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.

Just where do we fit in?

On March 16th, TSA gave a security briefing that was essentially a re-hash of the weekly TSA security bulletins. Several of those that attended that meeting said that two important items were mentioned. One item was that SFO has been identified as a "high value terrorist target" along with LAX. The second item was more important. This item stated, that since we are not really TSA, we would not be able to become part of a program which would give us top secret security briefings. Make no mistake about this, this information would enable us to be better prepared in dealing with threats that might be coming our way.

So, once again, we are left out. Once again the safety of the American public is of secondary importance. We are left to fend for ourselves because we are not "really" TSA.

Then, why is CAS still here? Is our security clearance not at the same level as our TSA counterparts? Are we not trustworthy? What are we missing here?

We need to have the same tools and information as our TSA counterparts. We are not expendable and, for that matter, the safety of the American public flying out of SFO should not be of secondary importance. Why has TSA not done what should have been done a long time ago? I guess it must be pure politics at its best!

A Little Bit of Explanation Please!

It never ceases to wonder how unwilling management is to explain anything. Their mentality is: do everything we tell you without question, regardless if it makes any sense (remember that for all of you prospective supervisors!).

So there's no wonder the furor that is generated when a scheduling pleb sends out an email stating a company change in policy in regards to scanning in early and scanning out late. Really?! Does management not have any brains? Wait, sorry, I forgot who I was talking about.

According to CBA section 1, article 11 it states:

The Employer shall notify the Union Stewards and the Union at least thirty (30) days prior to implementing any new written policies or procedures affecting employees covered under this Agreement, including changes in the Employee Handbook.

Remember this folks, much of what management attempts to do is merely scare tactics. They bank on your ignorance of your rights, the laws, and the CBA.

Now there does happen to be a good reason for the panic attack from scheduling in regard to the scanning in early and scanning out late issue. Apparently CAS is looking to get rid of the B sheet and going back to the hand scans for payroll. If we all clock in too early there will be discrepancies with authorized or unauthorized overtime. See, now was that so difficult CAS?

March Craziness

What do you do when very few people are interested in playing your game, the metaphorical kind, that is? Well, you try and enlist the second and third stringers, that's what you do.

What was originally supposed to be only for Officers that scored 100% on their PSEs, has now been opened to people that have not.

The question that should be asked is why is this? Why doesn't everybody that is qualified want to participate? Perhaps it's because we see it for what it is? That it's merely a photo-op for management?

Listen, don't allow your disgust with management prevent you from making a few extra bucks. After all, how difficult could a WORD SEARCH be???

Rep. John Mica is at it again!

Years ago, TSA came out with a flawed report stating, that the cost of using private contractors to perform security was 17 percent higher when compared to using the TSA workforce. That report used data collected over a one year period and had glaring inaccuracies.

The GAO issued a report years ago, using data gathered over a four year period and concluded that it was only 7 to 9 percent higher. The GAO compared us to an airport that was comparable in size in order to get a accurate picture. (That airport was Logan Airport in Boston.)

Now, amazingly, a new report has come out stating that it is only 3 percent higher and Rep. John Mica has stated that his main concern is the safety of the American public. He goes on to say, "I'll spend any amount of money to make sure the country is safe or passengers are safe or the airline industry is safe. But what I want is the best performance."

What is he using as the measuring stick for best performance? Since 15 of the 16 airports in the SPP are regional which airports are they being compared to? What safety improvements have the other 15 come up with? For that matter, what have we? Those small airports do not have 24 hour operations, so, we all know that this is really about us and his connection to Mr. Gerry L. Berry of Winter Springs, Florida.

Read the complete story at: http://wapo.st/hbOlYR