This site exists only because of the airline's outright hostility toward its passengers and many of its employees.
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The following comments were received from various United Airlines
employees and family members. Unless specifically requested
otherwise, all personal identifying information has been removed.
More recent letters from past and present UAL employees
can be found here.
I am a retired UAL employee who often reviews the UNTIED site. I
certainly do relate to the stories of United's devious, abusive, and
arrogant defiance of any code of lawful corporate conduct. Corporate
Outlaws is an appropriate description of those who rule United Air
Lines.
I particularly question the legality of Uniteds' operation of
Corporate Medical Departments whose corporate doctors are given power
over an employee's right to his or her job. I have seen too many
instances where the Corporate doctor has abused his medical power, as
a corporate hatchet man to get rid of employees. This is an egregious
conflict of interest abuse of civil, human, and labor rights, used
relentlessly by United Air Lines, Inc.
United's corporate doctors unlawfully interfere in workers
Compensation cases during litigation. United is self-insured which
already gives them complete control over an injured employee's
rights. I have seen medical records criminally altered, doctors
contacted to lie and deny job injury, and these employees terminated
by the corporate doctor in retaliation for filing a legitimate job
injury case. This is just the tip of the iceburg. Isn't there a law
against this?
Ed: I've received numerous complaints from ex-UALers about this specific
issue -- abuse of power of the corporate medical officers, often in
the context of ordering injured employees to report back to work long
before they are medically able to do so, or lose their job. Just to
take three examples from this year, see the entries here for Oct. 23,
2006, Aug. 8, 2006, and Jan. 30, 2006. Certainly, altering of medical
records would be a criminal offense, but I have yet to hear of a case
where an employee has documentation to support their assertion that
the airline did so. If such proof were available, I would expect this
to support a strong lawsuit against UAL.
I'm a current, and disgruntled UAL (ramp Service) employee, and I'm
just writing to say that you have my full support for this site. I've
mentioned it to countless other employees, and I think they're starting
to realize that the problems are not confined to just our station. I'm
sure most have already known this.
I've had family members that worked for UAL, for a combined period of
over 50 years, so I can say that working for UAL, or ANY airline was,
at one time, an outstanding career. Unfortunately, this can no longer
be said for UAL, or almost any of the airlines.
Since the failure of our last contract, we've taken (approximately)
a 24.5% pay cut. For the people that have written in, and commented on
how good UAL is, I'd like to see how you'd change your life, if you were
"awarded" a 24.5% cut in pay. Just for the record, I/we found an article
in a newspaper just after we entered backruptcy, and the writer had
said (something close to); "The ramp personel at UAL do a great job, but
they're not worth $50,000 per year." First, who the hell is he to tell me
and my fellow coworkers what we're worth? Second, on your next trip aboard
UAL, if you're traveling from Chicago to Germany, let me or my coworkers
send your bag to Oahu - Now, tell me what we're worth. Finally, I never
saw the writer of that piece stating what he or she makes per year. I
hope he or she is compensated well for stating their "objective opinion."
Recently, my station has hired at least 5 new supervisors. Most of them
are great people. However, after getting to know them, one by one, they're
starting to "see the light", and are making plans to move on. Every
single one of us doesn't blame them. If ones job depends on the tools
they're given to accomplish a job, how can you expect the supervisors
to get their job done when ramp employees (the tools) are not there?
UAL continues to work short staffed. Our schedule is constanly changing,
and we're having shift bids almost every ninety days or so. For the
people that may not know (the public), imagine having you lifes schedule
changed every 3 months.
Another thing that has plagued our station are injuries. We've had
countless employees out having surgery to repair a hernia (or two). I
feel this is a direct result of the pressure being placed on us to get
aircraft out on time, and being short staffed. How is someone expected
to lift a 300+ pound box of freight alone? Don't think for a second that
we're supposed to ask for help. THERE IS NO ONE TO HELP. The rest of
the crew is working the other end of the aircraft, and has problems of
their own to worry about. Once again, for those of you who don't know,
yes, we do handle (on a semi regular basis) boxes that do weigh that
much. It only takes one of them to send you to the hospital for the
aforementioned surgery.
I'll wrap up my venting by saying this; UAL is not what it once was. Every
employee at my station feels just about the same way. If you have any
family or friends that want a job (not career) with UAL, tell them to
go get their head checked. If that doesn't work, disown them as a friend
or family member.
I was a flight attendant for United Airlines. I was terminated for
tardiness for reporting late to a flight. However prior to being late,
United's scheduling department had changed my flight assignement, not
at my request. I arrived in time for my new flight assignment. I was
no longer late for my original assignement as United Airlines had
re-assigned me to a later flight.
I have never been late to a flight assignemnt at United. Since being
terminated, after applying for unemployment insurance, United has
provided false written charges to the Georgia Unemployment Department
citing that I have multiple instances of tardiness and had been warned
several times. This is patently false.
My concern is that their eagerness to terminate me and not other
flight attendants that have the same (or worse) infractions stems from
my HIV status. My employment began with several incidents of improper
reaction to my disablity, including threatining not to hire me on that
basis of my diability, alone. As such I have filed a case this the
EEOC regarding this and am awaiting an arbitration date.
Ed: A reply to the note, below, from one of the editors at Untied.com:
I was terminated as a pilot many years ago for "patently false" accusations.
Essentially UAL was cheating on crew rest, maintenance logs, training
records, etc., and I would not lie on the forms as requested by UAL. That
rather abruptly resulted in my termination.
That was a very difficult time for me, but quite honestly my life has been
much better (both financially and emotionally) without UAL. That has also
been true of virtually everyone that has corresponded to us via the
Untied.com site.
We know UAL is morally bankrupt. Do not
make any assumptions that UAL will ever do the "right thing" unless they are
forced to do it. I'm not trying to be inflammatory with my remarks. I rarely
make such sweeping statements. It was difficult for me to accept. I was a
USAF pilot for 13 years, and I wasn't familiar with a company that would
simply lie for convenience. Yet, it is unfortunately exactly what UAL does
routinely.
I was hired as of October 9, 2006 by United Airlines as a RSE. I made
it through only two weeks of training before being fired by the
management for something that was completely out of my control.
During my two weeks I worked hard, listened to what my instructors had
to say, and was a good employee by all means. I took time out of my
life to accomdate these instructors in paperwork that needed to be
done. Such as coming before my shift to get badging and all other
requirements out of the way.
October 23, 2006 I left my house for the airport a little later than I
should have resulting in me being 5 minutes late to work. This
rightfully gave me an occurance as this was my fault for not managing
my time to get to work.
Well the very next day learning from my lesson I left for work with
more than twice the amount of time than would have been neccesary to
get to work on time. Sadly there was a huge traffic accident on the
interstate that backed up the highway for over 15 miles and lasted for
over an hour. This caused me to be 35 minutes late to work. This of
course landed me my second occurance and I was subsequently
terminated.
No amount of explaining the sitution seemed to help. They even were
so bold to say that they understood why I was late, but policies are
policies and they must be consistantly aheared to.
So essentially I was fired for what was completely out of my control.
In fact I wasn't the only person late because of this very accident.
Yet they still felt the need to fire me.
What my whole point boils down to is that United has unrealistic
standards for it's employees. And that a company that treats it's
employees in this manner doesn't deserve to make it. The management
is running this once great airline into the ground and have their
priorities messed up. Get a clue United!
I would like to know how my qualified doctors can release me to go
back to work and McGuffinn who has ruined countless lives along with
other so called company doctors can retain their licenses. First I was
misdiagnosed and then my leave was shortened. Now it seems I am
getting bad referrences. I was called on my days off and told to go to
medical where they cant even write a prescription. I was also was
sexually harrassed by a pilot. Forced to come in on my days off for
drug tests and EAP by Dr Jennsen in San Fransico I had just lost a
baby and apparantly after he accussed me of killing my baby its
abnormal to cry and the union did nothing to help. They never filed on
my behalf and my confidentiality was broken about my illness and now I
know they are the reason I cant seem to get another airline to hire
me. Slandered and Tired. I loved my job but not that company.
I worked in the world head quarters at UAL. Youd think they do a little
something nice for the 911 victims, they have one flims quilt by the exit
to the cafeteria....LOL...no one sees it. Well I was in IT, and although I
loved the people I worked with, the whole management is unbelievable. The
CIO got caught with his pants down in a conf room...this is no rumor it
really happened. Then EDS came in to take over and they screwed up the
contract....they fired eric davis but gave him 500000 dollars severence.
The computers are sooo old you cant get anything done. There are old
IT dinosaur groups that sleep all day, some smoke and drink coffee
all day. When EDS came in they said they had never seen a IT dept so
disorganised. I could go on .....but let me say one thing the people I
worked with...were the best co workers and freinds and are good people
with good intentions. When I asked the old timers why is everything
so f'd up ...they say ...theres no money, and so the teeth come out.
One of my supervisors who worked thier for 25 years got fired and wasnt
even allowed to come back to collect his things. There are some brilliant
managers and engineers who keep things going. But i must say it was
the best job i ever had and i miss it.
I have filed a lawsuit as a Pro Se litigant against United in the Federal
Court in Pensacola, FL. My supervisor had a vendetta against me and she
worked with her pals in AFA to force me to retire or be terminated. I
have been fighting this every since April 7, 2004 which is when I was
forced to retire. I was not allowed to bring a lawyer to the "hearing"
I was supposed to have. Last August, United permanently revoked my pass
travel because of the supervisor from hell!. Until
I got this woman for a supervisor, I had never had a problem with
any supervisor. I was a flight attendant for 35 years, 9 months and 4
days. I had previously (along with 17 other flight attendants) filed an
EEOC discrimination charge against United and AFA. This was because of
the subjective "Qualified Purser" program forced on flight attendants
by United and AFA. The EEOC is just a bloated government bureaucracy,
but it is a hoop one must jump through to file a lawsuit in federal
court. They rarely ever find "Cause." United also "trashed me" to a
potential employer. If anyone is in the same situation, perhaps we can
join forces. I have learned a lot in my fight and I am not about to
give up. Please contact me if interested.
Ed: The former employee received, via her lawyer, a threat of
legal action by United's law firm for libel and defamation against her
former supervisor. As per request of the poster, we have removed the
supervisor's name from the original post. It is worth noting, of course,
that this sort of response -- threatening legal action rather than address
the root of the problem -- is indicative of an inability of the airline's
senior management to learn from previous mistakes, both their own and
that of their predecessors.
The writer can be contacted by email to hutdia@aol.com or telephone at
850-862-4394.
Please refer to this
article for background.
United Airlines has been raped of its assets. United Airlines
employees have been victimized. United Airlines customers have been
silenced.
United Airlines was the best airline. We, the employees, and our
customers, made it the best.
Management, from the CEO'S, the many, many VP's, the Board of
Directors, stole the airline. You created many spin-offs, plus, you
sold our computer system, our buildings, mortagaged our planes, gave
what cash our pensions did have to a company, PBGC, who is already 23
billion dollars in the hole, you gave 50 million dollars to US Air,
just to talk, and we sell US Air as if we own it. Where did the
money go?
What is so sad to me about the loss of my airline, is the loss of my
United family. United got ugly.
After Sep 11, on its first anniversary, The Fire Fighters Memorial
Service, is held at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs. Hundreds of
family members came from all over the world to attend the services.
United would not waive services charges for changes, did not offer any
type of discount, nor was any United offical at the service.
The name has not only been tarnished, but the company has been
disfigured beyond recognition. I hope your continued advancement of
our company will continue to line your pockets, as the article above
clearly states.
I feel that I must let my UA brothers and sisters know that they are
not alone in thier very bad experiences. I am a current 20 year
employee with UAL. I have been in almost every position available
except senior management and pilot. I also am a well decorated
employee (of the year, of the month, etc.)
In my earlier years I was put on the "management fast track" and moved
around alot helping this great company out, well was I in for a
reality check! Anyway I could not stomach the lack of support,
backstabbing, idea stealing that happened to me and many others while
in the management ranks. I held everyone accountable including Ron
Utecht and Andy Stoddard (although Andy was a good man). Because I
held everyone accountable for thier very poor decisions (serious money
losing ones) I was removed from several positions. I can not begin to
explain the pathetic minds that run this company.
The bottom line employees are continually told "We just do not give a
damn what you think or why you think it, just do your job!"
Lest the employee answer along the lines of "But I do have the tools
or the training and I definately do not have the PARTS to do my job in
a good and timely manner", upper management responds, "Oh really,
that's to bad.....you're fired!"
The article below hit home and I had to
send you a letter regarding it. I too was a United Employee and the
letter below is like a page from my book. I was off having heart
palpations and a unexplained rash. After many doctor visits and
spending time with a PhD the conclusion, it was stress, "work related
stress". It is a very long story and would warrant a very long
article, but to put it in a nutshell, I believe that the job should be
done right at all times when it comes to avaition, there was, and I am
sure still is, a lot going on that is far from "right"!
While off due to this stress I was asked by UAL medical to come to
there facility at SFO and submit to a medical checkup. I politely
declined because the palpations and rash were we discovered due to my
work situation. When I didn't show up at UAL medical, ( I had
documented all my illness to UAL ) they terminated me. My doctor
thought it was a good thing anyway so I never fought the issue. It has
been a struggle to move forward with a family of five but after
acouple weeks of knowing I would never have to put up with their crap
any more the palpations subsided as did the rash... I can totally
relate to the guys article below. After seventeen years they told me I
was totally seperated from the company and had nothing to do with
United any longer even giving me a non-rehireable status. Yet when I
wanted to collect my pension that I was owed I came to find I was on
the books for that and I am not allowed to partake of my pension till
I am a ripe old age.
I was under the impression and someone correct me
if I am wrong, when a person is seperated from employeement are they
not supposed to get all monies due them? I had a friend seperated from
a local cable company after 18 years and he recieved a large sum of
money from his pension account. United wants to play both sides of the
fence, am I seperated or not, and if not, maybe I want my job back
with back pay, and if I am seperated, thEn I want all the money due me
so I can be truly seperated from UAL. I can go on and on as I stated
at the beginning but I will end now or I might start getting
palpations again...
Ed: Yours is a question that can be best be
answered by a qualified attorney, and I suggest you contact one to
find out your rights in this matter. Of course, with the airline
having canceled the entire pension plan of its current employees, you
may find that the issue is moot, unless you were "separated" from the
company prior to this event.
I have been with UAL for 21 years. 15 of those in colorado springs. On
August 1,2006, there was a mandatory station meeting. The 9 HR dummies
that were there to tell us that our station no longer needed the
services of the 62 united employees, are bald face lairs. When asked
how long this was in the making, 3 weeks was the answer. So United
signed a mutli million dollar contact in a 3 week window? When asked
about the other 2 stations on the chop block- greensboro and
indianapolis, answer...greensboro bids were too high, and IND is still
in question. What a lie. Its all politics.
They just screwed 62 top notch agents, agents that knew what the term
"BEST AIRLINE" meant. Knew what a "ROAD WARRIOR" is. Agents who
realized that the 9 military bases in Colorado Springs, have many
heros and war weary soliders, who just wanted to get home to thier
families, and made it happen for them. Agents that could and would
work diverted flights from DEN, as many as 22 on the ground,in the
middle of winter,taking animals out of the pits, using employees
lunches to feed these 25 dogs and cats, in the break room. To fuel 22
planes, ranging from 747's to 737's, with out incident. Did I mention
that the staff was only 6-8 strong?
SkyWest took the contract. They are nice enough to offer a job fair,
paying 14.00 an hour vs 22.00. They are counting on some of us
staying. They know we know what we are doing. Screw them. They can't
have me or my experience for 1/2 price. I find it very UNAMERICAN. I
am going to ride into the sunset on my Harley...SCREW UAL.
I just left United. I can't say that I had 10 or 20 years in, in fact
I left after just 16 months. Many have said that my job was the worst
job in the company and I have seen many entries here that back that up.
As a new Ramp Supervisor (I just lost half the people that were reading
this) my job was a challenge to say the least. United is hiring military
officers and aviation management graduates to fill these jobs in part
because they are looking for new perspectives from the outside, and in
part because there are so few Gate Leads willing to take the position.
I was sent to another hub for 4 1/2 months of training. I found that the
ramp crews resented me being there and that the older ramp supervisors
shared this sentiment too. Once training was over and I was able to
move back to my hometown hub I found that the training I received was
not adequate. The systems, procedures, paperwork and even the computer
software was different than what I had been trained on. It was like
starting all over again.
I was put into the busy zone because no supervisors with any seniority
wanted it. I walked into my first briefing to see about 60 angry,
untrusting faces looking back at me. I worked by butt off to win over
the entire zone. In the end they trusted me because I supported them,
was always honest with them, and fixed every problem that was brought
to me. I spent most of my day outside with my crews because that is
where I should have been.
I am not writing this to win anyone over, but I wanted to give a
different perspective. I was definitely not perfect, and early on I
sure had enough guys remind me of that, but I gave it my all.
Ultimately I left because I had worked long enough between a rock and a
hard place. Frontline managers walk a tightrope between the union and
upper management. Upper Management demands results because they fear for
their jobs due to below target performance figures. I saw several of my
bosses get the axe, and they had worked for the company for many years.
They are running scared. I think that's why they seemed so distant with
high expectations and so little frontline support. I know... no excuse.
P.S. I left for more stability, less stress, and because my fiance
deserved more from me. Just so you all know... not all of the new
supervisors are making the big bucks that everyone thinks they are.
There are quite a few that would make more as a full-time ramp employee
with some easy hour slips in his pocket... really. Good luck guys.
So I read all of the comments out there, as I enjoy seeing what employees
write, both past and present, but as a current employee of United, I
asking myself one question. Where are you working? I ask the question
because I see a completely different side than many of you. Its not that
I'm kept in the dark, and I actually receive internal communications on
a daily basis. I just wonder is it because we are bitter for what has
happened? Did we have the world's best life prior to bankruptcy and now
we realize that we must change in order to keep this great airline flying?
My main question is, why does everyone on this site exploit change?
Obviously there was a revenue problem in 2000 that was maginified even
more during 2001. All of this was going to happen, it was going to
happen to either us or American. United was the leader in bankruptcy.
Notice something funny, AA hasn't filed for bankruptcy, however, their
employees have taken about the same wage cuts as us....hmmmm wonder why.
Before we pass the buck, maybe we should look at ourselves. We are
no better than the Fords, Chevys, etc...sometimes the industries just
can't sustain themselves. If we are all as qualified as we all project
ourselves to be, then there are ample opportunities out there that I'm
confident that you can find additiional opportunities to further your
advancement in this economy, and I wish you the best of luck, but I
kindly ask, before you go and tarnish a good name, a good company,
ask yourself this....HAS IT DONE FOR YOU WHAT YOU EXPECTED IT TO?
Only you can answer that...
Ed: Ironically, an excellent response to this question was received
just before and is posted immediately below.
I started with UA in May 2000 actually excited to join this airline.
It didn't take long before my job was a living nightmare. The supervisors
in my center had never done the job they were supervising which was
insulting at best. They came from every other line of work and actually
instructed on something they knew nothing about. God forbid they would
promote a lowly res agent!! I guess the 2 hr traing class preped them
enough. After 9-11 we all agreed to several paycuts to help our company
in need only to find out that they were taking our pay and funding
the many centers in India they have opened. My money went to automated
systems and India offices. we were paying the company to replace us!!
I am an excellent customer service agent but found my services were of
no use to United because the really didn't seem to care at all about
taking care of the customers. Do you know how many times I gave out phone
numbers for various services (like lost and found for example) knowing
that nobody had manned that desk in 6 months and lost items at ORD were
just thrown in a closet. But it was my job to the job I was given even
when it meant deceiving customers. I finally left in March 2006 after
a 7 month medical leave due to depression and the inability to get out
of bed and face the day. I was sooooooo sick of saying "NO" to any and
every request a customer had. Customers would yell and cuss several times
a day out of frustration and I couldn't blame them one bit. I have been
working for another airline for 3 months now and I'm happy to announce
that I have not had one irate customer yet!!!! It goes to show that
when you put a well treated customer on the phone with a well treated
employee great things can happen. For all you United employees still
braveing the storm I have 3 words for you.....Southwest is hiring!!!!!
Looks like bankruptcy once again! We lost the mail contract and service
is plummeting. Here we go again.
Hi everyone, i have been a ramp servicemen for 10 years and have seen this
compnat destroy many, many livelihoods for good hearted people. United
is an awful place to work and I hope all of you people who desire to
get jobs here DON'T! It is a toxic environment. San Francsico Ramp and
Maintenance operations are pathetic. I notified a mechanic last week
that a door seal on a b757 aircraft was torn off (which is a no-go item)
and he bluffed it off and walked away. MAJOR safety issue.
I turned him and UAL into Cal-OSHA for this. I am so surprised an
aircraft incident has not occurred with the crappy management. On the
ramp, they threaten you with termination and levels for any little
thing. They hire these idiot supervisors and managers who are straight
from the military who are going to "straight up UAL", it is a joke. So
for those of you who want to work here, don't. It is by far the worst
company to work for and they hire complete idiots to run the place.
If you do want to work here, be very aware that United doesn't fire brain
damaged supervisors but promotes them. Be safe and don't do anything
extra, they won't appreciate it from you and you may get fired for it.
United is top heavy with managment and does nothing but try to disipline
employees. I have worked for them at LAX for over 10 years. They
consistantly lie to customers.There is not nearly enough manpower. Bag
delivery times are atrocious. All managment cares about are there numbers
so they can get bonuses. They will ask for brake releases to show an on
time departure while the plane still sits at the gate being loaded. $80,000
in stock gone, 401k gone. Not long before I'm gone.
I am a former employee of United Airlines I was involded in opening IND,
I was lay-offed in 2003 since the maintenance center was closing, I tried
the relocation program, what a joke!!! they send you to another state,
I did not know any one there and they allowed me to stay in a hotel for
a month and then they don't even help you with finding a place to stay;
I was commuting back and forth. I have done alot for that company -- I
was recognized for highest sales and outstanding customer service, they
sent me to several location arcoss the U.S. I even went to Germany. But
once they annouced the maintaince center was closing, they tell you that
you may relocate to a different office but then not even a year later, UA
closes that office and lays off again. This company really "SUCKS".
I am a UAL furloughed pilot, and have bypassed recall. I would like to
go back in the future, but I don't think there will be anything to go
back to. United has no plan and no direction, other than a terrible
product and terrible service.
I have travelled alot internationally on UAL in business class and have
earned many points. UAL, not allowing international mileage travel is
unsatisfactory and typical.
PS: TED is the biggest joke. It is a ripoff of Southwest's advertising.
UAL has the WORST add campaign in the world! Those little cartoon
characters are ridiculous. Anybody at management who agreed to TED
and this add campaign should do all UAL employees a favor and outsource
themselves to India.
I am a 30 year United employee that is on layoff now from my air freight
rep job at MIAFF. We were in the first group of United employees that
were laid off en-masse by United and replaced by the company with
low-paid, unskilled,and mosty non-English speaking workers employed
by Swissport. The United management was so arrogant to think that
the United Cargo customers would not notice or care that the former
employees that gave such good customer service were no longer around --
boy did they get a rude awakening!
Almost overnight the cargo division, which was about the only one
in the company consitently making a profit for United, lost almost
50% of its domestic and US originating international cargo business.
Within a year the brand new cargo warehouse that United had invested $36
million building at MIA was closed and all our international service
was terminated to and from Miami. Those employees that were at least
53 years old were able to retire or have their seniority bridged so they
didn't have to return to that hell-hole that is United Airlines.
I was one of the unlucky ones who was not old enough to qualify for
retirement so like an idiot I tried to get reemployed with United in
Chicago as a load-planner at WHQLP. What I didn't anticipate was the
hostility that I met with by some of the employees that were already
working in that department when I got there. They resented my seniority
bumping them down a notch and immediately started a vendetta against me.
Only 2 weeks short of passing my probation, I was shown the door,
supposedly because my job performance was below standard.
A warning to all the employees and paying passengers that are flying on
United aircraft around the world: the load-planning functions are being
performed mostly by unqualified individuals who get only 2 weeks of very
basic training before they are turned loose to do that job that has the
lives of all of United's passengers in their hands. The stress level
is extremely high, as is the turnover rate with the end result that SOR
openings are almost constantly posted on the UA job site.
Because of greed and a total disregard for their employees, UA used the
9/11 tragedy as an excuse to cut all its wages and benefits, terminate
its pension programs, lay off 40 percent of its workforce, only to replace
them with outsourced workers, and what I feel is most outrageous of all,
to steal the company back from all the workers that gave up billions
of dollars to become employee owners under the sham of an ESOP plan --
a plan that United never intended to be a venue from which UAL employees
could control their own destiny.
I joined UAL in 1991 after the buyout of the PAN AM routes to London.
