees are required to be at exits for 30 minutes or more during operational hours and as consistent with all safety, health and other regulatory requirements. TDC personnel shall be supplied with access to chairs during non-peak hours, or when employees are required to be at TDC position for 30 minutes or more and as consistent with all safety, health and other regulatory requirements.

So now once again we suffer. SFO Airport commission gets their kickback. Local TSA doesn't have to deal with the day-to-day operations. SEIU continues to collect our dues, and Covenant Aviation Security laughs all the way to the bank while everyone else turns a blind eye.