It was the begining of my career in Aviation, but I quickly learned United
was not a company to be trusted. I watched former managers/heads of
departments fired/demoted without just cause. People were sent over
from the USA to run the operation who had no idea how to return an
International airline. They all thought doing business in Europe was
the same as doing business in Japan --- NOT.
One manager when questioned about the threat of Virgin Atlantic to the
London operation said "BA and American are our competition", funny how
Virgin now have 6 flights a day between LHR and NYC; United has just 1.
I have watched UAL destroy people's lives, incompetent managers going
on witch hunts; indeed one manager copied in an employee on an e-mail to
other managers on how they were going to fire her. United will be your
best friend whilst you suit their cause; just ask ex-employees from the
now closed Dublin call centre (outsourced to India); or Paris Flight
Attendant base or Australia operation. I decided to get out after
September 11th and the chapter 11 bankruptcy filing...living with the
30% cut in pay and benefits and 20% more work had the potential to turn
me into one of the bitter, jaded old bags who can serve you onboard a
UAL flight. The bottom line is United is not a company that has an idea
about International travel; If you travel on their 747-400 there are
no screens in economy; they are no where near retrofitting a business
class bed...Their employees don't care because management treat them
like morons; no one at UAL has any people management skills...they do not
believe in internal customer service...THUS there is NO EXTERNAL CUSTOMER
SERVICE...GLEN TILTON is milking the company for millions whilist pilots,
flight attendant, ground staff have had their pensions cut in half...Funny
his is PROTECTED...NOW FLY UAL and expect excellent customer service.
Be suprised if you receive but you have been warned what to expect.
I worked for United in Sydney for 7 long years...
Couldnt work out why the staff had to PAY for water from the water cooler
- and no tea, coffee or beverage supplied for weary staff. Not a good
impression from the start from a multi billion dollar company. Needless
to say the water cooler no longer exists!..heres another small gripe..
the (ex) General Manageress was the (ex) Prime Minister's sister - how
did she get a promotion from airport customer check in-chick to head
honcho overnight??? Needless to say her job running United Australia
was appauling... as she mistreated staff and got away with it.
The list goes on with the ill treatment of staff ..just ask some of them
now...they about to be given the flick to make way for new slave labour.
The big farewell planned is over tea and biscuits, some of the staff
have been there 20 years. Jesus! guys bring in a keg of beer and stuff
management and calls!
well lots of critism i scracely know were to begin. today after 9-11 i
wouldnt know the airline. i only purshased ten shares of common stock at
42. finally sold the lot at 125. i have lost touch with all my friends
at united. dennis halfman retired to oregon, art webber disabled went to
phonix, everyone went someplace. i remained around lax, the mechanics
lunch room was out of bounds. i managed to get better nutrician during
my tenure there. in 1965 the food machines featured greasy chili,
crackers salt/sodium laden, and whole milk. this was usuasully followed
by french-fried apple pie and another cartion of whole milk. finnally
you could buy a paper coffee cup for 5 cents and drink hot coffee to you
hearts delight- the union choose yuban coffee-strong. then the shift
began after the usual threats. plenty of sucrose in the frenh-fried
pies. we then sucked on cigarettes, sipped the coffee and listened
with half an ear to the usual threats. sometimes a mecanic would yell
'hang the sob' enthusically. or 'give 'em the firing squad'. this when
a certain planner came in to brief us, 'ok listen up' i suspect the guy
was a gyrene. safety was important but.
I am a former UA customer Service employee from Australia. I have
been dedicated and loyal to this company from day one for 16years! I
was disapointed and disgusted at the recent treatment of myself and
fellow colleagues.About 100 of us have been made redundant. I too was
enjoying my job very much. I too planned to stay until retirement. But
you know what they say, "Things happen for a reason". I am so glad UA
gave me the push to get out! I feel sorry for the ones who were forced
to stay on! The way things are going, I'm sure UA will fill everyone
with Lies and empty promises as they did to me. I'm glad I got out with
some money (even though it wasn't Correct!) than nothing at all. It will
be awful when the Company collapses completely and can't afford to pay
the ones still on. Too easy for UA since the current employee enterprise
agreement won't be renewed. Gee, what a surprise?!?!
As a soon to be made redundant employee of United Airlines I will soon
submit my grievances of the airline on this web site, I have been
aware of the site for sometime now, though not dismissive of it I have
kept reserved judgement of it until now.
The majority of our Australian employees are being made redundant in
this country, our customer service positions are being outsourced to a
company called Aerocare, or Aero-don't-care as we know it to be,
Reservations is off to the Phillipines.
After all the support we have given the company through 9/11, chapter
11 etc, they coldly waited until the exit from bankruptcy to terminate
us, this is despite the constant bombardment of emails from our CEO
Glenn Tilton and Larry DeShon, our VP of Airport Operations that if we
looked after the customer and drove the business forward, we would
have a secure future in the rebuilt United.
We now know that UA used the employees to emotionally connect with our
customers to ensure them that everything would be ok, throughout the
bankruptcy process, through our loyalty, that's why they waited until
after exit from chapter 11 to axe our jobs, the fiscally prudent thing
to do would have been to outsource our jobs during chapter 11 to
satisfy the debtors in possession, but contractors would not have
reassured our customers as effectively as we did.
Currently our accounts department still cannot come up with our
correct redundancy figures, we have just had the update after the
first guesstimate and some employees figures have risen and some have
dropped. My payout has risen some $800AUD but they show my avg working
week of only 28.15 hours (based on part-time), I have the sore feet
and timesheets to prove I worked more than full time hours.
My job is being brought to an end prematuraly, and I know I would have
stayed on until retirement, some 25 years away, but the reality is I'm
being thrown a lifeline in getting out with a financial payment.
I'm heartbroken at being pushed out of the job I love without choice,
but I know from some of my former colleagues at London Heathrow, there
is a better life after UA.
I have to say we are not going out quietly in Australia, we have been
two of UA's most dilliegent stations in collecting fees and charges
from our passengers, never missing the chance to upsell a seat or
product...now it's a different story, the management have shown their
true nasty side and our Premium passengers (Global Services and 1K)
are not happy, many saying they are ready to walk as Qantas has far
superior aircraft to our widebody rust-buckets, the only thing UA had
was excellent Customer Service...Glenn Tilton, Why do you throw away
your only decent product? Your employees and customers want an answer!
I too was once a part of the "United Family".
My father was a mechanic at SFO for 37 years. He retired early when
the pension were flushed. My brother worked on the ramp until he was
forced to choose between college and a constantly changing schedule,
swing to midnights and back with little notice. My cousin (despite our
protests!) was recently hired with the newest batch of F/A's as UAL
attempts to come out of BK.
I was hired in 1986 and spent a year and a half at SFORR, transfering
to SFOCS in 1988 where I was injured on the line in 1989.
I initially enjoyed my job in reservations until I burned out with the
outrageous sales goals and expectations as did most of my co-workers.
Because I consistantly exceeded sales goals, my manager didn't want me
to transfer to the airport. I had to threaten him with a grievance to
get the ball rolling.
Once at the airport I was trained as a ticket agent and despite
my protests, eventually went on to lost baggage, due in part to my
"excellent customer service skills", or so my new supervisor told me.
One evening an irate intoxicated passenger reached across the counter
for my scarf. He wanted his bag pulled from a container. Because I
could get no assistance from the senior, ready to retire gang in the back
room, I had to leave the podium and attempt to retrieve the bag myself.
In doing so, I injured my lower back.
I saw the UAL flight surgeon at SFOMD and then saw my own doctor who
did an MRI and informed me I had two herniated discs at L 2 and 3.
In order to keep my TD coming, UAL forced me to see their quack at SFOMD
every three or four months. The doctor told me there was nothing wrong
with me, despite the MRI I had in my hands. I asked her how she could
take a hypocratic oath and lie through her teeth.
With the threatening certified letters and phone calls continually
coming to my home, I was forced to retain an attorney.
I was lucky compared to what others appear to have gone through since
then, as my attorney secured on going treatment, retraining and a generous
settlement for me, finally culminating in 1992. The new workers comp
laws in California make it increasingly difficult for anyone to get the
medical treatment they need these days.
I too believe that there is life outside of UAL!
I'm a former employee. I'll tell my story another time. Yes, 13 years
of blood, sweat and tears. Giving up evenings weekends and holidays
with my family to get kicked in the a$$.
What I really want to address is how the Chicago media is all over
"United flying out of bankruptcy." Talk about putting perfume on a
pig!
They "flew" out of bankruptcy after three years of taking everything
away from the employees who have given up their lives to make that
company work. What are they getting? That's right, they get to keep
their job! After cutting 30% of the work force. That's what they, the
management, drills into your head. You are lucky you have a
job. However, the upper management are all getting bonuses. HUH?
The company is still losing how many millions a day and the
management gets a bonus? Others are making $8.00 to $10.00 an hour to
get abused not only by the public, but by the management. That's right
UA employees who are all still there, you are lucky you still have a
job.
The public needs to wake up and smell the coffee. I know for a fact
that company does NOT care about customer satisfaction. They have
stripped all the front line employees of any type of empowerment. If
an employee does make an exception, they get fired for it. UA cites it
as stealing from the company.
I say give me a break!
Any UA employees out there reading this: LISTEN TO ME - there is a
life after United. YOU WILL get a much better job, that pays well and
has great benefits. It's very scary to leave after so many years of
dedication, but there are other jobs that will really value your
knowledge and loyalty.
I have been a flight attendant for UAL since 1995. I had an injury on
the job in 2002 and was unable to work. I then had surgery, PT,
etc. but in Sept. 2005, received a letter of termination. Not only am
I angry, I am, hurt, scared and devastated. United did not give me a
chance to heal. I now not only suffer physically but also
emotionally. I need help -- what to do now?
In May 1995, I started at United Airlines
in Reservations & Sales. From there I worked a job temp assignment in
1997 in Flight Attendant Recruitment. I was used to giving my very
best and only wanted to work for the very best. Foolishly, I thought
that United Airlines was the company for me. I worked hard: in 1988,
after flying for just 2 years, I was honored for on-board service.
That same year, I was honored again by UAL as "Humanitarian of the
year." I spoke to at-risk school kids about the importance of staying
in school. I encouraged them that if they did, they could be like me
and work for a company like United Airlines (yuck-yuck). I have since
repented from this lie!
Despite the recognition for my hard work, I had to contend with an
extremely hostile supervisor. She would brief the crew before I
arrived and tell them that I had an emotional problem. She stalked me
in the bathroom. She followed me from my gates when I deplaned. She
called my house and sent mail to my home. She encouraged other Flight
Attendants to file false reports about me and generated stacks of them
herself. One such report indicated that I struck a passenger with a
soda can. She approached me on the United bus on the way to the
parking lot and shoved me as I was getting off the bus. If a
passenger wrote something good about me, she destroyed it.
Once, I was assaulted by a passenger (thrown across the plane) because
his headset did not work. The flight was a turn in Toronto. Needless
to say the crew did not help, and the pilot never filed his report.
This was a level 2 assault. The FAA and the Union did nothing.
However because there was no crew to turn the plane around I sucked up
my pain and worked the flight back to Chicago. I was told by OPS that
they sent a glowing report of my professionalism and concern for the
passengers traveling to Chicago thereby putting myself second. As I
sat in my Supervisor's office, she pulled up the "pat on the back"
memo from OPS. I saw it on her screen and asked for a copy. She then
said, "Oops! Somehow I deleted it. Oh, well. Forget about it."
I was off work from stress for 3 months due to her harassment. My
doctor finally told me I could return to work. But then, my
supervisor sent a false report to Dr. McGuffin of United Medical
stating that I hated being a Flight Attendant. Once again I was
removed from my trips. I endured this type of treatment from 2001
until 2005. I sought out the Union but they did nothing, siding
instead with the Supervisor.
After more harassment, I sought help outside of the airline. Finally,
my Supervisor and her office-mate were removed from their posts. In
the meantime though, my nerves were frazzled and I began to lose my
hair. Another Supervisor, known for his penchant for getting rid of
"trouble" Flight Attendants, took over. I was on his team for one
week when he called me in for a performance review. He took my
handbook and gave me a loaner, severely out of sequence and missing
pages. Later, I asked the coordinator if I could retrieve my original
handbook from his office. The following day I was brought up on
charges for breaking into United's property and stealing United's
property, even though it was in my $25 binder!
I walked out of United Airlines in May 2005 and have never returned.
Today, I had to check into the welfare department for food stamps or
cash. I lost everything due to Management mobbing, defamation of
character, false reports, and lack of Union Support. I have literally
lost everything. I have no income, no employment compensation, and no
legal help. Either I don't have the money or my clock time (statute
of limitations) has run out.
I miss my friends, the layovers, and the fun crew, but since leaving,
I finally feel good about myself again. It took my family and my
community to put me back together -- they will never fly United. They
watched me go from happy to distraught and broke. Though I lost
everything and have to start over, I have peace. And that's more than
United is giving anyone. In fact they are literally killing flight
attendants who can't take care of their well-being. Thanks for
letting me share. Oh yeah, where is the United Airline Battered
Flight Attendant shelter located in Chicago? Put that on the 'to do
list' real soon.
Thank God for "Untied" where I can see others have been treated
unfairly by this sorry company and it's not just me. If there's every
a class-action lawsuit, please sign me up!
Ed: I help monitor the Untied.com website. I was a USAF pilot for 13
years, then went to UAL as a 727 pilot. I was fired after 11 months
for fabricated reasons. The stories from people like you and me are
all similar. I received numerous commendations for outstanding
service, and even received a rare "outstanding" on my initial
checkride. Yet, because I dared to keep my integrity I was abruptly
fired on made-up charges. (UAL has been cheating on maintenance for
years, and while I was there they were also cheating on crew rest
requirements, training requirements, and they were lying in their
maintenance logbooks.) My life is so much better post-UAL, and I'm
sure yours will be as well. Management is scum -- there's no other
way to describe it. Just be glad you are out of their deceitful web
and continue to tell everyone you know -- including government
officials and any FAA people that will listen -- how UAL really
operates their unsafe airline.
Readers and other UALers are welcome to contact
this former employee at glaycerj@yahoo.com
I have been on w/c since 2001. My medical treatments have been denied
and delayed over and over. Medical not reimbursed and TTD not paid in
full. Because of that my condition will be rated 100% disabled. I am on
a third WC attorney and still can't get paid. I am fed up! I am
looking to file outside of workers comp system, possibly class action
law suit. Would you know other FAs, or other UAL employees that are in
the same possition? I am tired of beeing pushed in to poverty while my
health deteriorates, so Gallagher Bassett can make a profit.
I was forced to resign after UAL would not extend family leave or
allow a regular leave of absence for me. My mother was terminally ill
and I was her sole caregiver. During this time I was also in a car
accident and they gave false and erroneous information to the
insurance carrier which caused a reduction in my settlement. Is this
legal?
I was a flight attendant with UAL from 1999-2003, based out of EWR and
JFK. Any passengers who think they've received "go-the-extra-mile"
service from UAL should be aware of a few things about this service,
as well as the contradiction that this airline doesn't have the
decency to treat its own employees as human beings, with a modicum of
truth and dignity.
First thing, the emergency training that flight attendants receive is
a total joke: we were given only 5 days, whereas they drilled
first-class service into us for 5 weeks. What does that tell you?
When I was purser in first class, we were told to start taking dinner
orders with the passengers with the most accumulated miles, then tell
those with the least miles that we simply ran out of their choice.
Not so bad if this policy were communicated honestly and openly, but
management wanted us to be deceitful about it. I got "caught" a few
times so I sat down and told the passengers the whole truth about UAL
policy.
I made many business-card sized copies of the UAL head office
address in Elk Grove Village and the telephone number for
complaints. I carried these on flights to give out to the many
disgruntled passengers who weren't placated by offering them large
amounts of alcohol.
After 9/11, I went on sick leave. I was totally harrassed by a
supervisor in EWR for calling in sick. During this time, the airline
was obligated to pay my disability, but being the cheap bastards that
they are, they do what they can to shake you down. Thus, despite the
documentation of my own MD, which was sent to UAL, indicating that I
was totally unfit mentally, let alone, physically, to fly, the airline
kept calling me in to their "MD" at JFK, Dr. Weiss. When they
threatened me with termination, after my MD told me to stay in FLA to
heal, I gave them my final address and phone number as those belonging
to cemetery.
I hired a lawyer for a Social Security Act claim (over which bankrupty
protection has no influence, as it's a government controlled process)
and won the case on appeal. Damages awarded included all my back pay
(approx. $15,000). Of course, UAL wanted most of that amount paid
back to Cigna, their disablity carrier. I paid some of it to them but
kept the rest to rent a place to live at the time. UAL then sent the
matter to a collection agency. They threatened to take my home
(none), car (none), assests (as a UAL Flight Attendant? you've got to
be kidding! what assets?) and garnish wages (none). When I told them
about Section 207 of the SSA Disablity Act, which basically states
that no one can touch the Disability award except the government, they
were forced to back off and discharge all the monies that I owed to
Cigna.
I have nearly seven years seniority and have been furloughed for eight
months now. I was a service director with an excellent performance
record. I have customer appreciation letters to prove it. If and when I
get called back, I will be making close to what I started at with even
poorer working conditions than before. I understand that management
has a job to do, but knocking down the morale of the CSRs should not
be included in their list of duties. There are a couple of supervisors
here that were fired as CSRs. Wow. What am I missing? And bless the
heart of the union. They have saved so many peoples jobs who should
have been canned years ago. I have witnessed co workers with over 20
years seniorty who are lazy, rude, and have no desire to take care of our
passengers. Hmmm. It's a sad fact that this company is not about customer
service, but about time served. I agree that many of our senior agents
are very hardworking, consciencious workers who have sadly been screwed
by this company and they are pretty much "stuck" where they are. And
do not blame 9-11. All carriers were in the same boat and not all are
in our position. The top dogs should be incarcerated for their poor
business decisions like any criminal should. It's elementary that it's
not what you know but who you blow.
I am former employee of UAL. I had to go out on disability when my EIS
ran out because of a work related injury. After I injured my back at
UAL I was labeled a liability. And so my personal hell began. The last
injury date that put me out was 1997. UAL wont settle, why should they
the new comp reforms are the greatest thing since slice bread. Or so
they think. I have joined a group called, "Injured voters. Org."
Through membership help they are lobbing our State Representatives to
beat back the ridiculous reforms instituted by the
Terminator. Ironically Injured voters tells me that the litigation
costs for the insurance companies has skyrocketed because almost all
treatment is being denied by the new insurance independent, (ya
right!) review board. This forces the workers and their Attorneys to
litigate thus increasing the amount of billed hours for the Attorneys
representing the Insurance companies. I have provided the address to
the Injured Voters web site. Please
consider becoming a member. It seems votes are what our
Representatives listen too.
Another reader comments:
Note that viaw.org is an organization funded by and pretty much
controlled by the California Applicants Attorneys Association. They
may lobby legislators to change the laws, but so far they have been
ineffective at doing much of anything other than taking money from
California's occupationally injured.
I have been workng for United employee since 1986. I am not anymore
due to an injury. I am still listed as an employee but not working
and not getting paid. I still have 2 years to return to work if I
choose, But I seriuosly doubt I will return to a company that has
destroyed it's employees. There were so many ways to save money
without destroying our pensions. The whole time the airline has
been in bankruptcy they have hired more upper level management and
still have that terrible mileage plus program, along with the premier
crap. All that does is cost money. Southwest doesn't have it and
they may be different in many respects to United but they are an
airline. They are making money hand over fist. They are an excellent
business model that should be followed by anyone or company. One
thing that has not changed in the time of the company's bankruptcy
is the managment mentality and the way it does business. It is a
dinosaur way of thinking and is killing the company and the employees
morale. I hope that those still there the best and well being
whether they stay with it or leave. I never hated the job itself
at United just the way the company was ran in recent years and the
treatment of the employees.
Sadly, I am facing another furlough in July. It is just weeks
now until I turn in my badge, clear out my mailbox and say goodbye
to my dear friends at LAX where I am a CSR.
I will miss my customers. I will miss my favorite supervisors, I
will miss putting up my hair, pinning on my name and tying my scarf
with pride.
Strange enough, it is only happening at LAX. A massive hiring is
happening out there to recruit college students and train them to
take the jobs of loyal employees. We will lose our wages, our
benefits, our dignity as we walk out the door and watch someone
else walk in and take over our jobs for less money, less benefits.
We've already given back almost 14% or our wages, benefits and
hours. The cut backs have been tremendous, and still we work, we
service, we give, we only ask to keep our jobs.
I have never disserviced a customer because UA has asked me to give
up my wages and benefits. Why is it that UA is now asking us to
give up our jobs?
Oh yes, then there is the union. I forgot. UA's hands are tied
to the union contract. Furlough employees who are on the bottom
of the payscale already, keep the ones who are at the top. Furlough
employees that are an asset to the company, keep the employees who
could give a hoot about the customers. Yes, now it all makes sense
to me now.
hmmm.....
Employees that were furloughed after 9/11 and not recalled (as I
was) have been given extended flight benefits for 5 years. We will
leave with only 6 months of flight benefits. We don't fall under
that "extended" benefits contract. I guess that's fair....hmmm..
Like our mom's said to us when we were kids "life isn't fair"...Moms
are always right...
My mother and stepdad work/worked for Unitewd Airlines. My mom has
been there for 18 years, my stepdad retired, two years ago, with
31 years. My mom has worked the ramp,the ticket counter, and the
gate. She's been the employee that picks up everyone else's slack,
and works hard enough to put everyone else to shame. My stepdad is
a wounded Vietnam Veteran. Up until his last two years of employment,
before his wounded leg became less and less tolerable, he had a
fantastic attendance record.
Watching my parents work always made
me proud. Most of the time, my mom (for the entire 18 years that
she's worked for United, especially after re-location) has NOT taken
a lunch break. But, if she does get a break, it's only long enough
to use the bathroom, cram a granola bar in her mouth and run back
up to the gate.
My mom, two years ago, was diagnosed with Multiple
Sclerosis. She has little energy, and has been advised, by every
single doctor she's ever visited, to QUIT her stressful, sickening
pathetic job. Throughout the years, I can think of at least 8 times
that my mom or step dad have had to call the cops because of an
irate customer. My mom's had coffee thrown in her face, she's been
spit on, threatened and stalked. She remained loyal to the company,
nonetheless.
Every once in a while, I would fly stand-by to visit
my dad, and I'd sit at my mom's gate and watch her work. The
disrespect, stupidity and complete lack of humanity that I witnessed
from partner airlines, customers and the general public was astounding.
I cannot beleive how much stress and hate my mom tolerates on a day
to day basis. 40 hours a week. With MS. And stress is supposedly
the worst trigger of a dibilitating MS attack. She gets up every
morning at 2:45, drives an hour to work, and gets harassed for eight
hours. Then, on top of that, her insurance isn't accepted in most
reasonable doctor's office. United's corporate decided to drop the
benefits. Her medicine costs $1,000 a month, and United, after 18
years of loyal service is too greedy and dispicable to do their
part.
My step dad's retirement plan is expected to drop 27-57%. My
mom will not get a retirement at all. They also have endured many
pay-cuts. Every penny my parents have received, they've earned with
their upmost blood, sweat and tears. I dread hearing my mom start
her car every morning to leave for the hell hole otherwise known
as United airlines. I'm afraid she won't come back in good shape.That's
what MS will do to you.
I can't beleive how poorly the hard-working
Americans for this greedy corporation are treated. I hope that the
multi-millionaires get a good laugh out of all the homes they've
wrecked. I'm sure that's all it's worth to them. It makes me sick
to think that at one point, my parents actually beleived that they
had a career, insurance, retirement and stability. Maybe all the
greedy jerks at the top of the corporate food chain can get MS
too...Then you may know a fourth of the pain my family feels every
day.
I've watched my family go from stable and well-off to struggling
and stressed. In the last five years, United has done nothing but
wreck the lives of loyal people. You can't blame this on bankruptcy.
Blame this on the dirty, dirty habit of a cliche corporate
world....greed. Thanks for ruining everyone's life. Make sure your
kids know how they've earned all their precious pruiivelages and
posessions....through the slavery of others!
I regularly go to the The-Mechanics web site when I found yours. I
am a former UAL mechanic that was forced into retirement in May 2003
and I am now consirned about the recent decission to hand over UAL's
pension funding to the PBGC. I think that judge Wedoff's decision
is a joke. I don't know of anyone in the labor force that makes any
UAL policy or BOD decisions. YET, Wedoff desided to "punish" labor
by cuting their pensions and in turn does nothing to those that
were and are directly responcible for UAL's present situation.
Unfortunately, it also looks like UAL has managed to buyoff most
of their unions to support concessions.
As a former employee of United Airlines, for a very short time, I couldn't
help but want to put in a comment about what United is doing to it's
employees now. The reason I was a short term employee was because I would
not work for people who treated their employees with so little respect. I
read the letters on this site and can absolutely believe why there are so
many customer complaints. I don't believe I have ever worked with more
miserable people in my life. Now the problems with the pensions. I don't
believe this airline should be bailed out anymore by the government...let
it shut down. How long must the taxpayers continue to support an airline
that is so poorly managed!
After reading all these entries, some rather valid and credible,
and still others of suspicious content, I am amazed that no one has
mentioned or even hinted at the past transgressions of some of the
unions with their extortionary tactics and over valued worth and
salary demands. There is enough blame to go a round with poor
management both at the corporate level and the CB groups. Get real
and recognize how much damage the unions have done as well. I'm
retired, so none of this is of any real issue to me, but it needed
to be said.
I too, am a UAL worker. I have been employed by the company for
just under a year now, it is by far the worst company that I have
ever worked for. At first it was all fun, and good, I got along
with most everyone. After a year though things changed.
First of us, how dare United take away what little money I was
making. My $10.02 an hour did not warrant a pay cut. And second
of all how could they take away the pensions of the people who built
that company. I could care-less, but to a person of 30 years of
emplyoment!?!?!
Now to talk about the workers. I work at a small line station, in
the northeast. I work with some of the laziest and rudest people
that I have ever met. Women who do not learn to dump the lavs,
because "none of the girls know how", to people that do not know how
to work the gate, or move a jet bridge after 20 years seniority.
People who wont work outside, if needed, because they don't want
to. Well when they wonder why the company is the way it is, I say
for three reasons. The management, the workers who don't know how
to work, and the IAM union.
I was a United flight attendant based at LAX for over 10 years and finally
had enough. In the beginning I loved my job, my fellow employees and
the vast majority of the passengers. After 2001 the entire operation
changed. For junior Flight attendants (If you don't have 15-20 years
in L.A. you are junior believe it or not) the work schedules became
worse by the month. 12-14 hour duty days working 4-5 days (with as many
fights per day) at a stretch became the norm. Flight attendants with
my limited amount of seniority at United did ALL the heavy grunt work
which included extremely long duty days, short layovers and multiple
leg flights day in and day out. If I wanted to work at Southwest, I
would have applied with them! With little chance of ever being able to
fly the easier International routes (reserved for attendants with many
years of service-in some cases 40+ years) I decided to leave this once
great airline. Many of us say "this is not the job I signed up for and
it is NOT". I submitted my resignation and a huge weight is now off my
chest. I will miss the fun crews, in some cases great passengers but not
the truly awful work schedule. With additional pay cuts planned, I believe
it is United's goal to reduce all of our pay to Jet Blue's levels. These
salaries are basically poverty wages in the large metropolitan areas
that United has bases and I chose to move on with my life.
Has anyone really sat down and read all there is to know about what is
happening to us. I am a ramp employee at ohare and have worked in the
airline industry for 20 years. I joined united in 1992 who then was the
best airline to work for in the entire airline industry. I can remember
working a gate that had 5-6 757's daily all full of passengers, mail,
freight, and yes baggage. throughout each day with the back to back
flights and going home tired as can be I can remember how good it felt
just being part of the company and my fellow co-workers and no matter
how hard we worked we left with a good feeling inside. like I believe
it was for everyone it was exciting to work there. Today however is
not so happy, I can agree with everyone about our pensions, our pay
and benefits but how about the damage to the morale and the depression
that lingers all around us each day. I can remember the laughs we use to
have and now we all need therapy just to get through the day. I hope for
all of us that one day we will have the morale that is needed to become
successful. With this I leave you all with one note that no matter
what, they can't take our souls.
I am completely saddend by the way United has handled its devoted
employees since this whole bankruptcy situation. I cleaned airplanes
for 25 years for this company. I was terminated yes thats the word they
used when they out sourced my job. Three months before the termination
I got hurt at work and cracked two vertabre. I was on L and I at the
time. United quit paying me and cut me off from wages and medical. It has
been almost three years since then and I havent recovered. The injury was
such a shock to my body that I developed fibromyalgia. I will never be
able to work again. I am fifty years old and cannot get retirement. I am
afraid the retirement I will get five years from now will not even pay the
utility bills. I have a law suit but my was turned down the first time. I
appealed and it is going to mediation in June. I doubt that I will get
anything from this company. But what I have gotten was beaten and pushed
to the ground so low that I will never be the same again. This is how
I have been treated. For the few people that are current employees and
who stick up for this disgusting company good luck to you! You need it!
I had mediation yesterday, and was told "Association of FlighT
Attendants has 30 days to review my file and decide whether to pursue
arbitration". At mediation, UAL "offered" me the option of resigning so
it would not permanently affect my employment "record"...(is that like
a criminal record?). I turned it down because AFA's attorney (who prior
to yesterday I misunderstood as being mine, too) pushed me to accept
their offer, since "there are so many time limitations for filing
discrimination and harassment suits", and the Family Medical Leave Act
(FMLA) does not apply to Flight Attendants because none of us work
enough to legally qualify (then why did they award it to me?)
It was
awarded as a result of asthma, which no doubt worsened when they started
changing the air filters on the airlplanes even less frequently than
they did prior to 9/11.
There are too many incidents to bring up to you
here, but all of my co workers know that the Station Manager in EWR/PHL
(where I was based) looked and looked for anything to happen that could
be used to terminate my employment after a series of events led her to
believe I needed to go because I'm a "whistle blower".
Incidentally,
you should know this: on your website there is an article from a Flight Attendant
regarding UAL's response to requests for a new crew hotel in LA following
a rape and assault in front of the Westin Bonaventure. Two days after
that girl was raped, I requested a different layover hotel prior to my
trip. I was told "at this time it is much more efficient to keep you
all at the Bonaventure. If you want to leave the hotel, you should not
go alone". I was the girl who was assaulted in front of the hotel. It
was 3:00 in the afternoon- and I was not alone.
I have been with United for 21 years. It is really a sad day for
us all. I do not understand why the bankruptcy Judge Wedoff did not
force upper management to cut from the top in this reorganization
of our company? The top management has continued to hire or promote
managers to new positions. Why didn't we cut them? In reservations,
we had 1 supervisor for each 60-70 agents and now we have double the
amount 1 for 35 agents. They are there to constantly monitor every
call, listening to every word and every key stroke is taped. They are
trying to get rid of any employee who has been with UAL for a while,
and continually hire new hires at 8.24 an hour, and of course replace
us with India 2 offices and Nova Scotia office. A lot of the work has
been moved to those and Mexico res. is growing. They are not up front
with us. They think we don't know they are in the Phillipines, setting
up more outsourcing. It would be nice to be treated like adults and not
small children in reservations. Depressing.....and very sad day at UAL.
I was a United Airlines flight attendant from 2000 until I
resigned in mid-2004 (and thank God I did.) I had flown for another,
now defunct airline for many years, and loved every minute of it.
I HATED working for United. Every day was a nightmare.
UAL has the sickest management in the world. I can give you numerous
examples, many of them having to do with their handling of the
tragedies of 9/11**, but I won't go into that. I will just give you
one good example to sum up what wackos are in charge at UAL.
When I was pregnant with my son in 2000, my supervisor and I were
having a casual conversation in the domicile. I think I was getting
ready to work a flight. In any case, the supervisor thought it
appropriate to share with me how her own baby had been BORN DEAD
so many years back. She included all the gory details.
Now, I'm sorry, but I don't think this appropriate 'office small
talk', nor do I think it a very nice story to share with a pregnant
woman, never mind one that is your 'underling'. Being this supervisor's
'underling', I had to just stand there and listen. (This is the
same woman who would then repremand me for not having my hair up
properly.)
Unfortunately, the above mentioned supervisor was the rule at UAL
rather than the exception. The exception was my next supervisor,
who had been hired by UAL right before 9/11, then went to work for
Jet Blue, then got recalled by United and left Jet Blue, and stated
to me that going back to UAL was the worst mistake he had ever made.
There are one or two 'Marilyns' among all the 'Munsters'
management/corporate at UAL...but very few.
(Okay...I'll add one 9/11 story from my own experience. I don't
live far from The WTC, and my daughter witnessed a plane hit the
tower. Very shortly after 9/11, when I confided in another UAL
supervisor that my daughter (age 9) was very traumatized by seeing
the plane hit the tower, this supervisor's response was a curt
"Well, then I guess you're just not cut out to be a flight attendant."
Thank Goodness for Project Liberty, who my union sent to my home,
and who diagnosed my daughter with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
You better believe UAL provided NO support to the flight attendants
or their families.)
Today's news headline is UAL's approval to dump the
pensions. Why is it the federal government does not look into
this company and identify exactly where our 4 billion surplus went.
When Goodwin said we were "hemmoraging money," did anyone see who
the vampires were?
What protects these poor decision makers from a grand jury
investigation? Some of that 4 billion?
Being an ex UAL Management employee, I don't see everything
wrong with UAL. After all, if I didn't have such a crappy boss, I
would never have been nominated for leadership awards with my own
company. After all, I just did the exact reverse of everything he
did and here I am. Next month I am being recognized as a INC
Magazine Fastest Growing company and this is all because I do the
exact opposite of what [name omitted] taught us. Thank goodness for
people who fly BP5A (priority boarding for business-related trips)
with wives to Japan in confirmed first class
or allow his staff like [name omitted] go to LHR to watch musicals all
expenses paid. They are the chosen losers who will continue to
lead UAL to great heights. About 2 inches lower than my crotch.
I am a past employee of UAL. I worked in SEA reservations for almost
8 years! When the new productivity rules went into effect.. Look
out!! Basically you would only have under 5 minutes to goto the
restroom, get something to drink, handle personal business issues--and
that is in an 8 hour shift. They treated us like robots... If a
supervisor wanted to talk to us, you could kiss your productivity
goodbye for the day--because it would count against us!!
The SEA res office is closing as of June 4th, 2005 and I feel for
SO many past co workers that have given UAL EVERYTHING. 20-30 years
with the company and now they are telling them they have to move
to DC, Chicago, Hawaii, or they can take severance pay with a
furlough, or severance pay and cut all ties with UNITED!! These
people are about to retire in less than 2-4 years!!! What are they
suppose to do??? They have been there for the company sooo many
years and this is the thanks that they get!!
Corporate doesn't care at United and it is really sad.
I left United and started flying with JetBlue...believe me!! what
a difference....the way the CEO, COO, managers treat the employees...shows
in how we treat customers!!!
This is a note to the AFA or any other United Group that believes UAL management is treating employees fairly and equitably.
If anyone would check the salaries of United Airlines Managment, especially the "I" level and above, they would find that many have received "Snap Backs", Raises and Bonuses since their January 1st "pay-cuts".
While the front line employees continue to get wage and benefit cuts many Managers, Directors, Vice-Presidents and Senior Officers received Snap Backs, Raises and Massive Bonus payments even above their 2004 rates.
The morally bankrupt leaders of United continue to line their pockets by stealing from the employees who actually do the work. While most employee groups continue to be squeezed, the Management of United Airlines continues to pursue their own selfish interests at the expense of the investors and employees.
Demand transparency from United Airlines Management. Demand honesty from United Airlines Management. Demand accountability from United Airlines Management.
I'm not a direct employee of united, or a customer, but under the same
prospects as a contracted employe I must have my voice heard. In the next
few months to come, at united there will be new changes that will effect
the direct employee and the customer. They have recently filed again for
bankruptcy yet again, and are now planning on removing the main source
of the united customer relations with contracted sources. Under this next
move, the main corrupted sources that are still bring the company down will
be protected. The one's who are taking bonuses for letting go 60 percent of
the main effectiveness of the work force that makes the company work, the
employees. The C.E.O of united is taking bounces, not for the
effectiveness of the company, but how thay can save them selves. By the end
of this effective work year, they will have the main work forces
contracted, while they the Big Wig Fat cats still take money out of of a
dying company, and they well know it. These are not the bonuses that they
deserve, it's just what they can take before its over, and it's all at the
expense of the current employee, and customer.
I also used to dislike this website but since our management has turned the
company upside down- it seems that this is the only place for people to
address thier issues with United and be heard.
I wish the traveling public could know how bad the flight attendants are
treated on a daily basis about thier sick leave or family leave request.
After flying for ten years and putting up with the crap from them and the
new work rules which is killing some of us. I chose to leave and move onto
better things- The morale at the company is so bad, they better watch what
cuts they ask for next. Most of the flight attendants are finished putting
up with the crap that's being shoved down thier throats.
I've been a UAL employee for the better of 27 years have been layed up
with a back and shoulder injury for eight months, forced to go back to
work, robbed by the sake of ESOP, and refunded any 401 k monies that
had been put aside for my families retirement. The stock is worthless,
not to mention that we have financed the company with pay cut after pay
cut; how can we send our kids to school and make the mortgage payments?
Now they change the work rules with all the Unions on the grounds they
are bankrupt, lay off countless cleaners, replace all the hired people
from SCRUB with others on work visas, who in turn will be replaced by
new bodies once their visas are up. Mechanics have been outsourced and
soon the bag handlers...
Loyalty has been flushed down the lav. buddy. Did anyone tell the higher
ups that you get more out of people when you treat them with respect and
dignity? That was not a college course was it? Let me put on a $1000
suit and go lie to people. For the sake of the investors? Not! They have
been robbed also. Who is going to investigate this Company?
Dear Mr. Tilton,
There are moments when the individual must stand up and speak out
on critical issues, and today at United Airlines is one of those
times. My perspective on the airline industry, and United in
particular, spans forty years. You are a newcomer to the company;
I on the other hand started working for UAL in April 1964, have
been honored as Flight Attendant of the Year, and have a lengthy
history of service to the company in which personal excellence was
my chosen sole alternative. So you and the other executives should
bear close attention to what I have to say.
A big, and potentially fatal, change in corporate culture has swept
across America during the past four decades, and United Airlines
has been a part of this. What is different now? The "family" business
environment that I happily entered into all those years ago, where
everyone helped each other and executive doors were open to the
rank and file, is gone. Now employees are treated like peons of
little value, completely fungible, and with no right to full
disclosure or even common decency from management. While executives
are awarded immense salaries and golden parachutes, the lowly workers
are viewed as an enemy to be held at bay, lied to as needed, and
at retirement tossed over the side like garbage. The intolerable
pattern does not end there. Terms of security provided in retirement
income and medical benefits are not safe and can be truncated without
warning. As a result, at UAL there is a wide spread culture of fear
and apprehension completely unrelated to the present bankruptcy
negotiations. Supposedly, by July of this year bankruptcy will no
longer be an issue. The fear will continue.
I place the blame for this on you and those like you. I have witnessed
unimaginable increases in your incomes and benefits while you fight
to keep our worker wages as low as possible, even as they are gnawed
away by inflation. The model now is a Time magazine photograph of
a recent UAL chief executive announcing his status as the highest
paid CEO in the world, which same executive was at that moment
traveling the country asking flight attendants to accept a voluntary
10% pay cut. He was earning more money than all the flight attendants
together, and some B-scale attendants were already below the
federally-defined poverty level, yet his obscene income was sacrosanct
while their's should be adjusted downward "for the good of the company."
The main causes of United's problems right now are managerial
arrogance, poor understanding of the realities of day-to-day flying,
and quite frequently arrant stupidity right at the top. The
carpetbagger executives intending to bump-and-go with suitcases
full of money have no reason to care whether their policies are
contradictory or shortsighted, and they don't. After all, none of
them have given their lives to the company. They are here for just
a few years, and their motivation is to sweep through the accounts
and bail out. Anything that doesn't glaringly undermine is fine.
Stay right on the edge of the legal parameters, but just the edge.
Then hop off the bubble before it breaks. Tens of thousands are
injured, you say? Well, we all must make decisions in a free market
economy. No one had to work for an airline, particularly United.
If you have a problem with that idea, tough. And turn off the lights
on your way out.
But how could this sort of thing come to pass? What has happened
to higher management? The answer is simple: Hotshots with MBAs from
name-brand schools, who scored big on theory courses, cannot balance
out in any industry without listening to people who have been on
site for decades and know how this business, this one, actually
works. Unlike during my early years of flying for United, the period
building up to bankruptcy was attended with an unending series of
micro-managerial screw-ups that could have been avoided. This could
have been done just by asking a few questions and looking at our
history -- instead of buying consultation contracts that were as
expensive as they were cock-eyed. Repaint the planes, swap out the
china, alter the uniforms, change the tray configurations, hand
them scarves that must be dry cleaned, lengthen the trips, cut down
rest periods between flights, and on and on. But don't even think
about trimming the number of marginal junior executives, and for
Heaven's sake don't consider knocking back top management incomes
during hard times!
And how about this? Lets see: United is struggling through bankruptcy
problems right now, and times are rough. How can we make some quick
cash? I know, gang; lets put together a show in the garage, the
neighbors will all come to see it, and we'll be in great shape! No,
no! I have a better idea: let's try another short-haul paste-on
airline! It didn't work last time, but on the principle that spoiled
milk will taste sweet the second time you sip it, let's give it
another try! Where's my banjo?
There's something else wrong with the big shots at United. In addition
to the arrogance-inexperience-stupidity triad, we turn to your
flat-out dishonesty and unethical treatment of workers. In a business
where success is measured even on the short-call by interaction of
workers with the public, you have maintained a consistent policy
of their mistreatment, all the while saying that you are doing the
very best you can. You think that holding down wages and creating
a hostile work environment won't be noticed by the dumb-bunnies you've
hired, or that they won't pass it on to the customers? Perhaps you
imagine that handing us "attaboy" pins once in a while will cloak
United with a veil of invisibility if you consult the right witch
doctor. Sorry, that hasn't happened. I have a box of attaboys and
20-20 vision to prove it.
The most egregiously unethical thing high management has done is
to bait-and-switch United's retirement policies. That's right, we
have noticed what you're doing. No doubt guided by the Bush
Administration's "see it then, see it now" approach to politics, the
UAL promises I actually believed have been shaken in front of me,
then pulled away in the most outrageous bit of managerial presto-gizmo
I ever heard of. I dream of broken promises...
Fly free for the rest of your life? Well, you misunderstood. You
actually will have to pay something, and since booking has gotten
a lot better you may stand around Kalamazoo waiting for your cattle
car seat out, but it's better than nothing, isn't it? You say you now
have to pay more than the cost of the trip itself and might as well
fly another airline? We'll have to look into that one. Expect a call
when the whole situation is examined.
Solid, low-cost medical treatment and medicines, you say? Ummm...
that's one of those cases where we meant it at the time, but times
change and we have to change with them. Actually, we never formally
made such a commitment. We're making a profit now, but that doesn't
alter the fact that the cost of health insurance is shooting upward,
so all of us have to hang in there together.
You say that a ten-fold or greater increase in medical costs hits
a retired ticket agent a lot more than a retired vice-prez? Again,
that's capitalism one more time. You should have made better decisions
along the way.
What's that about being told retirement medical costs would never
go up if you retired before you planned to, and then six months
after you took the notion and retired you got a letter explaining
that business conditions have forced modifications? That wasn't
duplicity! We have to be business-like. Think about this in a
reasonable way. Now that you can't afford your taxes and the raised
costs of doctors and medicine, get out there and show what Americans
are like. Get a great job (if you can find one at your age) and
that will keep you going! Oh, you're supposed to be taking a break
after forty years on the line? Look at it this way: working until
you die is normal in most countries.
Mr. Tilton, if you examine my personnel file you will see a number
of letters there that I wrote over the years describing conditions,
answering questions, applauding good work, and offering suggestions
for improvements. The paper those letters were written on is still
crisp as the day I mailed them, since few up there pay any attention
to the serfs doing the actual work for United Airlines. In the case
of this letter right here, whoever the secretary is who opens and
reads your unsolicited mail had better sit up, pay attention, and
pass it on to you, because this one goes out to the media and onto
the internet the day it arrives in your office. You have plenty to
answer for, and now the genie is out of the bottle.
Have a nice day.
Yours truly,
(EDITED OUT
I just wanted to say that I used to hate this web site because I couldn't
imagine someone hating my company so bad. Then I met the ugly face of
UA management head on!
While of a flight from Chicago to San Diego,
a very drunk passenger knocked me off my seat and caused my miniscus to
tear. Well, of course I needed to have surgery to correct my knee. When
I called UA to tell them that I needed to take a couple of weeks off they
flipped! Even after I provided 6 pages of documentation from my doctor's
office and the hospital they needed more. Continued to call me EVERY day
for almost a month demanding I provide more documentation or return to
work. The supervisors did all they could to try to terminate
me. By then I had enough and sent in my letter of resignation. It wasn't
worth my stress to keep a job with a morally and finacially bankrupt
company.
GET THIS...about 2 months after I quit UA send me a BILL for
employee pass travel from 9 months prior! I called them and told them
they are on my list of creditors and will advise them when I am ready
to address their claim. :-)
Ramon Tachiquin, San Diego
I was called into the office the begining of May 2004 and was asked
questions regarding some ticketing that I had done and was told at the
end that I was being investigated for waiving the $100 penalty for
our customers. They made me sign a confidentiality clause and told me if
I leaked any info I could be terminated for this. It was another week or
so that they called me in again and asked more questions about ticketing
in 2002. I told them I don't remember what I did yesterday much less back
in 2002. We were in the ramp ready room in terminal 5 and overheard a
ramp supervisor telling the ramp agents that another employee and I were
under investigation for waiving penalty tickets.
They called me in the latter part of May and walked me off the property
taking my badge without charging me. My shop steward complained that
per the contract they could not do this without charges and hold me
out of service and not pay me. They gave me a sheet and told me that my
hearing would be on a date in June and that it would be heard in front
of an arbitrator.
On the day of my hearing there were 2 ual supervisors,
2 shop stewards and the arbitrator, a member of UAL
management. What kind of fair shake was I going to get? Anyway we
went through with this taking 3 hours for the meeting. I was told by the
arbitrator that I would hear something in 2 weeks. A month later I
still had not heard anything and kept caling the union trying to get
an update. My friend that was going through this with me called in and
quit. The very next day I got a call from another supervisor telling me
I was terminated. They could not even call me up and bring me in to do
it to my face.
I had filed for unemployement and UAL didn't even want to pay me for it
either. They fought me tooth and nail tring to get me to pay it back. We
went before the unemployment judge and he found in my favor that UAL
had no just cause for firing me and that his ruling stands. Finally
some justice.
When I was terminated (June 14, 2004), I had asked about my accrued
vacation that I needed because my wife is disabled (M.S.) and is on
disablity. They told me that I would not get it if I was terminated.
It took the company 3 months get rid of me and I had spent
all of my savings. I needed monies to get us moved out of Chicago because
we could not afford it. The Union told me that I could send a letter of
resignation in and should get my vacation pay. So I sent a letter in the
end of August and resigned. They accepted it -- although I
had to get of the acceptance from the union -- and it then took the company over
a month to get me the check. I was due 3 weeks (should have been 4) plus
one day from this year. I got a check from UAL for just under $900 for
3 weeks of vacation. It should have been at least $1500. No break down
of taxes or anything.
I gave this fine company 26 years of my life. I was a great employee
and won many award in my 26 years with them I never gave them a moment's
trouble and for them to treat me like this is unbelievable.
What kind of crappy company treats its
employees this way? I talk to employees at ORD and they say that this
is the absolutly the worst it has ever been.
I will wrap this up now if you have any questions please call I would
love to see a class action law suit come out of all of this because
they are walking employees off for calling in sick for 3 occasions. For
helping 100K passengers out by waiving $100 penalties. I did not once
recieve anything from any of the customers I was helping. As far as
the employee that I helped out we had gotten authority from another
supervisor. But in the investigation no one could get a statement from
him saying whether or not he gave any such ok.
Ed: Stan Lambert replies:
I'm a former UA pilot who helps monitor the activity on this site. I was
fired about six years ago under ridiculous circumstances -- much like yours.
It's not much consolation to you, but this happens FREQUENTLY at UAL. The
management is morally bankrupt. They will lie, forge, fabricate, break the
law, and operate outside of any reasonable parameters of ethics and
morality. Like you, I have fond memories of those at UAL who were good and
hard working employees, but I have nothing but disgust for the management.
I have been particularly concerned that UAL consistently "cheats" on pilot
training, crew rest, and maintenance issues, putting passengers and crews at
risk. I fear it's only a matter of time before we see a huge disaster thanks
to UAL's inept and immoral management.
I am no longer employed with this airline, but had been for quite some
time. i needed to request time off [fmla] for a heart problem. After 6
attempts, my paper work was denied everytime. My doctor did call wanting an
explanation on why it was denied and they could not take his call. Finally
after 8 attempts calling the human resources dept they finally did call
back being extremely rude and told the nurse in his office to 'quit
bothering her'. I was hospitalized and was accused of lying about it. My
hospital bracelet was not good enough. Keep in mind while they are making
this accusation that I was wearing a heart monitor. I have since seperated
my employment at the advice of my doctor. Finally after 1 month, my
depression is gone and my health has gotten signifigantly better. I
honestly never knew that being treated horribly at work could effect your
health so much. I want everyone to read this. If they treat their internal
customers this way, meaning thier own employees, how do you think they are
going to treat a regular customer?????? Good luck out there to all regular
customers. I wish everyone the best of luck. chances are, you will need
it!!!!
Your site is fantastic! I work on the Ramp here in [location omitted]
and [recently] injured my arm/shoulder.
An MRI revealed a complete tear/rupture of the [component omitted].
Now I'm just waiting to see an orthopedic surgeon and in the near future,
will have surgery.
After nearly eighteen years with United, once you're injured, you're
considered "damaged goods". You're no longer treated as human being; you
cannot benefit the company in any way, and what you are is a liability.
You have helped so many people through your site. So many of my
co-workers read your information on a regular basis.
Hopefully things run smooth for me in this injury; but somehow I know
that United and Gallagher-Bassett are sharpening their claws as we speak.
Keep up the great work.
I must say that while I'm not completely surprised by some of the
scenarios you describe, I can say that United's management teams are
doing exactly what the "boss" wants them to do, ultimately making sure
that the "ontime" perfformance is strictly adhered to. The OM's that
are hired, are charged with the responsibility of making sure their
individual departments operate smoothly with others in attempts to
generate the most revenue , while maintaining cost-control objectives.
Normally these people have been with the airline for a number of years
and don't have too many other choices in seeking alternative forms of
employment. Simply put, they're doing what they have to do in order to
survive in today's uncertain aviation climate.
Unfortunately, I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel for these
folks and those beneath them. Cost-cutting is not the only way in
which to save a business, you must also demonstrate to your clients a
willingness to give them the best product available-somewhat difficult
to achieve when the boss is buying labor at cut-rates.
The good folks at United need to be rewarded for the jobs they're doing
and not chastised for what high end management desires to have done.
Last but not least, someone needs to change the delay coding procedures
and not make it so political.
Very inappropriate (explicit/pornographic) DVD's are beening watched in the
breakrooms of Ramp Service while on the graveyard shift (10:30pm - 7:00).
DVD player was brought in by fellow employee. Please address this ASAP, as
others are very offended by this. This has already been mentioned directly
to the employee in question.
My grandmother had just been diagnosed with colon cancer and was rushed
to the hospital. I wanted to fly out to visit her and I had the days off
already in place to make this visit. Even though as a United employee
I had a right to completely free standby tickets, I actually paid the
regular fare for the ticket so that I could have a confirmed seat and
therefore would be certain not to miss any time off work after my return.
On the day before my flight, I went to ask a supervisor if it might
be possible to get a complementary upgrade. Employees always get free
upgrades if space is available; however since I paid for the ticket I
wasn't therefore technically travelling as an employee. The supervisor
checked some details about the flight and said that at that time the
flight was still not full enough to give me an operational upgrade.
However, when I checked in for my flight the next day, the person in
charge of flight operations for that day offered me an upgrade, which
I gratefully accepted. I could only assume that circumstances had
changed from when I originally asked for the upgrade the day before.
Because the day before I had been told that upgrades were not available,
I did not ask again on the day, but I was still offered it and saw no
wrong-doing in accepting it.
Within half an hour of accepting the upgrade I was called to the office
of the supervisor who I had spoken to the day before and he fired me for
having "accepted an upgrade despite being forbidden to have one". I was
never "forbidden" an upgrade but told it wasn't available. When the
day's flight manager offered it to me I could only assume that it now
was available.
Because I had only been with the company for less than six months, I
was not given the right to contest this. Aside from losing my job and
the wages with it, I was also forced to lose my car, which I had only
purchased because I needed it in order to travel to and from this job.
I do not want my job back with United, especially after how they
unfairly and callously treated me, and after seeing first-hand how they
intimidate all their employees. However, due to my frequent travel
between the UK and USA, and my own private Premier Executive status,
I feel very compelled to still travel with United. However, each time I
travel with them I feel a certain discomfort and resentment which I feel
United should address, not necessarily because I was a former employee,
but more importantly, because I am an elite member of Mileage Plus.
I did write to HQ after my dismissal but was never given a reply.
Instead I received a letter stating that they would not deal with
litigation or any legal action because of their Chapter 11 status.
I am an employee who is very concerned about the hostile work
environment being created by the company's overall disregard for employee
moral. The drastic cuts being made to our airline is interrfeing with the
succesful attaining of the goals you are making for UAL...even leading us
directly away from it. You can put a spin on all the statistics you want,
protect all the management positions you want, but we are all out here each
and everyday and we see the truth. There is no respect for the individual.
Customer or employee. We all realize that you see us as a faceless faction.
Yes, I am am a member of a group but first and foremost I am an individual
who is working for a living by way of longer hours with less pay.
Newsflash, UAL. People work to live, not live to work!!! This job is
second to my family so how can you expect loyaltly and personal initiative
from us when our very qualitly of life is being pulled down with no
direction? I know very well the the bottom line is all about the dollar and
that these changes are for our company's survival but just take a look
through the untied.com archives and see the increase of employee rudeness
complaints. As an individual, I try to be above the sitution but the
management/employee relations and even the employee/employee relations are
AWFUL. I pray every work day that I go in that the Lord will give me
serenity and divine patience to make it through another day here. The
satisfaction of a job well done is very hard to maintain when the schedules
just as inflexible as the rules you have created to "manage" us masses.
How can you expect us all to go out and give the customer service needed to
keep this airline afloat? How can you expect our understanding when there
is no understanding being extended toward us? Our patience has been spent!
So many times I have heard, "Be thankful you have a job." That is true
but when a job starts to effect you personal sanity and family's
well-being, then what? Go find another job? The job market is scarce and,
besides, what about the time we have invested with this company? We've
have seen this company at its best and to see it slowly crumble without our
leaders' acknowledgment is truly insulting. To watch the fruits of your
labor rott away is painful. We see it, our customers see it, why can't
you? Our planes are disgusting. CSR's are being replaced by kiosks. The
remaining are left with the personal customer demands with little backup.
(*Customers still prefer to deal with a person rather than a machine.)
Cleaners are being phased out. Rampers and mechanics are worked overtime.
Flight attendants are cleaning planes AND serving food (disgusting).
Flight crews are being pushed further and further with their duty days.
Heck, longer days for all employees!!! Furloughs. Unexpected call-backs.
Surplusses. As for supervisors, this is where it gets really bad, they are
all trying to justify their positions with the company by demonstrating
their productivity which means henpecking the CSRs, rampers, mechanics, and
flight crew. Otherwise, buh-bye! What an abuse of power.(At least they
still have their cushy office hours.) No wonder we are all at each others
throats!!! The biggest realization I have come to is the unethical way to
company preyed on our emotions after 9/11. "Keep America flying!", we all
heard. We were told it is our patriotic duty. We all came to work with
nervous stomachs and performed our duties as professionally as possible.
Whether anyone else wants to admit it or not, I still have anxiety on our
flights. If I don't have confidence in our compnay, how will the public?
Oh, take comfort, passengers. The pilots are packing heat. Is that
supposed to make us feel better? Our company was floundering pre-9/11 so
cut the dramatics, please. At one time I was so proud of this company. I
have learned NOT to to invest myself so much into an occupation. It can
never go back to the way it was but please consider some positive changes
for us employees. There is still much inefficiency in the system. Please
take a long, hard look around you and try to see things with our
perspective. I apologize for the harsh sacasm included in this note. Just
please, please, please someone listen. Our airline is truly hurting...
emotionally as well as financially.
I am familiar with an employee who went through several investigations
and false accusations that supervisors claimed to have documentation for
bad performance. In the investigations, people that could substantiate the
employees claims were never contacted. Even though the employee mentioned
them. Unrealistic demands were made upon the employee, causing him to have
to work double shifts while other employees, who could have helped him but
they refused because of the nature of the work he had to do, put in 40 or
less hours with nothing to do. Many co-workers are very upset about the
treatment that the employee received. The employee received very negative
performance evaluations, even though prior to the performance evaluation
the supervisor led the employee to believe he was doing a good job. The
result of the treatment to that employee was a physically damaged heart.
The employee did receive a letter that an investigation was conducted. The
offending supervisors were interviewed and claimed to document the
employees poor performance, including not following an action plan
for improvement that was put in place. There was no action plan. The
supervisor who supposedly put an action plan in place, did not know
what the employee did when he wrote the evaluation because he was not
his supervisor for the period he wrote the evaluation for.
Conslusion of the investigation. The supervisors were correct in there
conduct and the employee was in error. One of the supervisors spent 6
months complaining about not having anything to do before they made him
a supervisor.
That's right. Do nothing and get promoted. Save the company many times
your salary each year and lose your health from their lies. They do
stick close together.
Not only has that employee lost his health, he may lose his house if
something doesn't come through very quickly.
Ed: This is an update to the letter below from June 9, 2003.
Miracle of miracles- United management has decided to keep both the
Philadelphia and Las Vegas flight attendant bases open! A big thank you
to those who took the time to send in e mails of support!
The PHL and LAS flight attendants
I have been a visitor to your website for a few years now, and I
am still amazed that it takes public complaint or criticism before
the very inadequate management at United Airlines responds to
problems. I thank you for helping to make the much-needed changes
at our troubled company.
As a Philadelphia based flight attendant, I am writing you today
asking for your help. On June 2, 2003, United announced its plans
to close the Philadelphia and LasVegas flight attendant bases,
which affects almost 600 employees. This comes after the flight
attendants agreed to more than $300 million in pay cuts and work
rule changes. United maintains that closing these bases is necessary
to save money, but it was eight months ago that both bases accepted
large numbers of transfers. People picked up and moved their families
to two stations that the airline said was performing better than
most, and they had no plans on closing either.
Six months later rumors started leaking out of World Headquarters
in Chicago about the possible closures. United denied any plans to
close Philadelphia or LasVegas. This "rumor" was confirmed last
week, and in meetings to assist the employees, a United aircraft
and crew scheduler told those in attendance that both bases are
viable because of the flight attendants that are based there. It
is the cost of maintaining offices that seems to be a financial
drain.
Our union, The Association of Flight Attendants has offered the
company many cost-saving alternatives. United's main goal seems to
be getting the flight attendant group to agree to more concessions,
and it is holding the PHL and LAS hostage. United says that the
bases could stay open as "satellite" stations- all management would
be administered from the Chicago hub- BUT- there could be no union
presence on these two properties. This just sounds like old fashioned
union-busting tactics.
We could really use the help of our loyal passengers, especially
our Premier, Premier Exec, and 100K members. We are asking that
e-mails be sent to UAL.COM asking United to negotiate fairly, especially
after all the concessions the flight attendants have given. Less
pay, longer days, reduced staffing, downgraded hotels- all to help
turn around a company that management nearly destroyed. All we want
is to keep flying out of our hometown airports, not move or commute
to the West coast.
The key decision makers are:
Thank you so much for any help you can give us.
The PHL and LAS based flight attendants.
Ed: A reader has pointed out that the employee letter below is from an
individual employeed by ACA or another regional carrier that serves
United. While the personnel employed by these companies may be
independent of UAL, we would argue that UAL's policies have
made their mark on the smaller carriers who are part of the "UAL family."
I am an FA for one of UAL's Express Carriers. I have a college degree and
am working towards a master's degree while I am wearing the "golden
handcuffs" of the airline industry. I feel empathy for all of your
comments -- I, too, know what it feels like to be shafted when you put
trust in a company (especially for your safety and travel needs). There
are many instances where I was forced to stay on planes once they were
"cleared from maintenance" when I knew that the hydraulics or navigational
systems were close to inoperative but were deemed "safe." I was on a
flight from IAD to LGA one night in late November; when we landed, we had
to taxi to the end of the runway and wait with NO POWER while the ground
crew brought a bus out to the plane to take us through steadily falling
snow to the main C-gate area (deplaning in the pitch-black, among other
things). But the last straw for me occurred at the end of January 2003.
I began my FA "career" in early May, 2002. Therefore, I am still "on
probation" (9 month period beginning on date-of-hire).
I was working a
Thursday night flight IAD to LGA (last flight of the night). This was on a
turbo-prop plane, 29 seats, FA jumpseat in the LAV. As we took off, a pax
jumped out of his seat in 8B and began running towards me, holding his
mouth and heaving. I knew what was about to happen, but so many things
were going through my head: "I can't endanger myself during take-off; why
is this guy running at me; am I going to get douched with his foreign
matter; etc." In a split second, I was covered with his vomit. It was all
over the floor, on the seat, on my ONE uniform dress I had with me. I was
mortified -- a BIOHAZARD all over me. The pax's sympathized with me, but
what to do? We were STUCK in a metal tube for the next 30 minutes. The
pilots called from the cockpit saying "We're having to wear our oxygen up
here to fly ... what did YOU DO BACK THERE!" To which I replied in my
sweetest voice "I'm on the flight to hell, what are you doing up there?"
When we arrived in LGA at 10:30, there was NO ONE around to help us. UAL's
maintenance team refused to come out to the plane, our UAX company's
dispatch told us we could either clean it ourselves or wait with the plane
all night to have it cleaned and then fly it back in the morning.
We only
had 8 hours "rest" that night; we were taking out the first flight in the
morning. So we had to leave the infested plane at a hangar overnight and
arrived back in the morning to find it dusted with snow and (YES!) still
soaked with vomit. We flew the plane back to IAD that morning, amid the
dry-heaving and vomitting of 26 passengers.
Upon arriving back in IAD, I went immediately to my "IN-FLIGHT SUPERVISOR'S
OFFICE." (I put that in quotes; you'll see why in a moment) My uniform was
still disgusting, I came off the plane and was vomitting, and was also told
by ground personnel that they could not clean it up "because they would get
sick back there." Now, I don't know if you've ever smelled frozen vomit
dethawing at 19,000 feet, but so help you god if you wanted retribution or
a compensatory day off for it.
The inflight supervisor handed me another uniform and said "get back on the
plane or call in sick." Sick days are a serious offense at an airline, you
get 3 a year ... 7 max or you're out!!! My pilots (one of them an
ex-bankruptcy lawyer) came into the office and said "Dispatch is forcing us
to fly the plane as-is ... they won't take it to the maintenance hangar to
have it cleaner ... we've already complained to the union, you've got our
support with whatever you decide." So I said to inflight "You're telling
me that because I got sick on ONE OF YOUR PLANES, that I'm out of
options?!" There was gross negligence, including NOT CONTAINING A
BIOHAZARD!!!! So I called in sick ... what was I to do?
Since then, I have spoken to a lawyer, filed complaints with the board of
health, and filed a grievance with the union.
What has my company done about it?
Well, a week ago (two months AFTER the fact), I received a poorly written
letter in my file at work, stating that I was REQUIRED to be at a MANDATORY
MEETING at the end of March.
I sprinted to the inflight office and threw the letter on the table (the
letter being a copy of a "print-screen" document) and said "I have more
integrity than to attend a meeting that was announced in this manner.
Write me a formal request on company letter-head AND USE SPELLCHECK THIS
TIME." and walked out. I have not received my revised letter and have been
formally reprimanded in the process.
I wrote this letter to blow the whistle on United's shoddy safety practices
(more pax rode on that plane until its SCHEDULED maintenance that
weekend!!!!). PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ... if you are in your right mind, DO
NOT FLY THIS AIRLINE!!!!
I have also had trouble with United's medical department with workers
compensation. They lie, cheat and use every trick in the book to force
employees to use up their savings just to live. They do this on purpose
to have an employee's medical treatment paid by an HMO, even though
they were injured on the job. This is what they did to me. There has
to be a law against this. If there isn't one someone should make one.
If there is, United should be prosecuted. One UAL doctor [name ommitted]
is especially bad. This doctor deliberately lies to management and the
insurance company to make employees look bad.
The AMA needs to investigate him.
United treats disabled and on-the-job injured employees like dirt.
They intentionally violate every labor law to force us to work beyond what
our disability allows us to do and literally kick us out the door if we
object. Even if we have doctor's orders placing us on restricted duty.
United is now using bankruptcy to be even more ruthless with injured
and disabled employees. It is no wonder they have so many EEOC lawsuits
against them. The only protections employees have against the ruthless
tactics used by United are the union contracts. United is now trying
to have the bankruptcy judge throw out those contracts. It is not
difficult for a disabled or injured worker to figure out what United
will do once those union protections are gone. They will declare open
season on every one of us. God help us all when it happens.
United should be banned from federal bailout money until it cleans up
its act and treats disable and on-the-job injured employees accordingly
to the law. Much like we ban federal money to third world countries
that violate human rights.
I came to the conclusion the program was set up to placate the
union into taking a pay cut. The interesting part is that management
had no intent of keeping the training once Chapter 11 was filed.
The "management" wanted to gut the unions and start over due to
poor management and an incompetent CEO.
I am a former employee of Mileage Plus in Barboursville, WV, and
I have additional comments regarding UAL policy regarding employee
paid medical leaves. After 3 months on medical leave the employee is
required to file for state disability and endorse the checks over
to United. I question the business ethics and legality of this
policy.
I also question the conflict of interest fraud, when UAL'S own
corporate medical dept. agrees to job related injury, restricts
employee from his or her job, while UAL's self-insured WC dept.
denies job injury under the same corp. roof. They have it both
ways, this is fraud. The result is termination or forced early
retirement --two WC information & assistance officers at Long Beach
WCAB informed me that UAL was known to be no.1 for fraud.
I am a former employee of Mileage Plus in Barboursville,WV, and I am
writing this in response to not just the complaints filed by Mileage Plus
employees but those of United as well. First of all the whole company is a
sinking ship. Why waste your time writing and complaining about
mistreatment, and sexual harrassment when, you continue to work for a
company that has a bleak future? As you can see, you are getting hit with
paycuts, management layoffs in the thousands, and possible loss of your
jobs. I am not fond of the way United or Mileage Plus treated me as an
employee or as a person, but I went through the ranks of management, WV
human rights commision, and the EEOC...to defend myself and that went
nowhere. United has unimaginable resources, even now, that can defeat any
legitimate complaint by one single person. IF you are unhappy with your
work situation, then get the HELL out!!!! Why would you continue to work
for a company that has no future, no potential for avancement, and the only
thing you can do is continue to live from paycheck to paycheck,wondering if
you will have a job? Dont complain, because it will get you absolutely
NOWHERE!!! Get a real job, go back to school, get a degree of some sort
where you dont have to put up with the crap that you say is Uniteds fault.
And dont use the excuse that you cant afford it. Bull..there are so many
oppotunities out there for adults that want to better themselves..for
example the job service in your town, offers full tuition for any adult
that wants job retraining plus a stipend for childcare,ect... for an
associate degree program of your choosing.
The government gives out pell grants, student loans ect...for
people that want to better themselves..my recommendation to ALL of those
who take the time to complain, should also invest some of that time into
researching the different assistance programs available. If you still
choose to stay in your current situation, you have NO ONE to blame but
YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a flight attendant with UAL. The media has made it no secret
that the employees are not happy with management, but here is a
little slice of how inept some of these people are.
Our flight arrived on-time in ORD. We had an elderly woman on
board that required not only a wheelchair, but an aisle chair also
to get to the airplane door. These chairs are ordered in advance
and most of the time the crew calls ahead before landing to make
sure that there will be assistance at the gate when we get there.
,p>
Usually Argenbright, the company that handles the wheelchair requests
is a few minutes late. But when I opened the airplane door I saw
a woman in a suit with a radio there. My first thought was that
one of us was getting randomly drug-tested. When she didn't say
anything, I figured she was some sort of supervisor.
Almost everyone is off the plane except for the elderly woman and
there is still no wheelchair. So I ask the woman standing there
if she is a supervisor. When she said she was I said "That's good
because we have a passenger that requires an aisle chair and
wheelchair here. Could you find out when they'll be here?" She
replies "I'm not a flight attendant supervisor" O.K. so now I
think she must have come down the jetway for something else that
she needed to do immediately.
Still no sign of assistance for the passenger, so I ask "What kind
of supervisor are you?" She says "Customer service"!!! I am
dumbfounded but at that moment a passenger asked me a question,
when I was done answering, I turned to talk to the stupidvisor and
she was gone! Vanished.
We spent 20 minutes on the plane trying to calm an elderly lady
who was crying and just wanted to get off the plane. She seemed
confused and just wanted to see her son. (BTW, she was on a
full-fare 1st class ticket)
Why do we pay this person? What was her reason for being on the
jetbridge? Why did she vanish at the first hint of actually having
to do her job?
This one story may be trivial, but multiply it thousands of times
and you see why United is in the financial state it is now. Highly
paid supervisors with pretty titles hiding out in jetways and
lurking in corners.
My boyfriend is a UAL CS of three years. His monthly take home pay is
$1200.00 unless he can get signed up for overtime and then its a measley
$1400.00 per month. Has UAL reveiwed the cost of living and the way of
performing merit increases based on performance on an ANNUAL
BASIS? Obviously, not to date! It's amazing to me that UAL can even begin
to believe that their less than 10 year seniority can survive today, eat,
pay rent or a mortgage, have a car payment, pay insurance, and daycare on
such a ridiculous pay.
The Ops Management figured out that if this new contract goes through to
reduce the CS pay by .06%, during the next three years my boyfriend and
others will have had .25 cents increase in pay.
Management does not seem to be concerned that they have a huge percentage
of employees that are unreliable calling in sick all of the time (isn't
there some type of sick time policy?) or the enormous percentage of
employees that have been on disability for over a year and are still
sitting on UAL books, taking from the hard working, reliable, skilled for
management people like my boyfriend. His customer surveys and management
documentations proves so.
UAL has pilots that received a 30%+ pay raise and CEO's and COO's and other
top management that make over $250K per year and yet the people that make
the difference, that provide the image and perception of UAL, that handle
the customer compliants and difficult transactions are getting paid the
least.
Imagine the moral, empowerment, little turn around, and the ability of UAL
to build customer relations that would take place. Only if the
concentration was built on its people, primarily those who are face to face
with customers every single day, THE CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS.
It is obvious that UAL does not care one bit about those (CS) people. In
fact, it is apparrent that they are asking for the CS's to vote on this
.06% reduction in pay in hopes that many will quit and that ONCE AGAIN,
they will get away with being able to compensensate its employees with this
ridulous pay.
Oh! But UAL CS employees get the benefits of flying anywhere in the US
free of charge. SO WHAT.....on my boyfriends pay he can't even use these
benefits as he's not paid enough to pay for any type of trip. WHAT A JOKE!
UAL is an awful company by way of its employees unless you are in senior
management and then it makes you wonder who's sleeping with who?
Wed, Oct 2 2002
This is in response to the employee from Barboursville, WV concerning
her "harrassment" allegation. I have to admit I wasnt in on the
exact article she spoke about, however..................
I am employed there and know of the individual she is speaking
about. NOT ONLY is she wrong about his "being promoted" shortly
after the situation (he had actually been assisting the training
class for at least a year prior) she actually STARTED the discussion
she was talking about!
This employee made inappropriate comments prior to the actual phrase
she heard afterward, and INVITED a response from the man in question.
There are so many kindergarten type games played at this office
its unbelieveable! I feel management should get extra pay for having
to put up with the crap they put up with from certain employees.
Is it tough to work there? Hell yes! is it easy to work there? Hell
yes/ There are employees there that have FMLA that go visit relatives
and dont feel like coming home to go back to work so they call in
and change their reservations for FREE FLIGHTS ( a benefit we get)
then call in and take FMLA so they dont get a UNPor a bad report
on their file..... and abuse FMLA and brag about it on a daily
basis. Management has to listen to the rest of us complain about
these things and their hands are tied. There is 1 indidvidual that
actually took FMLA because her husband is an obese mean man that
fell and scared her cat... she wasnt concerned about her husband...
but she took FMLA because her cat was stressed..... and got a
perfect attendance award! I dont get it.
I had pnumonia and came to work every day....... I cant afford to
take off at the drop of a hat, after all THATS WHY I HAVE A JOB!
are there things there that need changing? Definitely! but its like
that no matter where you work. For gods sake people....if you dont
like whats going on either work for a change on the problem or get
another job someplace else so you can whine about that place too.
Stop the damn 2 year old temper tantrums type stuff. We dont need
it or want it. Lets just all get along.
As far as the former "employee" that wrote that letter whining
about "sexual harassment" why didnt she say what the wording was
she was upset by? Was it the fact she was busy whining out loud
the whole day for everyone to hear how she was "RAGGING IT" or the
fact the other employee replied? Now think about it. If you to
work, do your job and stop the kiddy shit, I think you'll find out
its a great place to work. Not only am I happy to be employed there,
I feel as if this is my "family" not my job. We care and take care
of each other and theres not a lot of places you can say that
happens at.
Anyway.... "former employee" thank god your gone.....good riddance
to bad RUBBISH!
Yesterday we found out that our office in San Francisco is shutting
down at the end of the year. How is everyone feeling? Deceived,
Cheated, Angry and Hurt.
I have been with United Airlines for over 10yrs --all of my years
in Reservations-- and I knew that this would come one day.
Where do I begin? Lets first talk about our office: SFORR, San
Francisco Reservations Center. The General Manager, Judi Justet,
runs the office like a prison. We are watched, monitored, and
written up. She has no concern or regard for the employee and
cares only about the statistics and productivity of the office.
A lot of the reason why the company is falling(even prior to Sept.
11th) is because most employees ---esp. at Reservations and Customer
Service-- are unhappy. Maybe thats why San Francisco Res has the
HIGHEST absenteeism/workmans comp claims in the system! We feel
we have no support and that if we complain then we will be
"black-listed". There are too many lies and inconsistentcies
regarding what is going to happen to our company, our benefits,
our retirement, etc. Management does not encourage growth or
advancement. They want to groom us to become Super-Res Agents.
I have a flawless record, maintain Exceeds Expectations and in my
career with UA have only been absent probably 11 times or so. I
am griping because it needs to be heard and I will feel better that
I am able to have this forum to vent. This is my closure with the
company. I am considered the "model employee". How do I do it?
How did I stay sane in Reservations for so long? I preyed on the
poor. Yes UA pays peanuts and living in San Francisco and making
less than $10/hr is extremely difficult. It was easy for people
to pick up my shift. So here is the common scenario: individual
trying to make ends meet (single mom/student living on their
own/etc), working 50+ hours, while maintaining 100% productivity.
Do they want to be there at work? NO. Do they need to make enough
to survive? YES. Will they pick up my hours? YES. Imagine this
person tired, overworked stressed out person making your reservations.
Do you think he/she cares that you want an aisle seat, special meal
or that you are a Premier Member???? On top of that they are
monitored for Lost Time Ratio and also to see if they adhere to
their following 15min break and 30min lunch. I doubt that this
only happens in San Francisco Res. This is probably a familiar
story at most Res Offices.
UA needs to treat their employees with respect and dignity and
trust that we will do a good job. A good rule of thumb for UA:
Treat the Employees good and they will be more productive. Unhappy
Workers, hang up on customers and really dont give a you-know-what!
Luckily for me that I already have a great paying job and that I
only used this job for the flight benefits. Hopefully those at
SFORR and all other UA employees that will be layed off will see
that there is life outside of UA and that the working conditions
and attitudes differ outside of United.
To my friends at SFORR, I wish you good luck and best wishes. Cant
wait to finally close that Hell-Hole in San Francisco!
Dear Friends, Family and Strangers,
I am so sorry for what you have been put through by United Airlines.
For those families of United Employees left behind after September 11,
2001, my heart goes out to you for your losses. For those families
left broken after September 11, 2001, my heart goes out to you. I can't
imagine how difficult your lives have been since that tragedy. My mere
words cannot express or even begin to understand what you went through
and how you will be effected forever, all I can say is that I am so
sorry and you are in my prayers.
To all the others that have been negatively effected by United Airlines,
by rude employees, late departures, lost love ones, again, I apologize.
I am an ex United Airlines employee. I was FIRED. Why, because I
couldn't be at work when my child was ill. Oh I had family leave on
file but I couldn't prove to a cold and uncaring company that my child
was sick on that specific day. So after 20 plus years of service and
dedication to this company they fired me. I had a short time to go
before I could retire, just a matter of months, so when they fired me,
I lost everything, my retirement, my benefits, insurance, everything.
I am 50 years young and have no experience, so I am sure I will loose my
home and the custody of my children when I can't support them any longer.
Does United Airlines care? NO they don't care about anything, their
employees, their passengers, they only care about the bottom dollar.
As long as they can find a way to make money for their own pockets
they are happy and don't care who they hurt, embarrass or destroy in
the process. I am also sure if they knew who I was, they would come
after me again and take what little I have left of my dignity and stomp
on it too. They would have no problem kicking me when I am at my lowest,
because that is what they enjoy doing.
So all of you can continue to complain, write letters, or vent on
Untied.com, but nothing will change, they will ignore you, send you a form
letter or give you 15% off your next, unrestricted full fare ticket and
continue doing business as usual. If you want to make them pay for all
that you have been through, the only way to do that is to hit them in
their pockets. Stop flying United and then you will get your justice.
Stop taking the abuse from United by not giving them the opportunity to
abuse you. Stop flying United, there are many other air carriers out
there that will take you where you want/need to go and I am sure they
will do a better job.
United is getting what they deserve, I don't think they should get any
loans from the government. I don't think they should be able to recover,
not until they are willing to take responsibility for their actions.
You want them to take responsibility, take away your tickets, fly
someone else.
When I worked for United, I saw the abuse and I also experienced first
hand that they didn't care. The employees are never rewarded for good
behavior or positive actions taken, they are only repremanded for doing
something wrong and most times, it wasn't really wrong. We used to have a
saying that United purposesly pisses "X" amount of passengers off everyday
so why should we care if we piss off a few. If United wants to treat
their passengers badly and also their employees badly, how can anyone
have a positive attitude towards them? Give them what they have been
giving out for years, Stop flying them and put your money some where else.
I use to work for Mileage Plus in Barboursville, WV. I along with another
female employee was sexually harassed. She was harassed alot worse than
myself. When he started with me, I informed him that I was married and I
thought he was disgusting and that wasn't the way you talked to women. I
also asked him if his wife knew he talked to women that way. He made some
vulgar remarks a few more times to me and I informed him I had already told
my husband about it and if it happened again I would let my husband know
and that he was not going to be happy about it. So he stopped.
Then he started up with the girl who sat next to me. The things he
was saying was very personal and at times disgusting. Some things
I wouldn't even want my husband saying to me. But I am not going
to give exact quotes from him. If I did this would probably not
be allowed on the website. It finally got so bad, I would be making
a reservation and he was talking trash to her, she told him several
times she did not like it and to stop. I suggested to her that
she go to our team leader and report him, since she said she didn't
feel comfortable going to human resources. She said she was
embarrassed about it and wouldn't know what to say. So I told her
I was going because it needed to stop. She said to just let it go
and she would make sure he stopped. We needless to say it didn't
stop.
So I went to our team leader and told her what had been happening.
She reported it to HR and also spoke the the girl it was happening
to. A few days later we both received a message from HR that they
wanted to speak to us, separately of course, to discuss it. We
both told them word for word what he had said. They were disgusted.
They said they would take care of it. Well remember that they have
a 0% tolerance, supposedly, for this. Anyway, a day or two later
we were called back in and was informed that he had been reprimanded,
he still worked there, no suspension, all the overtime he wanted (at
that time we had OT available).
We asked what had been done and they said they couldn't tell us
specifics but they had taken care of it. He wanted them to apologize
to us for him, and said we took it out of context. What he said
could not be taken out of context. He was saying he could take care
of us, then giving details how he would take care of us (sexually).
That we wouldn't want another man after him.
WELL APPROXIMATELY A WEEK LATER, HE RECEIVED A PROMOTION TO
TRAINER!!!!! So I was never sure exactly how United and Mileage
Plus reprimand people for sexual harassment. I didn't know I had
to sexually harass someone else to get a promotion within a week.
SO BASICALLY, NOTHING WAS EVER DONE TO THIS MAN, and he was given
the chance to be alone with a class and individuals to sexually
harass them.
Thank you for letting me get this off my chest it has bothered me
every since it happened. It also upset our team leader. We were
informed that we could not discuss it with anyone but you know what
they didn't do what they were suppose to, so why should I. I've
been quiet about it until I seen this website and there was another
employee who had been sexually harassed. So I thought I would share.
Thank You Would like to have someone make sure that the next time
it happens, because it will when they are not being reprimanded
for it, that something is done about it.
Ed: As per our policy at Untied.com, we publish any letters from
UAL in dispute of allegations raised on our site. Despite
the obvious vindictive tone of this particular letter, we reproduce
it here, unedited. Readers may judge for themselves
which account of events seems more credible.
Hello everyone, I am currently a United Employee but I have a feeling
I will soon be an ex United Employee.
Here is my story: I was using approved family leave for family member
on an intermittent basis who suffers from an illness. I am a flight
attendant. Anyway I took this approved family leave and suddenly to my
surprise I became part of a company investigation. They did not believe
me and made me provide documents to prove my family member was really
ill and family leave was necessary. I provided them with the documents
but it did not stop there. They now say they have evidence against me
and I am still under investigation. My second meeting with the company
is coming up and I am sure it is to say I am fired. I cannot think of
anything negative that they could have against me but I am beginning
to think they are drumming up stuff.
When I first came to this site a while back I could not believe that
there were so many complaints against United, then when I saw all the
employees writing in I was really shocked. I was stupid to think back
then that United was a fair and up standing company to work for and that
they really cared about their employees. Wow, was I stupid! United does
not care about anything or any one except putting money in their pockets.
They do not care about what happen Sept 11 or to the people that died
that day, they only care how they can use that tragedy to work for them
and put money in their pockets. They do not care who they step on to
get what they want.
I have been with this company for almost 30 years and they are treating
me like a common criminal. They will not even let me see the documents
that they have against me until right before the meeting. They want to
be sneaky and backhanded and try to entrap you into something that is
not true. They will turn your words around and use them against you.
If you are arrested in this country you are told why you are being
arrested. Not at United. The terrorists have more rights than I do as
an employee. I am a single parent of two children and being a flight
attendant is the only thing I know. I will lose everything I have, my
home, my children will suffer and I will lose my self respect all because
United dosen't care. SO to all those people out there that are loyal
United employees that think it will never happen to you, think again and
protect yourself because I used to be one of those people and now look
at me. Because I am currently under investigation I cannot post my name.
I will come back after my meeting and let you all know how it turned out.
All I can say for now is watch your back and take care of yourself because
if you don't United will watch it for you and that would be the same as
being in a den of hungry lions and you would be helpless.
Also, passengers beware too, because if you get stranded by United they
will not be there to help you. It is not the employee that is against
you it is what the company will do to them if they are not against you.
Employees are being forced to be evil and mean and uncaring to passengers
because the company will punish them if they don't do what they want.
It is a double edged sword. They tell us that the passenger is the
most important part of our business but if you have a problem or are in
trouble they don't want us to do anything for you. If you are not a 1k
or better, they really don't want to deal with you and sometimes then
you get screwed. United is now threatening bankruptcy and the only
real reason that they would need to file is because of poor management
decisions and ones that upper management made and they want to blame
labor costs for it. They only want or will file bankruptcy to break
the unions and then the skies will really be unfriendly.
I was laid off from United airlines in Los Angeles after the events
of September 11th. All I can say is..Thank God! Leaving there
was the best thing that ever happened to me - I am currently in a
job where I am respected and well paid - A far cry for how non
union, non management employees are treated at United - Let me tell
you my story...
I began my employment in 1999 in "Stores" as an Administrative
Assistant. I was so excited to be working for UAL, I took great
pride in my work, a lot more pride than management did. Neither
the manager or the supervisor ever bothered to come into the office
- instead, they were constantly filing false "paycerts" and getting
paid bonuses and 40 hour weeks.
Well, being the only one there most of the time, I began to assume
more and more responsibility. I was handling all of the Supervisors
duties and a lot of the managers. Needless to say, they did not
like it that I handled their job better than they did and were
constantly putting me down and making things up to make me look
bad -- everything from what I wore to how I walked. All BS.
Well, after some time, it was "suggested" that the manager leave
LAX and was given a supervior position in HNL. That's when the
fun started.... A supervisor from CS came over. She had lied on
her application and stated that she had completed college while
her ex husband states that she NEVER even attended college! This
woman was such an emotional wreck that her only satisfaction was
causing hurt and embarrassment to her underlings, all the way down
the line! That was her goal - to see how many people she could
screw with.
After hearing way too many lies from her and the supervisor, I
contacted people services as well as her Manager in SFO. Talk
about dragging their feet! I had things on this woman that would
have got ME fired, from false statements with IAM issues to knowingly
allowing another employee to submit FALSE expense reports. She
didn't care. She and all her "pals" were Hawaiian and could get
away with anything! Lucky for me, I was laid off - the best thing
that ever happened. Of course, once I left, the "investigation"
was dropped. What a surprise... the management cloak prevails
again.
Ed: As mentioned on various pages, we pride ourselves
in including any responses from UAL in dispute of material
posted on this site. As such, we include the following note,
received on September 10:
This is in response to a letter you received from the Administrative
Assistant who was laid off by the CS Supervisor who came over as
the new Manager of stores at LAX. I'm a ramp employee and while I
would never take time to defend management, I have to say that this
girl is misinformed. Her Manager is a college educated woman, a
single mom, and never lied on her application to get the job. How
do I know? I helped the Manager apply for jobs by helping her proof
read her applications. The Manager is the best thing that has ever
happened to stores at LAX. She is one of the good few. I will not
discuss the relationship between the ex husband and the Admin Asst.,
as private lives should remain private. I know you print letters
and there are always two sides to a story. This story is reliable.
Hers was true to an extent in that she was laid off. The rest is
out of pure resentment. She is not the only one who got laid off.
I did too. We all have sad stories to tell. Thank you for letting
me respond.
Ever wonder why most customers complain about the bad customer service
they receive when they call reservations? Well, I'm here to tell you
all about it and what they tried to do to me recently.
Just to give you a little back ground on how the rate our employee's
call volumes there were two systems. One was efficiency. When an
employee starts their day, they start with a 100% and then the number
goes down based on how long he takes between calls. The system was
fair and the numbers were not in question. Then we have our new system
which is productivity. In this system, all employees start at 0% and
have to work their way to 100% however if there are no calls coming in
and you are available to take a call, you're still at 0%. Sounds like
a problem, doesn't it. Well here is where it gets worse. Whenever the
passengers call up reservations, the longer you take on the call, the
worse your numbers become. Strange, you're helping a passenger and
yet your numbers get worse. So naturally, reservation employees rush
through their calls and try to get to the next call and in turn leaving
out vital information that the customers want or need to know. To make
matters worse, management expects employees to achieve 95% productivity.
Then after a few months they raised the standard to 100%. Now heres
where the major problem comes in. If you did not meet this goal, then
you were asked to come into the office and explain your actions. You get
two written warnings and then you are put on a level. The thing that got
most people was management would not and could not explain how an employee
can achieve this rediculous standard. They would always dance around the
issue and put the blame on the employees, even though they couldn't do
it themselves. When they first came out with the system, they knew that
the numbers would never add up from day to day because the call volumes
were always different. Unless the call center was completely busy all the
time, you'd never make your goal and would eventually be fired because
of it. And to prove that the system was flawed, a select few employees
each month were able to get rediculous numbers passed 100%. Now any
system in which an employee can get more than 100% is completely flawed.
Well after a year with this current system, the employees started to get
pretty pissed off. The mistrust got a lot worse and soon it was hostile.
Every day, employees are constantly harrassed and told to achieve numbers
that management will not show them how to achieve. They even refused
to let employees see what the formula of the system was. Naturally the
employees vent their frustrations out on passengers.
After awhile, I figured it was time for some much needed vacations.
Last year I went to Miami with a huge group of friends. I tell you it
was the time of my life. On my trip back, I got $600 denied boarding
compensation. I was pretty excited considering I was an employee.
So then I figured I had 4 more trips in me confirmed. Well I went to
Las Vegas and I got a free ticket voucher. I figured I was the luckiest
guy alive. So then I decide hell with flying standby, I was gonna fly
confirmed all the time and see if I would get treated any differently.
After all, I was creating revenue for the company. Around that same time,
I decided to book a trip to the olympics. A final hurrah because I was
leaving the company for a better life. After coming back, I got hauled
into the office. My good friend and I were accused of ticket fraud.
I couldn't believe it. They basically blamed me for not paying a $100
fee for changing my ticket when one of the customer service agents at
the ticket counter waived the fee and let me board the plane. I was
outraged at the accusations. At one point, the investigator admitted
that he had no way to prove what happened at the ticket counter.
Well I had another trip planned for Phoenix a few days later and they
question that ticket saying that the fare was $80 - $100 higher when I
priced the fare on that same day and it was only $20 higher. So they
decided to take me out of service for lost revenue. At this point,
I was looking for legal representation, however I cannot afford it.
I had to cancel my trip with my girlfriend and stay home. After three
weeks, they sent me a letter saying that they had more questions to ask.
At this point I was starting my new job within a two weeks and I figure
enough was enough and I left the company on my own.
Now here are a few key things about this investigation. First, they had
no evidence when they made their accusations. The investigator couldn't
even read the record correctly and he involved union employees who were
not involved in the investigation. Second, I made a phone call to my
friend who they all took out of service and asked him to check flights.
However, a non union employee, working in the operations center, lied and
said I was checking on trades. So naturally he goes and tells management
this and lies in an investigation. Third, they knew I had a better job
and it seemed like they were a little jealous that I would be making a
few thousand more starting than their own salary currently. Finally,
when we closed out Los Angelas office recently, a lot of their employees
came to Seattle to work. They offered 13 employees a leave of absence.
However, since they were still on the payroll, they had to get rid of 13
people. My friend and I were the first two to go. From what my inside
sources tell me, they are still aggressively trying. My story is just
one of the many that are occuring to this day in Seattle reservations.
Just as a side note, one employee, a good friend of mine was harrassed
by a management person who happens to be racist and was caught on the
record making racist remarks. Sadly, our big boss, ignored the comments
and acted like it wasn't a big deal.
I am a United employee, and I have heard many of my fellow employees
express concern over the fact that nepotism is quite big at United...While
some major companies such as Delta have a rule, barring family relations
and relatives working in management, United seems to promote it more
than any major airline in the country...one only need pick up a copy of
United's UNITEL phone book and see how the same last names pop up in
different management positions (and no, we are NOT just talking about
common last names such as Jones or Smith, which would lead one to wrongly
assume at times that there is a relation).
Officially, United's policy is that as long as one family member or
relative is not supervising the other, it is OK...but even this rule
has been violated...case in point, the Labor Relations representative
for the East Region was (and probably still is), the daughter of a
woman employed at a major East Coast station (where she worked in the
Training Department, an arm of management)...this technically makes her
her mother's supervisor, and could potentially favor not just her mother,
but her mother's friends...remember, Labor Relations is a division of
People Services which handles competitive bid transfers.
Also I saw the name of a management person who was formerly a manager
at a West Coast reservation office, and who is now in Chicago, come up
in one of the employee complaints...just to let you know, this person
is related to a former United CEO (son-in-law). United refuses to
address this issue...you will find family members in various high level
management positions (even though it may not necessarily be in the
same city or station always), and it is no longer a joke, but a fact,
that it is mainly "who you know" at United to move to the top...
Also, United's claim that it promotes diversity is such a silly
joke...diversity only happens at lower level managment positions at
United, and usually, minorities, whether African American, Hispanic
or other, do not make it any higher than station manager, (Dutta was
a fluke, and a rare exception...and it was a shock to everyone)...most
of United's elite of VP's and almost always the CEO, are of White Anglo
Saxon stock...I invite all United employees to speak out against nepotism
at United. Make it an issue. And keep your eyes and ears wide open!
Ed: This letter is a follow-up to one originally received in January 2000. Untied.com is advising the
former employee to seek legal representation and take UAL to court for
discrimination and wrongful termination.
What United Airlines did to me:
I started to work for United in August of 1999. 252544
1) My first run-in with UAL as an employee
My first run-in with UAL was, when I had a situation with a passenger,
which I could not resolve. The passenger became really upset and upon
a UAL manager by the name of Lewis Towns finding out, he made me state
that: "yes, I am a horrible person - I tried to get revenge on the
passenger." I was intimidated and humiliated to the point, where I
understood that the only way for me to get out of this trouble, was to
let him hear what he wanted to hear.
The UAL manager in charge made it clear that he wanted to fire me on
the spot, but, that due to the fact that I never had any other
incidents, that he couldn't do it then.
I already felt really horrible and it took me a few weeks to recover
my self esteem. Besides, some coworkers knew what had happened and we
used to joke about it in order for me to cope with the treatment that
I got.
2) The Incident that UAL used to fire me
On the eve of January 11, 2000, I walked up to CSR Jeff, because I
wanted to ask him about taking a trip to the mall of the Americas
together with me and the others. Everybody always used to fly there
and I wanted to know when they had planned to go there next. As I
approached Jeff, I saw that he was talking to this new CSR, Ilia. I
knew that Jeff was flirting with Ilia, because he told me that he
liked to hit on Hispanic girls.
When I reached Jeff's position I said: "Hey Jeff, you are flirting
with the new girls again?" While we were all laughing, I said
something like: "Why do you keep hitting on girls that you know you
can't have."
The reason why I allowed myself to talk to Jeff like that was because,
during my first week at UAL, I approached Jeff and CSR Tracy, to ask
them airline related questions. Tracy then made an unwarranted
reference to the fact that I was her type of man and that I was very
beautiful, to which Jeff then replied: "That sucks, every time I like
a dark Hispanic girl, they like dark Hispanic guys too. I never get a
chance with them." He then said something like: "Gilbert, go to
hell."
In any event, while we three Ilia, Jeff and I were continuing to joke,
he said. "You are just jealous that I am not flirting with you." and
he made reference to the fact that I was gay in front of that new
Ilia.
I jokingly responded: "I like white men, but you are not my type." I
said that just because I was a gay man didn't mean that I like every
man.
During the course of the conversation, I turned around and took the
girls hand and said something like: "You know what? She is my
girlfriend, now." We were all laughing and this whole incident
happened so fast that I never thought about this moment, until I was
called into the office. It was just a silly moment during which there
was no customer activity at the lobby. I finally walked away because
a passenger arrived. I never got to ask him about the trip to MSP.
After talking to someone else, I returned to Jeff and we started
talking about another subject. Again we were laughing and joking.
(Notice that in Ms. Ramirez's statement she mentions that.)
Somehow, a supervisor overheard our conversation. According to what
Jeff told me during a telephone conversation, the team leader called
Jeff but he refused to cooperate and make a big deal out of it. The
next day this information was passed on to the operating manager,
Lewis Towns, who was waiting for a chance to find something to fire me
for. This manager was looking for anything that could be used as a
reason, because he could not fire me for the incident that I had with
a passenger before. Now that the manager had something else in his
hands, he started an investigation. From what Jeff told me supposedly
the manager went first to the girl involved and asked her for anything
and everything that I said. Then the manager turned to Jeff and Jeff
could not deny anything anymore. One of the company-rules is that
during an "investigation" an employee is obligated to provide any
information that management wants to have; otherwise the employee
faces termination for violating this rule.
I was called late on the evening into Lewis Towns Office where Beth
Turner, my newly assigned supervisor was the only other person besides
the manager. There was no union representative which could only mean
two things. Either this was not such a big issue or they are acting in
unfaithful manner. They handed me the reports and from Ilia Ramirez
and Jeff Groe. I then became overwhelmingly nervous and read really
fast through the reports. I told them that I was too nervous and that
I could not read in detail everything that the reports contained. I
told them that I was confused. I felt guilty for being in the office
and having to explain myself. I told them that the incident took
place.
Management then asked me to write whether the statements were true or
not. I again told them that I was too nervous to understand the whole
situation and that I would not be in the right state of mind to write
a statement. The Managers then intimidated me into writing something.
I believe that this was the same tactics that they used to intimidate
the others into writing something that they felt was good enough to
have against me.
Again, I reiterate that there was no union representation here this
time. On the one occasion that I had with Mr. Towns there was a union
representative, supposedly as a courtesy.
There is more information to this story about the way UA Management
handled this case. Management deceived, and lied to me and to the
others in order to carry out this termination without anybody being
able to prevent it. It was handled very smartly.
However.....
The manager, Lewis Towns, said that I violated the company rule by
engaging in jokes with other employees. I have still all the handouts
about UAL Code of conduct and employee rules. There is no such rule.
No-one, who knows this Jeff, can understand that I got fired over a
joke with him.
I didn't even violate any of the harassment rules because my joke had
nothing to do with sex. I argued this with management and they told me
that I was wrong, that there is a rule that says that you cannot
engage in non-business conversations while at United. Again, that is
not what I have in any of the handouts that I received from United
Airlines. There is absolutely no mention about any company rule,
which prohibits the type of conversation that I had with the parties
involved.
Besides that, it is not a reality that no one ever jokes at United
Customer Service. In the short time that I worked at United Airlines
Chicago Lobby I saw incidents where groups of employees and Service
Directors would laugh so loud and joke so indiscreetly that the entire
lobby had to turn their faces around to the back counter Position 82
and 83 wondering about what was going on.
Also, in the aftermath, Jeff was heavily reprimanded for his constant
joking but, since he cooperated and helped the manager find something
damaging against me, he was given another chance. It was very hard
for me to accept this termination on the grounds that this manager and
his supporters invented.
When I finally got a chance to talk to Jeff, he told me that he never
intended to get me fired or not even to complain. He said that he
told the manager to please not dismiss me because of that. Jeff also
told me that management made him believe that it was not a big deal
and that nothing would happen. Funny enough, that is exactly what
management told me when I was questioned. I offered many times to
apologize to the girl and to Jeff. The manager told me not to worry
and not to do that, because QUOTE "otherwise, management would have to
get involved in this issue." With this statement the manager tried to
conceal what his real intentions were. Jeff did mention to me that
when he first asked the manager why he was doing this, he was told
QUOTE "We are trying to build a case against Gilbert."
Jeff told me that he regrets having mentioned it to someone who then
forwarded this to the manager.
The operating manager who ordered my termination is Lewis Towns.
UAL fired me for Joking??????
I don't believe that a manager is allowed to make up a rule and
prohibit activities that are not listed under the rules mentioned in
the book of code of conduct.
The only person who I joked with was Jeff and management knew that,
because I told them that. Jeff also knew that if I had any customer
issues again that I would be out of the job. Jeff knew everything
about me and he also knew about every incident I had at United. It
all seems so more strange, that especially Jeff would complain and say
something against me. I truly believe that there is more behind this
as I have evidence of other wrong-doing. Jeff was once before told to
write something against me. I have the report and Jeff also told me
that he felt bad for doing it. Jeff told me that he would never write
anything damaging against me again.
I feel that I was singled out. Jeff was in his probation. He also
had an incident with a passenger before. Jeff was known for being a
Joke. Everybody, who I told that I was fired because Jeff complained
against me, couldn't understand it. I can hardly understand why I was
treated so differently having been in the same status as Jeff. I
believe that they offered Jeff a deal where they would give him
another chance as long as he would cooperate with them to provide info
against me.
3) The last horror thing UAL did to me
After loosing my job, I attempted to make contact with some friends at
UAL, in order to obtain a buddy-pass. I also tried to find Jeff, in
order to find out what the whole story was. UAL management made
warned everyone not to talk to me. Another UAL manager warned and
intimidated me to the point where I was afraid to go to the airport.
I had friends that worked at the Laptop Lane in O'Hare. They would let
me use their computers in order to find a job. I had to go to the
airport because I had no phone and no internet access at home anymore.
UAL threatened me intensely with police and restraining orders. I
remember that one time this UAL CSR good friend of mine hugged me at
the airport. She was almost fired for it.
I got a job interview in Miami. I started preparing to move back to
Miami, where I was originally from. As if I didn't have enough
problems, my roommate then tried to call the police in order to get me
out of the apartment. I spoke with the police at my house and they
totally backed me and found out how unreasonable my roommate was
treating me. Well, the police put him in his place. He left pissed
off and threatened me in regards to my belongings. This happened the
day that I had planned to fly with the first buddy pass to Miami.
Originally, I had planed three trips to Miami, in order to get my
stuff relocated.
While at the airport for my first trip, I found out that my roommate
had planed something against my belongings. After I checked three
suitcases in, I had to abruptly return to the apartment. So with the
help of another UAL employee and his pick up truck, I got another
shipload of stuff, which I was going to give to the UAL friend to
store. While packing I ran out of time. I got late to the airport for
my 12 pm flight. I then asked the counter agent, whether I could just
check in the other load. She the said "yes" and I proceeded to check
in the second half. After a half hour of waiting, I found out that
the flight was overbooked. I decided then to take a few drinks with
my UAL friend at a bar and take the last flight in the evening. My
friend from UAL got drunk and couldn't drive me back to the airport.
So I waited till the morning and we checked in more luggage. I
figured that it was not a problem as domestically it does not matter
if the passenger goes or not; the luggage always goes. Again the
morning flight was full and we waited till the afternoon, my friend
again got drunk and this time I, took the bus to the airport. I had
no more luggages to check in and I was dressed with light clothes.
When I got to the airport, some agents that knew me suddenly
approached me and said that "THEY" are looking for me. I was
surprised and hoped even that it might be something good. I then ran
into Lewis Towns, he said: "What did you do?"
I was baffled when he questioned me about checking in and not flying.
He seemed in a hurry and just told me to go to my gate and that
someone will talk to me. He made it again look like it was not a big
deal. At the gate I started noticing un-usual movements. I thought
for a moment that I saw one of the managers watching me and hiding
from me while talking to a radio. I didn't think much of it as the
line was huge due to a problem with the prior flight. They apparently
cancelled the earlier flight due to mechanical and used a DC10 instead
of a 777 to accommodate all the passengers.
When I reached the podium, the agent took my ticked and called for the
manager with the radio. I then was approached by him and two O'Hare
Police officers. I expected to be taken to a room, but no; UAL
decided to humiliate me right in front of the passengers and make a
scene. The two police officers yelled at me and told me to get the
hell out of the airport without saying a word. I screamed at in front
of everyone; that if I opened my mouth at all that I would be
arrested. With my heart, almost exploding out of fear and the UAL
manager only saying that they would contact me in Miami, walked out of
the UAL area.
I broke down at the AA terminal; I had no more that $400.00 Dollars;
no place to stay and I was wearing tropical clothes. My buddy pass
was confiscated and a new AA ticket cost $800.00 Dollars. I was in
shock. I didn't know what to do. I was trembling. I was upset. My
friends home phone number I lost in the bus. I was stuck.
For a moment, I didn't care what was going to happen to me; so I
walked back to the UAL terminal. I ran into the same UAL security
officer (Mr. Hetherington). He warned me that I was going to be
arrested. But I guess he saw how desperate I was, and talked to me.
He explained to me that I shouldn't have checked in the bags, because
what that was considered illegal. He then listened to my reasons and
said he believed me. However, he explained to me that here was
nothing that he could do to help me. He did though help me regain my
composure and to think about ways to get back to Miami. I must say
that he, despite of his position, was friendly to me.
I found an old phone number of a friend in my handbag. This was a guy
who, I met at a bar many years ago during a flight attendant interview
trip to Chicago. At that time he worked for AA as a flight attendant
out of ORD. He currently was living in DFW, though. I was really,
really lucky to get him at his house in Dallas. I explained the whole
story of what happened to me. I guess that knowing my character from
a few years ago, he trusted me, believed my story and decided to help
me. The earliest though that he could get me a buddy pass was a two
days. I begged him to think of any old friends that he might have in
ORD. He did remember a friend that worked at the counter and arranged
for me to purchase a buddy pass from this guy the next morning.
Also, to my surprise one of the guys that worked at the Laptop Lane,
passed by the Goodwill office at the AA terminal and saw me in my
struggles. Well, he became another Good Samaritan and offered to let
me stay in his apartment for the night.
I am utterly great-full for the help that I got after those monsters
at UAL did what they did to me.
On top of everything, UAL confiscated my luggage (all of it) for
weeks. They demanded $400.00 Dollars for it to be released.
UAL is very vindictive. I had hoped that they would spare me some
dignity. No. UAL is money hungry. The people that work there, as
management, have no heart. You would think that a company like that
would spare a terminated employee from any financial heart-aches. I
was desperately trying to save every penny I had. UAL showed again
and again how horrible they can be. I saw this many times during my
employment, how they loved to get any money out of poor people who
where trying to relocate.
After what UAL did to me, I thought that it was too much of a bitter
experience for me to ever apply for an airline. I was still
traumatized of everything that they did to me. I got scared of
airlines. I try to understand what I did in order for the folks at
United to treat me like a terrorist or so. I will never ever forget
this experience. It also has changed the way I behave with coworkers,
now-a-days. I am not the same friendly, outgoing person anymore. I
think I have become now way too careful with what I do and say at
work. When I see other doing what I did, I usually think: "I guess
you haven't had the UAL experience yet."
I am also not surprised that UAL is loosing money like crazy. I know
how they treat people that are not Premier Executives and 1K.
4) One year later
In August 2000, one year after this whole ordeal, I called Jeffrey
Groe in Chicago, in order to find out in more detail about what
happened.
During the conversation, I learned of facts that I had never even
thought of during the course of the investigation, nor in the
aftermath. However, on one very short occasion in which I had seen
Jeff at the airport and attempted to apologize to him for making him
feel the way it was portrayed to me by management, to my surprise Jeff
was utterly afraid of being seen with me, while at the same time
telling me that someone overheard us, that he did not want to write
the report and that he was basically forced to do so. I believed him
immediately and decided to leave him so that he would not get in
trouble.
Although I attempted to find out more at the time about the Truth of
this entire deal, I ran into lots of obstacles, those being threats
made by management. At the time it seemed that I was immediately
branded a danger to everybody. Managers who had not even known me
during my employment became aware of my presence. It was impossible
to get in touch with people who knew about what had happened to me and
wanted answers as well as me. I believe that Management at this stage
had the task of breaking every link from each side. A terminated
employee is a terminated employee.
In the conversation that I held in August 2000, after almost one year
of silence, and coinciding with what would have been my one-year
anniversary, Jeff told me who it was who overheard our conversation
and what happened next. According to Jeff, Service Director Robin
Gackee stood close by and overheard almost everything that was said
during the course of our joke conversation. Immediately, after me
proceeding to my break, she approached Jeff and told Jeff: "I heard
everything that was said." To which Jeff said in a joking manner
"yeah, he is an idiot." She then told him that she wanted him to
write a report about it, to which he declined, while insisting that it
was only in jest.
Jeff told me that it wasn't until a day later that management called
him into the office and while they already had the statement from the
other party involved they pressured him into writing his report.
Please, remember that refusing to provide information during an
investigation is reason for termination at UAL. I remember this
clause as well as each of the others that are in the employee business
code of conduct that were handed out to new hires. I guess that
management did a very thorough investigation, because on the report
belonging to Jeff, he stated incidents where jokes, which were made in
the past, to my knowledge, had nothing to do with the current
investigation but were rather statements that were to depict me as a
bad person. I also cried to Jeff about those and I told Jeff that in
any event he did have a choice as to whether cooperate with these
damaging statements or not. He apologized and agreed, and also said
that he didn't know why he didn't make that choice.
Unless Jeff is a liar, I believe him as he sounded very sorry and
remorseful. I was crying and in deep shock over the things that he
told me. I must admit that I am still distrustful about him, as this
had been the second report that Jeff had written against me. Jeff was
also involved in my first and only incident with a passenger at UAL.
After the first report he told me that he would never write something
against me again. We both knew that if either one of us had any
incidents with passengers again that we would be gone from United. He
knew that I was walking on thin ice. Although Jeff and I were not best
friends we were good acquaintances and went out a few times. I shall
also reiterate that Jeff always joked not only with me, but with
everybody. Again, no-one could believe that I got fired over Jeff
feeling offended about joking with me. I am not trying to denounce
him, but his reputation was as such. Jeff told me that as part of the
agreement that he would be spared that he better not continue with his
humorous behavior.
Jeff told me that Robin Gackee "hated my guts." I told Jeff that I
never would have suspected, because I admired Robin and liked her very
much. Thinking back though at the way she and I interacted, I now
change my standing on this correlation. I suppose that I was too
blind out of admiration to see how much she disliked me. Jeff assured
me and gave examples about how she "hated my guts." Then I remembered
two occasions where I could considers these as examples of her
dislike.
One day, I had a discrepancy with a passenger for which I called for
lobby support. In this situation two passengers had missed a
connecting flight to the Great Lakes Area. I offered them a flight,
which would leave in the morning at 9.40AM or so. The customers
wanted to be placed on an American Eagle flight, scheduled for
departure at 8.00AM. I explained to the customers that due to the
fact that they had award tickets that I was not empowered to send them
to AA, as American Airlines would not accept the tickets because there
is no monetary value on them. (Be advised that during training we
were told that Passengers holding award-tickets may only be
accommodated on United. FIM's based on Award Tickets are a NO-GO.)
Having made them understand this policy we were now at the issue of
hotels. Obviously and as expected the party demanded hotel
accommodation. The passengers were Premier, not even Premiere
Executive and as with policy they were not entitled to Hotels, as the
misconnection was the result of weather delays. Because of the Hotel
issue, I could not convince them and requested support. Robin Gackee
took over my position and not only did she write them a FIM to AA, but
also gave them a $125.00 Dollars Travel Voucher each. I was
humiliated and for days could not understand her reasons behind her
actions. Again I admired and trusted her. I believed that she was
always correct. I thought that she was awesome and probably one of
the few that really had indebt knowledge.
On the second occasion, during a briefing, we all were asked to draw a
pig on a sheet. As it turned out I drew mine at the bottom of the
sheet, which according to her then aloud in front of everybody meant
that I am a "negative pig who is a very negative person." I certainly
felt embarrassed at that point, yet I let it slide while thinking that
she only meant it out of humor.
Jeff told me that I must have really pissed her off for her to be the
way she was with me.
I am submitting this new statement in the hopes that someone at United
will find the correct way, and find out in a very careful manner what
really happened. I believed that the policy about revenge on
employees is not allowed at United. This is certainly in contrast to
what happened to me. In spite of everything that I have said in good
faith before, I did not understand the game that was being played with
me. I know that I have made statements before which could make it
seem that, indeed I did something wrong, but please remember that
intimidation and confusion was a big factor in the way this
"Investigation" was handled.
All it takes is to find out, who first brought this incident to the
attention of management? Why did it take more than 24 hours in order
to confront me with this issue? The reports were written one day
after the incident, which leads me to believe about Jeff's hesitation
to cooperate. As to my allegations of the two examples in regards to
Mss. Gackee, it is possible to retrieve an activity log of everything
that I did during my short employment and you should be able to find
the passengers I mentioned before. Besides that, I told some of my
coworkers about my confusion about her actions, therefore those
witnesses can be located, too. There are also witnesses to the second
incident. I don't know if I can count on Jeff, if he is ever
questioned about this.
United strives for a retaliation free environment. It is painful to
see that this is exactly what was done to me.
In my UG it says that the cause of my termination was VIOLATION OF
COMPANY RULES. I have every hand out that was given to me and nowhere
in the handout has it stated that SPECIFICALLY what I did was a
violation of company policy.
I came across your site and thought I'd drop you a note. In 1996,
at the age of 15, I became a 'Premier' on United, flying over 25,000
miles a year, mostly to visit family in Florida. I remained loyal
to United for years, choosing them for all my travel, both domestically
and internationally.
In May 2001, I became a CSR based at ORD.
After a month of training, I went upstairs to the lobby to begin
work at the ticket counters, and finally I realized what all those
United customers were complaining about. I got repremaned numerous
times for 'overextending' United's rebooking policy; basically, if
a United flight was late departing, causing a passenger to miss a
connection, I would book them in a seat to their final destination
instead of listing them as standby, which is required.
I rationalized
my actions because I figured if someone paid hundreds of dollars
for a ticket they should get more than a spot on a overbooked
stand-by list. I constantly heard my fellow co-workers show no
sympathy to stranded travellers and slowly began to realize that
the company I worked for didn't care for either its customers or
its employees. After barely two months of employment, I just
stopped showing up to work; a pretty dumb thing to do with no other
job lined up and a new apartment to pay for.
It turned out to be
the best thing i ever did; shortly after I left, Sept. 11 happened,
and United fired my entire training class, with no severence,
because the 8-month 'probationary' period had not yet elapsed. I
now go to college and wait tables, and the sad thing is, I make
more money as a waiter in a cheap restaurnat then as a CSR for the
world's largest airline.
I am about to become an unemployed Californian as a result of
United Airlines decision to close all but one small reservation
offices in southern California. They will be keeping about 84
positions available for about 1,000 employees. Although they
already have the space available with no cost to the company in
Long Beach, they plan to lease out the remaining space. United also
has a reservation center located in Mexico City which is not closing
and will possibly be expanding.
United Airlines claims to be pulling out of California due to the
high cost of doing business in this area. Although I understand
that side of it I am extremely upset that our government would
allow a corporation to take United States bailout money and then
layoff American employees before employees in Mexico who are doing
the exact same job with less seniority. Understandably, it is more
cost effective to do business in Mexico but I do not feel that
should be an option for a company that is taking hundreds of millions
of dollars from our government.
United Airlines is running an advertising campaign based on "United
we Stand" with the American flag waiving and God bless America.
The truth is that as one of the two largest airlines based in the
United States of America they are robbing our government for their
own personal gains with total disregard for the American people or
the country's economy. While displacing thousands of Americans they
are trying to use the devastating events of September 11 to their
advantage with this campaign. As a taxpayer I am appalled and as
an employee I am ashamed to be part of this organization.
I think that if we are going to bet on the trickle down economic
idea that something should be done to keep that money from trickling
across our borders.
I would appreciate anything you can think of to prevent our country
from handing out any more of United States funds to huge corporations
who will have the same options that the airline industry has been
given to take those funds outside of our country while forcing more
and more Americans into a state of poverty, and on to federal or
state assistance as a result.
During these extremely difficult times I believe all Americans must
stand united against terrorism, economic depression and apparently
corporate America as well. Please stand united with us.
I came across your site after a mistype and am so glad to find a
place to share my experience. I quit United Airlines after only
three days of training.
After many years in education, I decided that a dream job for me
would be working for United. I was very excited when I was called
for interview and accepted for customer service. I had even learned
the airport codes well in advance of the first day and since I
speak three languages and have an advanced degree, I thought I
would be an asset.
It became very clear to me in the orientation session that United
is set up to be very unsupportive to its employees. The supervisors
and trainers themselves had no training for their jobs and I guess
were doing the best they could. But to an educator's eyes, the
mistakes they made were very serious -- public gotcha games infront
of the other trainees, failure to model the behavior they said they
wanted, and tremendous emphasis on what would get us fired rather
than on what would allow us to succeed. I couldn't see how customer
service reps could treat the customers properly if they themselves
aren't treated well and with respect. I chose not to keep on with
this company.
I am sure the supervisors thought they had done everything right.
After all they were only treating the employees the same way they
were and are being treated. What a shame though, for there are many
United employees who genuinely care and want to be helpful. I
believe I would have made a valuable contribution to the company,
but not once I looked into the darkness under the silver and blue.
I wish I had given the real reason for my quitting. I used a family
crisis as the reason--true enough but not really why I left. I was
given the right to be rehired, but I won't be using it.
As another example of UAL managements (that being said lightly)
piss-poor, cock-eyed decision making this is what happened in one
particular office during furloughs. United said they were going to
furlough by job performance, experience and qualifications. So,what
do they do? They furlough a 13+ year employee and keep a trainee.
The furloughed employee asked why twice and the first time was told
that part of the decision was based on who "United felt could best
help rebuild the airline" (um, so 13yrs with the same company wouldn't
qualify one for that?) and the second time was told that "someone had
to go". That's United logic for you. The affected employee is fully
aware that this was in effect a "hit" since there appeared to be no job
performance issues. This had nothing to do with the furlough because
it's obvious in this instance UAL violated its own furlough policy.
This was a matter of getting rid of someone they didn't want for whatever
arbitraty reason under the "furlough" umbrella. Hopefully the bastards
involved from WHQ down will rot in hell. Thank you for this forum where
UAL corporate stupidity at its best can be made public.
So now we have a new CEO at United, So what does that really mean, don't
get me wrong as Mr Goodwin needed to leave, but is it really going to make
a diffrence or are we going to see more of the same? Are we going to find
someone who will try to make right of what Mr Goodwin made so wrong? Are
we going to see more layoffs, I for one am not looking forward to the next
few months, While United seems hell bent on pissing off our customers, We
are having to bear the brunt of it in reservations. Daily we recieve calls
from disgruntled passengers who are being treated as if they have had
nothing to do with this airlines success, and want an explanation that we
can't give! We give our most frequant travelers and most loyal customers
elite status and then turn right around and treat them like someone who
just flew with us their first time!.Don't you realize that if you keep up
the rude and uncaring postion they WILL take their buisness elsewhere!!!!
You need to realize that the way you treat you're customers is having a
direct impact on everyone! Keep it up and we will all be looking for new
jobs at other airlines, because one day you're going to wake up and find
that as they say "you will attract more bees with honey than with vinager"
Bring back the "do unto others" attitude before its too late for all of us.
Wow, what a site! I'm a thirteen year United Aircraft Maintenance
Technician that is disgusted with the poor management abilities
of our company. We're treated like mushrooms as maintenance
professionals......always kept in the dark and feeding shit to us. About
six months ago, I was pulled into to supervisors office as to why I took
an Aircraft out of service? I was surprised about this confrontation
with management regarding the safety of flight of an aircraft. After
writing a letter explaining it to the schmoes and quoting mandated FAA
requirements pertaining to the maintenance problems of that particular
aircraft(I made a copy for myself)they backed off! Gotta hit em back
hard at United....most of the supervisors of maintenance don't have a
clue when it comes to maintenance!I told the supervisor if you press this
any further I will go to the FAA. Well, that effectively shut him up.The
incident isn't anywhere to be found!
Now, dissapointedly there telling
us there is going to be more layoffs in addition to the 20,000 already
booted out!(got it from the rumor mill) Hmmmmm, let me see,no money to pay
our employees, but plenty to send overseas to France for Bizjets! To top
it all off management has become extremely combative and confrontational
after a national tragedy! Amazing...these assholes; absolutely no skill
in management! Hello, Goodwin are you listening? Did anyone tell you that
if take care of your main asset, employees, the customers will be taken
care of in the same manner......with respect! What did you expect, the
guy was a bean counter for 34 years!Back to the layoffs, we're hearing
they want to cut all the way back to 1990 seniority! That my dear Untied
friends is a massive layoff! Minimum 4000 maintenance professionals
alone and a few thousand pilots! Now add in CSR's and everyone else,
probably another 30,000....thats a total of 50,000 people....will we
survive? I don't think so!
Basically what I have to say is simple. You have beat around the bush
long enough, lets identify UAL's real problem.
Problem # 1 As a public company UAL is limited in what they can tell
their employees, this causes management to actually share virtually
NOTHING. This lack of comunication among the ranks will continue to cause
safety concerns, poor treatment of employees, and bad customer service.
Problem # 2 Ual is afraid that the employees will lash out again
UAL, therefore they do everything possible to hush the employees, for
instance, After the attacks I was somehow selected to take ANP, I was
then walked out of the door, and treated as if I got fired. Ual wanted
to do everything they could do to stop employees from lashing out against
their Politically Right Wing Bull Shit Poilicies.
Face it UAL problems will end will Goodwin is gone, and the board is
realigned.
Recently the company is losing money and directing the employees
to show no mercy with collecting fees and doing nothing to keep the
frequent flyers happy. This was not always the case. Mr Goodwin put
out a directive in the summer of 2000 saying be generous with the 1K's.
I did this in the way of giving one way upgrades or $100 travel certs.
I was informed this week that I gave too much and a dollar figure was
given to these soft money certs, money which I am now responsible to
account for. I may need an attorney. I showed the manager just who was
given these ammenities- 4 or 5 of our MILLION MILE FLYERS, passenger
who would have long deserted UAL that summer if someone was not looking
after them. Well I am angry and disappointed and find United to be
without a conscience.....
Just recently the most prosperous U.S. airline, ual, offered over 11
Billion dollars for US Airways in an ALL CASH DEAL(4.7 cash and rest
debt). After the tragic 9-11-01 incident ual has cried louder than
every other Airline for Taxpayer money. What happened to all that
cash?
UAL mechs and ground support employees have not had a raise in
over 8 years! Badwin got a 48% percent raise this year alone! Where is
the money?
It is painfully clear that ual is trying to take advantage
of a tragic situation for their own benefit. Many business owners have
suffered but will get no Taxpayer help. Layoffs have hit ual union
employees hard and Management keeps making the big bucks. ual is 55%+
EMPLOYEE OWNED but run by a small minority of greedy mismanagers who are
bent on using this event to further line their pockets at the expense
of the employees and U.S. Taxpayers. Where is the shame?
Only front
line ual Pilots. Flt attendants, Mechs, Agents, Ramp, etc, blue collar
workers feel it.
-- the opinion of One truly Grounded Employee
This is about the "furloughs" that commence on Oct. 31st. I work in
a West Virginia office and I hear repeatedly from passengers, "Are you in
the West Virginia office? Oh Good!" When Sept 11th happened, we were told
"Dont tell the public anything. Tell them to watch the news.", "No we dont
have to worry about our jobs, we are fine," This is a temporary setback,
we will bounce out of it the numbers are on the rebound," "I realize we
are 75 in que, but we still need people to take ANP to make our numbers
look better.
On Friday, Oct 19th I sat in a team meeting with others on my team
and listened to my advisor tell us she had to go. I couldnt believe
my ears. Out of all of the people in management they kept, they laid
off the ONLY Person that had a team that had no furloughed members. I
think that should be a testiminial at the VERY LEAST to her abilities
as an advisor. When we had a coworker brutally murdered, our advisor was
there for us to talk to. When my husband had a heart attack, my advisor
spent time asking questions and giving me some very helpful information
because she had been through it with her husband.
Now I found out they
are bringing in advisors from another office with LESS experience, less
common sense (and yes I know this for a fact because 1 of the advisors
was in my graduating class)and less of an ability to motivate us. No
one will ever be able to replace my advisor EVER! She has more class,
more business savvy and more leadership ability in her little finger than
anyone they have kept or will hire in the future (and I'm sure they will
hire more)I hope when the final day comes to Mileage Plus (and I'm sure
with business practices as they have shown this past week) they will be
happy with themselves knowing they gave it their best shot, kept their
buddies employed, and it was "really to bad" about the others because it
wasnt beneficial to them.
I enjoy my job immensely and am very proud of
having it and to be called a Mileage Plus employee, however I am rather
"embarrassed" at the way people were chosen for furloughs. (Ahem,,,
not laid off, they have to do more for ya then). There are people in my
office that only end up working 19 hours a week, call in sick 3 days at
a time work a half a day and take a half day vacation and get belows on
their qcs, but still have their jobs. While others, mostly single Moms
(and almost every pregnant woman) were told, sorry but it is necessary
to furlough you. See ya! What a waste!
Never have I believed so whole heartedly in a job, and loved the people
who I work or worked around as I have with my time at Mileage Plus.We
have come along way since our first graduating class in the Huntington
office.We have all been proud of the job we have done and the reputation
we have built between ourselves and the customers we so dearly love. Until
the recent attacks on America on September 11. A day I will not soon
forget as we stand and watch in disbelief as our jobs begin to disapear
and and fellow co-workers who have given 110 percent are layed off and
their lively hoods are taken away in the blink of an eye.
On sept 11 I
awoke to a phone call from a co-worker telling me to turn on my TV and I
sat and wept openly as I watched the news unfold. My first instinct was
to call work and ask if there was anything I could do, offered to come
in early if needed and so on. I went to work that evening and there were
few calls. It wasn't until the following day that passengers began to
call and to my surprise were offering their condolences to US! I took
calls from families who needed to get to NY and DC that had family on
the planes that were used in the attack, I cried with them and tried
to still, do the best job that I could with what little we had to work
with. Over the next several days I began to wonder what else we had to
look forward to and now, those nagging questions we all had in the back
of our minds are being answered.We have yet to begin to suffer the full
affects of sept11. I often complained early on that we were the one's
taking calls and our nerves stretched beyond comprehension as no one,
not anyone offered support or an ear to listen, other than my advisor
whom herself felt so terrible,was the only line of support offered. With
no one to talk to, We did the best job that we could, all along thinking
this is what is right.
Well I am not so sure, I stand here in an office
watching as those close to me go into an office and are being told they
are no longer needed at this time and that layoffs must occur. While I
understand some of the reasons behind them, I also find myself realizing
that all is not perfect with United. We have been through weeks of
uncertainty, being told one thing today and finding out tommorrow some
thing different.
We actually had our local news at our Charleston office
standing outside of the building the day they announced that the office
was closing asking employees as the entered how they felt about losing
their jobs, BEFORE THEY HAD EVEN BEEN TOLD!!. These so called "leaks
to the press" to me are nothing more than united proving how little
they actually care about us, the employees of mileage plus!!!! Now that
layoffs have been given we also have to watch as what we were originally
told is exactly not what was done. No layoffs went by seniority so it
doesn't matter how long you've been with the company, or the service
you provided only how many days you missed whether it because of a sick
child or loved one. Only that you may have missed a day at you're job,
and now some no longer have jobs (as of oct 31).
Our management has
suffered layoffs and were told that performance as well as education
and experience would determine their future with mileage plus, and what
did they get? layed off with extensive schooling and dozens of years
experience and a job very well done, they lost their jobs to others who
in some cases have had no schooling and little experience. So we find
the bottom line, we give until we can't give anymore and you take and
take and take, then discard us as if we mean nothing.
And just to rub
it in a little more you send us one last check with all vacation, all
severence pay in one nice neat lump sum where uncle sam can take most of
it back and we lose everything ........ It's not too much to ask that
we be treated like the vital part that we are for United, not the red
headed step child who deserves nothing so should get nothing.
Thanks
for nothing and don't bother asking fo more! We have nothing else to give.
As a former reservation agent I want to express my profound disgust with
United Airlines. The day of the tragedy, with the world in shock, the
atmosphere in United Reservations was one of obliviousness to the events.
No one was there to talk to any employees about what happened, it was
just log on and take calls...and don't forget to say, "Thank you for
calling United".
Unfortunately many of the fellow employees were completely oblivious
to the tragedy and United's connection to it...then again, I guess they
aren't paid to care ($8.40 per hour). Management's solution was to pass
out candy during the shift and make people work unlimited overtime until
such time as they were laid off. I guess candy is alright to appease
little kids..and there are some (effectively) little kids in reservations.
Finally, United has yet to take any responsibility for the highjackings
as they had noone trained in anyway to prevent such things; not in
reservations, not in customer service, not the minimum wage security
people they hire, nor flight attendants, nor pilots.
I was so disgusted with United that I resigned before layoffs were
announced, and the response? "Ineligible for rehire" That's the best
news I'd heard in awhile.
I work out of the [omitted] Mileage Plus office that will finalize layoffs
on Oct 19. I feel very shocked that after seeing many of my coworkers
breaking down on the call floor after speaking with grieving family
members, caring about their passengers, giving their all, United has
been extremely vague with employees in a state already showing a barren
economy. When anyone in management was asked if we should be putting in
resume's due to this to prepare for the loss of our families incomes, we
were scoffed at, ignored, sometimes even ridiculed. There are employees
who live a hundred miles away from the office and have made that drive
daily for the past two years to feed their children, single mothers,
people who held their head up high for United and Mileage Plus. Now
these said people will either have to stand in an already congested
unemployment office, having been told all too late that they will be
going, or they may be one of the precious few who go on to another office
an additional 50 miles away. They have begged for everyone to help them
with this dilemma, brow-beat ANP into peoples minds "if you care about
your job we need the numbers to look good" and have one day told us that
our fears are unwarranted only to put in a memo that next evening that
they would be closing and cramming the elite into an already full office
building further from their homes. We have all very much cared about
our jobs. Half of the time from our passengers we heard, "You're a big
help, you must be in one of the West Virginia offices, huh". We believed
in our company. Does it seem that this is reciprocal? We are the same
CSR's who were cursed when the flights all were cancelled last summer,
and who fielded all the calls after Sept 11, and who broke down on the
call floor and no grief counselor ever thought to grace a doorway. United
and Mileage Plus will not tell anyone how to go about day to day life,
just get on the phone and thank the customer as you wonder just how to
word your work history, feed your family in the future, live your life
after the guilt-ridden fear that we all went through when two of the
planes we sold every day went down. Thank you United/MP.
As you, I am also a United Employee. My wife and I were just discussing how
perfectly incompetent Jim Goodwin and our senior management team are. Just
when you think they can't be any dumber, they continue to amaze by taking
it down another notch. Companion passes, jumpseats, lack of communication,
arbitrary reductions to solid ual flying, complete and total disregard for
the years of service the many dedicated ual employees have invested. They
have exploited a tragedy to circumvent the rules of fair play and dupe the
flying public. How bout ticket fares? Maybe if we could price our product
competitively we'd be continuing to expand like JetBlue instead of the
classic ual strategy to cut and run. Please ask Mr Goodwin to step
down...tell him we'll pay him what ever it takes...really, He's just not up
to the job. Best of luck.
Please bring back untied.
The flight attendants just found out that all buddy passes will be
suspended. One of the biggest perks is now being pulled!
Something that doesn't cost them anything, why would they pull it?
United got a bailout from the Fed's and then turned around and
placed 20,000 employees on a leave of absence without pay (ANP).
I'm one of those 20,000. ANP is widely believed to be a precursor to
furloughs/layoffs. There are very nasty rumors circulating that United is
going to try and weasel out of paying some or perhaps even all severance
pay employees would normally be entitled to. I greatly admire and respect
your decision to temporarily suspend 'Untied', however I think untied.com
could be of great benifit to others such as myself who have been placed
on ANP. I'm going to write my representatives in congress regarding
what United has done, and I'd be especially interested in knowing if
any class action lawsuits come out of United's ANP decision or United's
potential decision to deny severance.
I wanted to say thank you for your consideration and thoughts.
As a member of the airline industry, now is a very difficult time.
I understand that your website, untied.com, is designed to effect change
for the better at United Airlines. Thank you for your message to United
Airlines employees and families in this time of uncertainty and fear.
As an employee of United, generally I do not like your site. But I just
want to let you know that on a personal level, I want to thank you for
temporarily shutting down your site and for your condolences. It's
heartwarming to see, conflicting groups come togeather in a time of need
and grief.
I am a black 53 year old employee with 25 years of service. When I
started with UAL in 1976 the company didn't even fly to the state of
Texas.
In 1977 American started automating travel agencies with their
Sabre reservations system. United had filed with the FAA in 1976 for
the rights to fly to Japan. American had a verbal agreement with Nippon
Express, the largest Japanese travel agency at that time, to automate
them. United was given approval by the FAA and all that was needed was
the approval by the Japanese government. This compelled United to secure
the contract with Nippon Express by any means necessary.
Since I speak
Japanese I was approached by Don Yuskiewicz,the manager of the newly for
Apollo Travel Services {ATS} department. This was at United's New York
City reservations office; the office was actually located in Rockleigh,NJ.I
was asked to work on the Help Desk,answering format questions from newly
automated agencies. One day Don asks me to ride into NYC with him. I
asked him for what purpose and he said he needed my help. On our way
down the Palisades Parkway Don told me he wanted me to speak Japanese
to the manager of Nippon Express. Don said he had contacted him about
going with United's Apollo system but the manager, Mr Ono,said he had
a verbal agreement with American. Don said he told Mr Ono that when his
agent would need help,they would have to call a toll-free number and talk
wityh someone in Dallas,Texas. Mr Ono's reply was "I dont care where
they're located as long as they get the help they need. Don said,"this
is why I need your help Kerm".
When we arrived at the agency there were
two Japanese agents in the US on travel visas. They spoke little if
any English,but when Mr Ono heard me speak his language he told Don
"not only are you closer but you have someone who speaks our language. I
trained the two travel agents in the back of the classroom,translating
everything the instructor (Barbara Fleiger) was saying. The training
lasted 5 weeks and afterwards I went back to the Help Desk where I was
swamped with work.
I noticed a memo with all of United's res offices with
ATS. I was suprised that most cities had at least 4 people on their Help
Desk while I was the only one in the New York office. Cleveland had 4 help
desks agents, Chicago had 8,Los Angeles had 6,San Francisco had 7 and so
on.When I approached Don about getting me some help his response was "Oh,
you're doing fine". I had enough and told Don I couldn't work under these
conditions. He asked me if I wanted to go back to the Res floor. I was
so mad I accepted to go back to my former position.
I was replaced by 3
whites. When word got out Don was transferred to Chicago and promoted to
Director of Communications at O'Hare airport,his assignment was overseeing
the building of United's new terminal during the early 1980's. In 1983
I transferred to the Cleveland res office to be closer to my family. I
was born and raised in Homestead,Pa; a small borough in the Pittsburgh
area. I was approached by the manager to interview for a management job
in Chicago that I did not want. I was told that the interview process
would be a good experience even if I didn;t want the job. I agreed and
went on the interview. Little did I know I was interviewing for a job
that was being vacated by a black female whom this white supervisor,
Steve Zitnak,was trying to fire.
I accepted the position and was
told I would receive 6 weeks training. The positon was Automated
Accounting. When Steve was reprimanded by his superior for trying to
fire the black woman, Celestial Smith, I was set up with a trainer who
was going on a cruise 2 weeks into my training. When word got out Steve
was promoted to inflight supervisor. While in Cleveland I spoke out on
behalf of the lack of promotions for females of color. For this I was
punched in the back of my neck while sitting at a table eating my lunch
and reading the paper. I was punched by Ed Hall, a supervisor.
I reported
this to the manager,Jim Meenan but I never received any feedback. Ed
Hall has retired with a full pension. On June 14 of this year one of
my co-workers of Arab of decent was complaining about being teased by
white male employees about his name. His first name is Fouad, pronounced
"foo-ed" but my white co-workers, many who are my age insist on calling
him Akbar or Hussein or Muhammad, anything but Fouad.While discussing
his problems to me he used profanity. But some white women in training
complained about his conversation with me telling a supervisor that they
felt threatened,although he never directed the conversation at them and if
they would have been doing thir job,taking phone calls,they wouldn't have
heard him.
A letter was put into both of our files. We were instructed
by our union rep to sign the letter because it was normal procedure. We
signed in protest because there was never a transcript on what was said
nor were we allowed to know the identity of our accusers,even though
Fouad and I pay union dues, the union felt it appropriate to defend our
accusors even though they were in training and didn't pay union dues. I
have since gone to a therapist for anger management because I can't take
United's racist petty games anymore.Publish this if you like. They don't
scare me. I only fear God and I know he is on my side.
I am a flight attendant with United Airlines. I was reading your site and
found a few articles related to the incedent at a crew hotel in L.A.
Although United assures it's crews that we are staying in safe hotels,
there have been problems at the Melia Reforma in Mexico City as well.
Thankfully nothing as serious as a rape...yet! We have been asking United
to move us out of this hotel and the unsafe area for weeks, and nothing has
been done. The pilots were moved 4 months ago to a Marriott at the
airport, requiring no transportation fees.
But flight attendants remain being driven downtown, and staying in a hotel
which the front desk asks us not to leave the hotel as it is unsafe.
I have set too many times in a room at the Melia Reforma listening to the
automatic weapons being fired and the hotel security scrambling around as
someone has charged into the hotel.
What will it take for UAL to move us from this unsafe hotel? I can only
hope we do not end up with a repeat of the L.A. Bonaventure!
Ed: While it is Untied.com's policy to preserve the anonymity of
UAL employees who publish their feedback in these pages, we
note that the writer of the following letter has
requested that his name be witheld because of
of past retaliatory actions, by UAL management, against his family.
The writer is a cancer patient, and cites management's disregard
for the employees as the cause of his nervous conditions for which
he is being treated.
First and foremost, thank you for this forum so that my
fellow employees can brief the public and other fellow employees
about what I have come to call basic human rights violations. Of
course that is a exaggeration, but an appropriate statement
nonetheless.
After many years with this company there have been more negative
happenings than I can count. Most folks would think that we are
just complaining, since most employees don't like management in
companies, but you know what...this stuff really happens. Our
company's strategic management training program prides itself on
the gap between management and employee. United Airlines seems to
embrace the idea. A while ago we had to new people at the helm
that almost made a difference with introducing to the good ole
boy's network a new kind of management (new at United) whereby
certain guidelines would be set in place to respect the employee
and treat the whole as a team effort to bring about sweeping change
in a company that surely needed it. It is a simple task for normal
people to treat others as they would want to be treated, and the
resulting morale among employee groups reflected upon our customers
with extreme acceptance. What is that? That is a company that was
going somewhere. Management was told to embrace this philosophy
or separate.
Employee groups worked together in the most part toward a common
goal. Job security, equitable treatment of peers, and job placement
based upon knowledge rather than EEOC quotas. I have been personally
passed over for positions that I am qualified for because of quotas.
I can identify with the statements made by a "pilot" who wrote in,
however not as inflammatorily. White women, Pink People, Black
People, even with Stripes, it doesn't matter to me or most other
employees where anyone came from. No... the problem lies in the
process itself. It is unfair, and it has been left unchecked way
to long. It is a prerequisite in some stations to damage an airplane
in order to be considered for a supervisor slot ! I wonder how
somebody can be allowed to interview for that job after a negligent
act of incompetence. Seems the EEOC guidelines have thrown that
out where we work. I still ponder that statements made by some
businessmen who have been approached to hire EEOC quota-qualifying
people. It is said in many places by different people that the
government will either issue tax breaks, supply funding, or subsidize
salary if quotas are being met. Save Money ?? Well they quickly
got the attention of UAL if that is the case. Personally I could
not promote someone who has damaged aircraft, worked unsafe next
to aircraft, or just plain cannot think straight for themselves
instead of like some programmed robotic imbecile. Ever had to deal
with one of those at the gate ?
Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Dutta need to get their act together and fast.
My company is nose-diving without a terrain clearance avoidance
system. They are dangerous, callous, and could care less about
you. Unfortunately there are many power hungry head strong management
employees out there who are eating out of their hands. They needed
that refresh because Edwarson and Greenwald wouldn't have it. We
are back to the mismanaged cash cow we once were. Of course
everything is the employee's fault. There will always be a fall
guy to take the blame for an action that could have been corrected.
These two people are playing with families, some of them generations.
And we sit back idly and watch our dreams disappear while they line
their pockets with unearned wealth. How many of you are experiencing
any form of mis-treatment since the IAM was voted in to represent
the PCE group? I would venture to say many of you have seen the
change, the anxiety of middle-management. It is pushed onto you.
A harassment session if you have been out of work because an
illness...even a serious life threatening illness does not stop
them from skirting the law to harass you for being away.
Oh yes, they say there is the door if you don't like it. It is my
understanding many thousands of dollars can be spent of training
one person. That person then must represent UAL in a positive
manner. That person has to smile and really love his job. That
person is to shine under even the most stressful of conditions
presented to him/her. What's up with this so called "corporate
culture" ? There are many wrongs, and yet we swallow them to the
point of belittlement and go on with our jobs. I remember being
up there with a feeling of worth when Edwardson and Greenwald were
around. I'd take them back in a heartbeat. They were the best
I've seen so far, and they surely surpass these two (Goodwin &
Dutta) in experience and philosophy. You two guys, do you think
you have a bunch of uneducated morons working for you? In the most
part many of us are college educated. So I challenge you, as many
have done, to take down your "RULES of the ROAD" signs all over
the place and start to practice those ideals. Having them hanging
on all the walls just fuels our fire knowing they are the false
advertisement gold medallist of the decade. I know you read this,
and as always try like hell to find out info and play fire-a-rama
with people who speak out against unfair and unethical business
practices. Your silly little management team in the cities literally
spends a great deal of TIME and MONEY trying to destroy the lives
of those who make this company great. Remember the words that once
came out of that office you now hold. "Our employees are our
greatest asset." Remember to promote a safe and secure work
environment. Remember to promote from within based upon knowledge
and experience. Remember while lining your pockets to treat those
who work for this company with the utmost respect. Remember to go
home tonight Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Dutta and treat your own family
with respect.
Start to use your heads and get back to the basic backbone of the
corporation you supposedly lead. Stop railroading and streamline
the process by which we can pull this company back out of the nosedive. Answer to your lawsuits, and stop
making them ! Begin a healing process that will discontinue all
negative treatment of employees. Deal with those who blatantly
break our rules with respect and dignity, not with a kangaroo court
where a verdict has already been reached. Sometimes negative
treatment is deserving, yet a majority of the time it is nothing
more than some power trip. You will see a return not only in
respect for yourselves, but a return on the stock market as well.
And it doesn't cost you money. Certainly it should not cost any
pride, for if it does, your are in the wrong place gentlemen.
Educate incompetent middle-management or replace them with respectful
leaders. Stop reaching into the EEOC party hat and pulling names
for the next round of supervisors. Because the party is over. It
has been the next day for a long time and this company has a real
bad hang-over.
Remember.
As a former employee of United airlines reading the customer complaints, I
felt there were a few things I would like to add and say. After being
employed by United for less than one year, I felt as if 100 lbs. had been
lifted off my shoulders on the day I left there for good. Lousy pay, lousy
hours and never have I worked anywhere where I was treated with less
dignity and respect.
While many of you passengers have VERY legitimate
gripes, there are a few things you should be made aware of. There is NO
excuse for rudeness on that we can completely agree. As far as being lied
to by Customer Service people - I don't believe that is the case from my
experience. Usually the only information available to the CSR is what is
in her computer as to the cause for delays and cancellations. As far as
seating goes, at the counter the computer gives a chart showing what is
empty...that is what there is to choose from and in some cases there are
no seats at all which leaves the agent with no choices. Food, lodging,
coupons, upgrades, sending to other airlines....the rules are clearly
defined by the company as to what the agent may and may not do. The agent
may well want to or feel that you deserve (as I did) in many cases far more
than you getting but to do so could cost them their job. Everything an
agent does is closely monitored, in particular the time spent with
customers. As I was told when I worked there...we expect you to spend no
more than 2 minutes with a customer (this is monitored). I was dinged many
times for spending TOO much time with a passenger. One complaint, I read
referred to the taking of a break by an agent when the line was long. Tell
me how many of you would work for $9 an hour on your feet being yelled at,
picking up bags while all the time trying to keep a smile on your face and
be pleasant and then give up your lunch (which will be deducted from your
pay whether you take it or not). Agents can spend enormous amounts of
time at the ticket counter without even a bathroom break. I could go on
and on...but the point of this is that a big part of the reason you as
customers do not get good service is because (1) not enough help (2)
inexperienced help (airline is lucky to keep 1 out every 10 employees hired
to work ticket counters and gates) (3) poor treatment of agents regardless
of whether you are a good agent with no complaints on your record or not.
The bottom line here folks is that happy employees make good
representatives of their company and what you are dealing with when you
deal with United are employees that are squeezed right in the middle
between what the company expects and what you expect. It is a no win
situation believe me.
The airline industry can be an interesting and
challenging place to work...I for one would love to try another airline
someday...hopefully one that treats its employees with some respect. But
as for United...they have a long way to go in employee relations. And
until they learn how to deal fairly with their employees, I doubt very much
that if you continue to fly with them your experiences will be much
different.
Ed: The writer of the following note has authorized Untied.com to
publish his letter in full. If anyone wishes to contact Mr. Kevakian
for further details, he can be reached by
email.
My name is Gregory S. Kevakian and I was hired by United Airlines on
October 20, 1997 as a Customer Service Representative at starting pay of
$8
per hour. At the time of hiring, I was 42 years of age and it was
understood that after successfully completing one year of service at such
a
low pay, I would be granted a guaranteed interview for the position of
pilot
(upon renewing pilots license) or a sales position.
I was based out of San Francisco International Airport. During the next
11 months, United Airlines customers who showed their appreciation by
actually writing the company on my behalf accepted me. To date, I
received
more customer satisfaction letters from fare paying customers in such a
short period of time... more than anyone has ever received throughout the
entire history of the airline.
I received so many letters because of my attitude. I believed that
United
Airlines was the best airline in the world and being such everyone,
including myself, was obligated to provide the best service possible.
What was my reward? I was accused of being a "kiss-a--" for the
customer
and that my only motivation was getting letters from customers. It should
be noted that I never at anytime solicited, from any customer, that they
write a letter to the company on my behalf. I was just doing my job the
best of my ability and apparently enough customers felt it appropriate to
inform United Airlines Management of my efforts.
Within the 11 month of employment, I interviewed for the position of
Service Director. The Service Director is primarily responsible for
interceding customer complaints on the floor and resolving issues the best
they can. I felt being that I had a documented high-customer acceptance
for
handling all kinds of issues, I would have no problem securing the
position.
At that time, United was hiring 19 year-olds for the same position. I was
interviewed by a panel of three (One of Whom was 19) and I was denied. No
official reason was given but I was told I could re-apply in one year.
On October 1, 1998, a passenger who did not want to gate check his bag
confronted me. His actions caused me to lose my balance consequently
hitting the back of my head on the jetway wall. Surrounding passengers
said
I was passed out for a few seconds. The passenger who caused the conflict
was very apologetic so I decided to allow him to board and there was no
further incident.
I reported the previously mentioned incident to my immediate supervisor
who instructed me to fill out a report the next day.
The next day, I could not get out of bed. I was eventually taken to the
emergency room at University of California San Francisco medical center
where it was determined that I sustained a work-related injury and that I
might have nerve damage at the c5 c6 vertebrae.
The pain increased to such a level that I was placed on Medical Leave
Status. My one-year anniversary date came and even though at that
particular time I was still classified as regular full-time, I was denied
an
interview to either apply for a pilot's position or that of sales.
Now the nightmare begins. After my sick time was used up, United
Airlines
refused to pay what is called Temporary Disability Benefits which is
allowed
as promulgated via the current Worker's Compensation Regulations. Thus, I
was not receiving any income at all.
United then ordered me to be evaluated by their Flight Surgeon who made
the final conclusion that I sustained a work-related injury and suggested
that I try physical therapy followed by epidermal injections and as a last
resort, evasive surgery.
Upon initial request for physical therapy - United Airlines denied the
request. Upon initial request for epidermal injections - United Airlines
denied the request.
Six months goes by without any source of income. I am evicted from my
residence. My near-perfect on-time credit rating which took years to
accomplish was now completely shot.
Consequently, I could no longer afford to live in the San Francisco bay
area so I requested a transfer to Phoenix - Sky Harbor Airport. United
Airlines granted said request.
Upon arriving at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, I was assured by a union
rep
that I would not endure the same mistreatment that I did at San Francisco
International Airport.
My neck pain caused me to be placed once again on medical leave status
just after one week arrival at Phoenix. Again with no more sick time, I
was
denied Temporary Disability Benefits. Again no income, I was evicted from
my residence.
With nowhere else to turn, I contacted a local church who help me get
housing and food.
United Airlines once again ordered me to be evaluated by the same doctor
that evaluated me previously. Once again, that same doctor concurred that
I
sustained a work-related injury and recommended the same regime of
treatment
as previously mentioned herein.
United Airlines once again rejected their own medical professionals
recommendations and once again denied payment for treatment
No recourse now, I was forced to retain legal counsel of Boxer and
Gerson,
Ralph Mann, Esq. out of Oakland, California. Upon doing so, United
Airlines
immediately changed its posture and authorized the epidermal injections.
(I
was told by medical professionals that physical therapy was no longer an
option because of the length of time of the injury to the date that UA
authorized payment)
I sustained three epidermal injections spaced 3 to 4 weeks apart. End
result, unsuccessful.
In October 19, 2000, over two years after I sustained my work-related
injury, a hearing was ordered at the Worker's Compensation Appeals Board
in
San Francisco, California. In Kevakian vs. United Airlines; RSKCO, et al.,
Case No.: SFO 0431008. Prior to the commencement of said hearing,
legal counsel for United Airlines specifically John T. Huskin, Jr., Esq.
with the law firm of Mullen & Filippi out of Oakland, Ca., made the
following threat to my legal counsel and myself:
"If you continue you with this, I will make sure that I delay these
proceedings for five years!"
During the hearing legal counsel to United Airlines (John Huskin)
admitted
that they did not comply with discovery (i.e. providing my legal counsel
with copies of my medical and personnel file). His excuse was he did not
want to take the time and expense to photocopy the files. His arrogance
was
shocking.
At the conclusion of the hearing, United agreed to authorize payment for
my evasive neck surgery but refused to pay my past disability payments.
Approximately 30 days later, the Honorable Judge Larry Quan issued a
Findings and Award against United Airlines ordering them to pay all of my
past disability payments (it should be noted that we are only talking
about
$217.00 per week).
United Airlines appealed.
On November 11, 2000, in response to United Airline's appeal, the
Honorable Larry Quan issued
a Report and Recommendation on Petition for Reconsideration in favor of
me
and totally against United Airlines.
I went into the hospital On January 10th, 2001 and underwent major
surgery
to correct the damage caused by my work-related injury.
On January 26, 2001, the Honorable Judge William O'Brien issued an Order
denying United Airlines Request for Reconsideration.
To date, I have yet to receive one penny from United Airlines.
During my time at United, I received in excess of 40 letters of
commendation from passengers. At my deposition hearing, the attorney
representing UAL implied that no such letters existed and that they (United
management) could not even locate my personnel or medical file. It has now
been over two years since this ordeal started and as of today's date, United
management still indicate that they cannot locate my personnel or medical
file.
What they did not count on is that I kept copies of all the letters
(see images, below)
and was able to present them myself through my legal counsel.
On February 16th, I needed to fly to LAX in order to begin my post-surgery
treatment.
I arrived at PHX accompanied by
my wife and the United Airlines supervisor advised me that my flight
benefits
has been suspended. I asked for what reason. He could not provide me with
one. To this date, United management has refused to provide me with a
reason
why my flight benefits have been suspended. It should be noted that my wife
WAS able to fly that day on United. In fact, I had to sign her
write-your-own [ticket] for her to fly even though I was unable to fly myself. Being
that I was unable to fly with my wife that day, I asked United management to
provide me with a letter of employment verification so that I can get the
airline rate at Southwest. They refused even though I am still a United
Airlines employee on current medical leave status. Consequently I was forced to
purchase a separate ticket for myself on Southwest Airlines in
order to meet with my wife in LA.
I contacted a supervisor at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and he advised me
that even though I am on medical leave, I am still eligible to fly. He
had no answer as to why my privileges have been arbitrarily revoked without
any proper form of notice.
I can not apply for another job, I can not even apply for welfare or
social security because the computer system indicates that I am receiving
worker's compensation benefits albeit that I am not personally receiving
one
dime to live on to cover over a two-year period of time.
I know that my legal battle with United Airlines is
far from over. What has kept me going is my relationship with God, my
wonderful wife, kids and family and my church. If it were not for them, I certainly
would either be on the streets by now or dead.
Ed: We reproduce here a number of the letters that Mr. Kevakian received directly from
his employer. Clicking on any of the thumbnails will bring up the full
image.
UPDATE: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 04:45:17 EDT
As expected the airline is now in contempt of court concerning my
worker's compensation claim. With that in mind, my legal counsel has filed a
"Readiness to Proceed" requesting from the court an additional 10% in damages
for "an unreasonable delay of all benefits included in the award."
In one of UAL's recent mailings detailing the
"United Airlines Rules of the Road" for all employees, it states:
I worked for United Airlines for twelve years as an aircraft mechanic at
San Francisco before leaving to join a different airline, also
as an aircraft mechanic. I do miss United and all the
great co-workers I had encountered over the years, but I also feel the
deception to the general public has to be addressed since I am also a
disgruntled flyer, and know how frustrating it can be to fly the friendly
skies.
The majority of my years with United were spent working as a line mechanic
on various crews and terminals (domestic and international) at SFO. Being
an insider, I've seen many of the tricks United has pulled to prevent
accurate DOT reporting.
Delays due to overbooking, baggage problems, operational (weight/balance,
fuel, crews, etc...) were, as often as possible, wrongly reported as
maintenance problems because such delays were the exception to the DOT
rules. Maintenance problems do not affect the on-time rating of an
airline, so therefore any chance the operations people, ramp service,
caterers, flight crews, customer service, or any other organization within
the company who had anything to do with the flight, saw there was a chance
for a delay which could count towards their on-time statistics tried to
blame maintenance.
It was not unusual for a ramp service supervisor to approach me while I was
seated in the aircraft push-back vehicle, waiting for the baggage handlers
to finish loading the airplane so I could dispatch my flight, and having
them ask me to request the flight crew release the parking brakes on the
aircraft. The reason behind this is explained further.
United uses a system called Aircraft Communications and Reporting System
(ACARS); it records on and off times, that,
meaning departure and arrival times. Certain criteria have to be fulfilled
before it reports to a ground station by VHF radio and onboard computer.
The aircraft doors must be closed and the parking brakes released. Of
course if all the passengers are onboard, the door will be
closed...customer service has done its job.
But, what if it is past departure time and the baggage handlers are not
anywhere near finished??? Here is a trick that is used frequently. Hmmm,
why not have the mechanic on the tug ask the pilots to release the
brakes?Nevermind that on a bigger plane such as a DC-10, 767, 777, or 747,
you have a huge mechanical loader physically hooked-up to the airplane, and
when the brakes are released giving United its on-time departure, the plane
rolls back ever so slightly, which can actually cause a genuine maintenace
delay, which has happened in the past.
Another trick I remember is to make the mechanic the last person off the
aircraft, therefore it can be called a mechanical. Once again, on the
bigger planes, the mechanic must visually inspect the cargo door while it
is closing, and verify the locks are properly engaged before departure.
During long delays, I seemed to notice that baggage handlers needed help
and ran into more problems while closing the doors, requiring the expertise
of the mechanics to assist them. Of course, being the last person to get
off the airplane meant it was my delay...or, should I say, the maintenace
departments!!!
There are still a number of tricks I can recall, but will not get into here
for the sake of putting you to sleep. There seem to be many unwritten
policies in United's Operating Procedures. Can you imagine if United
really reported to the DOT the true number of actual delays?
In defense of United, I'm sure other airlines may play the same game, but
so far I have not seen that going on at my current employer.
Ed. Note: The following UAL employee letter will no doubt be
offensive to many readers. Our inclusion of it here should not
be misconstrued as an expression of support for this attitude.
However, it does raise the obvious point that
UAL puts corporate politics ahead of passenger safety and further
reflects a growing level of discontent among UAL pilots.
As a United Captain I'm sick and tired of flying with low time
Black and Women Pilots who can't fly the goddamn airplane.
When management pencil whips the training records of these morons,
people like me have to pick up the slack.
The paying passengers who fly with us expect to have qualified
pilots, not minorities who simply are hired to meet the EEOC'S
three-fourths rule: high school diplomas and 350 hours total
flying time don't make in Chicago ORD in a winter snow storm.
Get the goddamn black and white women [expletive deleted] out of Human
Resources in Denver and put hiring back into the hands of
White Pilots who know who should be hired.
Ed: Untied.com has communicated with other pilots in the flying industry,
including a former UAL pilot, who have indicated that UAL does hire women
and minorities with lower qualifications than the typical "white male"
new-hire pilot. Unfortunately, this places passengers at increased risk.
Furthermore, it casts an undeserved negative image of minority and female
pilots since many of them, including some new-hires -- are very competent.
Yet we can't ignore the fact that in an attempt to play corporate politics,
UAL willfully hires, and places in the cockpit, some pilots that are
marginally qualified. Admittedly, we're not surprised.
As we did when other safety questions were raised about United
Airlines, Untied.com again challenges UAL to rebut these charges
and discuss the pilot's concerns through dialogue at our site -- in
an open and public forum.
As a mechanic for United Airlines and reading the pilot incident who was
fired, I can tell you that alot of information is withheld from the pilot
about the aircraft that he flies. For instance, if a mechanic writes up a
defect on the aircraft, management can sign it off regardless if the
mechanic feels its a safety issue. When this happens, nothing in writing
will appear in the pilot's paper work. The pilot has no idea that there is a
mechanical problem. The only way he knows is if the mechanic physically
goes to the cockpit and tells the crew that the foreman signed off
something that the mechanic feels is unsafe. This puts the mechanic in a
position that could cost him his job. You see, the pilot does have the last
say. As for the mechanic, management makes him a marked man. I know. I lost
my job for doing this.
I'm surprised at how unethical and how evil another person can be. Because
it's perfectly legal to fire somebody for any reason, it doesn't make it
ethical. About 3 weeks ago I was fired because, "my supervisor is oil,"
and I'm "water". It was further said that because I am of "new world
latin" origin (whatever that exactly means), my immediate supervisor
thought I was the type who would not want to work for a woman. What kind
of thinking is this? I only worked for three months part-time, of which it
would take a year to gain full proficiency. During training sessions,
while everyone else was taking breaks, I would read through the manuals,
and not in vain, since while I was working at United Cargo in Tulsa,
productivity increased. According to Tom Ransom, my supervisor's boss, he
said, "we were doing so well," that there was an increase in the price of a
contract.
Note this well, I am pursuing legal help if matters are not resolved. This
puts an immense burden on me and my future that was totally unnecessary and
because of the personal regressions of my immediate supervisor, Claudette
Wallace. In my opinion, several OSHA standards were not met, and FAA
regulations abounded. For example, a ten-year background check wasn't
conducted for me until I had screened several packages (I needed to obey
because I was afraid of whistleblowing). It would have been so easy for me
to transfer a bomb unto the plane or maybe drugs. I had no forklift
license or records whatsoever, and again I needed to follow directions to
avoid the inevitable. Furthermore I had asked for proper, and sometimes
federally required training several times but was never given anything
adequate. In my opinion, advanced calculus is ten times easier than being
a simple cargo agent. That's because my supervisor made it difficult. And
I knew after a certain point she wanted to fire me, so she waited for me to
make the slightest, most trivial mistakes. I was totally helpless, knowing
this, yet I undertook to be an exceptional employee. Private files were
left out in the open for any other employees to check. Most of this can be
proven with documents, so please I believe an investigation is warranted.
I have had a medical condition called gout for the last 7 years or so, and
United was aware of my condition when they hired me. I was hired in 1999 as
a flight attendant, successfully completed training, and ended up in [city
removed for anonymity].
I had a rough time adjusting to the move to [city removed]
where I couldn't even find a place to live for a whole month, and ended up
spending many nights at the crew lounge in the airport.
One day, I missed a call due to a cell phone error, and was warned by my
supervisor. Other than that, my performance was excellent. I received 11
service awards from our premier customers in the next 4 months I had worked
there, and also received a "you are remarkable" letter from another flight
attendant.
In late October, I woke up with an acute gout attack in my right foot.
Since I was not able to fit into my shoes, I called my supervisor to seek
advice. My supervisor was not in, but I spoke with another supervisor,
which told me that I "should be okay, since I never called in sick prior to
this". I took her advice, called in sick, seeked treatment, and a few days
later, I was back at work.
In early November, I was called into my supervisor's office, and was told that
since I had not demonstrated sufficient dependability, I was to be released.
He gave me the option to resign at that time.
I asked him whether he was aware of the "ADA", he said that he had heard
of it, but was not familiar with it, since it was not his field.
I was officially terminated a few days later, and have filed a complaint with
the EOC.
I just wanted to vent about United Airlines middle management.
I'm a Flight Attendant and would like to explain why the traveling public
is seeing so much 'bad attitude' among the front line employees. Generally,
most of us are happy to help and enjoy our jobs and the people we
meet...excluding the middle management group.
I don't know if this is how they "get ahead" but they seem to think it is
appropriate to give us the "initial disciplinary talk" after 3 times in a
year of calling in sick. Considering what we are exposed to in the air and
overseas, our immune systems sometimes tend to crap out. Woe to us if we
call in sick more than 3 times, then we're subject to the "disciplinary
ladder" which starts with the oral warning and progresses very rapidly.
This sort of harrassment is not only for regular sick list items like the
flus/colds, there have been people with terminal illnesses that still get
"called in" when they need to take time off for treatments, etc. That is
unacceptable.
I apologize to those who run into disgruntled Flight Attendants out there.
Consider, though, that they may have had a "talking to" directly before
reporting to work. That does not exactly boost your mood.
Perhaps middle management needs to focus their energies on productive items
like listening to us on ideas for improving service onboard and helping us
help everyone else get to their destination on time.
I've been a hard working UAL flight attendant for six years, my record is
outstanding, my personal file contains dozens of letters from employees and
customers thanking me for my hard work. My supervisor thanks me for my
reliability, I've called in sick twice since I've been employed with United.
This summer United management from top to bottom showed me how much they
appreciate me as an employee and you as a customer. They could give a rats
arse about us. United management believes the customers have a short memory,
they believe you will come back.
Yeah, Jim Goodwin's little 30 second joke
of an apology on TV is gonna make you fly on UAL again. Well,
here's what United management has succeeded in doing this summer:
They pissed off its most important group of front line employees. I will
make it my goal on every flight from here on out to make sure United gets
what they deserve. My goal, hit UAL in the pocket book, that's the only way
they'll listen. Its not the customers that are at fault, but they will
receive crummy service and UAL will lose customers on my flights. Do you
think I'm the only UAL employee who thinks along these lines? Believe me I'm
not, don't fly on us, not for a while. Let them see you the customers don't
have a short memory, I know I don't.
Ms. Francesca M. Maher
Dear Ms. Maher:
Our firm has been retained by Bruce Peters to represent him in all
matters pertaining to his current employment with United Airlines.
As we understand the circumstances, United may have violated Mr.
Peters rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section
503 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act. Further, the company's
continuing harassment of and its breach of contract with Mr. Peters
appears to be in retaliation for his voiced ADA objections. Finally,
these actions may give rise to an action for constructive termination.
When Mr. Peters applied for a Sales Representative position, he
furnished extensive personal information, including: a resume
detailing over 20 years work experience, in excess of eight
references, letters of reference, letters of commendation, samples
of media relations features, and samples of his work in Washington,
D.C. as a photojournalist. Upon successfully completing the sales
representative testing, he furnished additional copies of these
items, in person, to Uniteds employment representative, Ms. Sudie
Seed.
During the required physical exam at United Airlines, Mr. Peters
revealed, in response to the questionnaire, a history of heart
disease and diabetes. Despite no abnormalities on the physical exam
his blood and urine glucose, protein and ketone levels were normal
and there were no cardiac abnormalities, he was notified he could
not start work. The onus was placed on Mr. Peters to prove, in the
words of Ms. Beatrice Lazarus that he was not going to die. Mr.
Peters was given the enclosed notices indicating that United Airlines
perceived his medical conditions (diabetis (sic) and heart disease)
as a disability he was treated differently than other candidates
without these conditions and, as a result, precluded from employment.
First, it should be noted that the requirement of a physical exam
for a sales representative position is potentially violative of
the ADA on its face. It is difficult to imagine any bona fide
occupational qualification that might be applicable. Second,
United Airlines failed to show any direct relationship between
these medical conditions and Mr. Peters job responsibilities.
Finally, the Airlines could offer no explanation on how these
conditions could adversely affect job performance or safety.
Despite misgivings about the legality of this practice, our client
immediately contacted his physicians for the requested information.
Another nurse, working for United, stated that Mr. Peters need not
do anything further and she would follow up on the matter. She was
furnished with the physicians phone numbers.
Mr. Peters heard nothing from either the United medical or employment
office related to the medical testing for over two weeks. A complaint
to Ms. Seed went unanswered. Finally, she disavowed any responsibility
stating That is not my department.
On Friday, April 21, 2000 at 3:45, Mr. Peters received a message
from a background investigation company stating he must call back
by 4:30 or his file would be returned to United Airlines marked
incomplete and he would be unable to start work. Mr. Peters had
previously advised Ms. Seed at United Airlines that he would be
out of town on this day Good Friday. (Worth noting at this point,
the enclosed employment offer was made to Mr. Peters on April 11,
2000 and stated he would start work on April 24, 2000. United
Airlines had over three weeks to furnish Mr. Peters information to
a background investigation company. They could easily have conducted
their investigation in a timely fashion.) The first time our client
was contacted by any party outside of United Airlines was on April
21st. Despite this being Easter weekend, Mr. Peters immediately
faxed all of the information requested; information that United
had twice previously been furnished. Ms. Seed contacted Mr. Peters
on April 25 and advised him that the background and medical paperwork
had been "cleared." Mr. Peters could start work the next day.
When Mr. Peters inquired with Ms. Seed about a relocation disbursement
he was promised by Ms. Alice Feng of the employment office, he was
informed he would not be receiving it. She claimed our client
did not relocate (despite moving 165 miles from Eden, Maryland)
and that United Airlines does not hire from outside of the area
(even though 50% of the new hires at that time met United Airlines
relocation reimbursement criteria: the IRS 50 mile rule). Mr. Peters
pointed out that his residence and personal effects were at 4266
Cooper Road, in Eden, Maryland. Ostensibly, United Airlines was
quite aware of this because the offer of employment, signed by Ms.
Seed, was mailed to that address. The letter, in addition to the
offer of employment specifically states Mr. Peters would receive
the full range of benefits available to United employees. Mr.
Peters understood this to include the relocation disbursement as
discussed in the early stages of the hiring process. Significantly,
this reimbursement policy is a standard benefit to United employees
and is documented in the companys widely distributed employment
policies.
Mr. Peters pursued his relocation disbursement, in writing, to Ms.
Carolyn Schoeneman through company mail and Federal Express. She
did not reply. Two weeks later, my client followed up with voice
mail messages on two occasions, five days apart, with no reply from
Ms. Schoeneman.
Ms. Betsy Rutkowski, Mr. Peters supervisor, addressed the relocation
allowance by asking him not to pursue the matter further. She told
him to speak with Maureen Ahmes, an employee representative at
United Airlines headquarters, to discuss the matter.
Mr. Peters met with Ms. Ahmes who opined that Ms. Schoenemans lack
of a response, in effect, constituted a response. When pressed
further for an answer, she agreed to contact Ms. Schoeneman. Three
weeks later, Ms. Schoeneman contacted our client with the enclosed
letter, dated August 28, 2000, threatening him with termination
for undeniably, frivolous reasons. This can only be construed as
a ruse to dispense of the issues our client seeks to resolve.
Ms. Schoeneman claims that Mr. Peters refused to furnish information
during the background investigation process. A conditional offer
was extended, pending completion of his background check. Our client
was hired and one can only conclude that the requisite investigation
was complete.
Quite belatedly, Ms. Geannine Harris e-mailed to our client a
Voluntary Confidential Invitation to Self-Identify on August 30,
2000. Four months had elapsed since Mr. Peters revealed his
conditions through the medical questionnaire.
Despite Mr. Peters encountered problems with United, his job
performance (including presentation skills, customer service, and
sales) was evaluated as exemplary by his trainer, Ms. Elaine
Masinick. This quality of work has been on going and can be
substantiated by the enclosed letter from the Vice-President of
OneSoft.
In light of the foregoing, it is evident that United Airlines wishes
to sever the employment relationship through duress, harassment,
discrimination and humiliation. It seems clear that the United
reacts unkindly to those that challenge questionable employment
practices, service discrepancies and inconsistent benefit eligibility.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Peters does not desire to continue working
under these conditions. In consideration, our client is willing
to accept the following severance package: United Airlines will
continue to pay his regular salary and medical benefits through
May 1, 2001. Mr. Peters will be free to seek employment elsewhere
while United Airlines can continue business as usual and without
Mr. Peters dissenting voice. Additionally, United Airlines shall
immediately remit the $3,000 allowance promised to Mr. Peters prior
to his employment and specified under the new hire relocation
package.
Falling short of this, Mr. Peters has instructed our firm to file
a complaint with the EEOC and, after appropriate proceedings,
commence legal action seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Mr. Peters has also requested that our firm seek to notify those
who are similarly situated of a pending class action litigation.
Additionally, Mr. Peters expresses a willingness to field any media
inquiries related to his job experiences with United Airlines.
This should be particularly timely, in light of United's current
media attention.
We look forward to your response no later than Friday, September
15. It is our intention to amicably resolve the issues between
Mr. Peters and his employer, if possible.
Sincerely,
SB/hmm
Ed: Postscript, Mon Oct 23 20:33:47 EDT...
Following his complaint concerning UAL's EEOC violations, Mr. Peters
was subsequently terminated.
UAL has been advised by the EEOC of Mr. Peters's complaint and the EEOC
has asked the parties to have an arbitration hearing. Whether or not
the hearing takes place, Mr. Peters will receive a "right to sue" letter
which is needed before he can take United to court.
Hello Jeremy. I'm a 12 year UAL employee at SFO, and just wanted to
comment on my approval of your untied web site. If I may be so bold, I
think that you should add a specific link for UAL employess to vent their
gripes too. Also, I sent this web site to all fellow employees that I know
and hopefully they will send it on to peers whom they know, etc. A grass
roots network is the only way UAL is going to ever change, since like in
congress too, management faces may change but the process stays the same.
Yes, I've been lied too, intimidated, harassed, belittled, and cheated, but
I can always find another job right? lol. Anyhow, UAL is a tyrant and
their BS should be made public, so that they may be seen for what they
really are. Great site, and thanks.
Ed: You're most welcome! UAL employees can "vent their gripes" (Untied.com
protects your anonymity) by using the appropriate email address given
here.
I am a United Airline non-union pilot curently on illness leave of absence
since May 1999. I have not received a penny from UAL since May 1999. I was
certified by a physician to be totally and permanently grounded. United
denied my claim and told me to arbitrate. I did arbitrate and the neutral
ruled that I was permanently disabled. That was over eight weeks ago.
United Airlines will not respond to to my letters or letters from the
union, A.L.P.A. although this is binding arbitration. In my opinion, they
are deliberately testing my resolve to try and bring me to my knees. They
are hoping I will not have the funds to take them to court since the union
obviously is dragging their feet. This reprehensible treatment supports
what other employees claim on your web site. Keep up the good work.
Well, the shit hit the fan! United's Senior Litigator, Nancy J. Gordon,
was recently fired for mishandling an ongoing sexual harassment case. She
wrote a nasty letter to Cary
Donham (an attorney representing the victims) which appears on your
website. Apparantly, the pending legal doom at United is scaring a lot of
people and some heads have rolled. I work WHQ in Marketing and wish to
stay anonymous. Also, the EEOC issued two subpeonas against the airline
for failure to cooperate in the Federal Investigation. Looks like this
whole thing is another Mitsubishi or Ford case. Anyway, just an FYI from
a friendly supporter of your site.
An employee who is still with UA changed my time card without my
knowledge, told me he was just trying to help, completely denied any
wrongdoing, and was allowed to keep his current position. I left the
company because I was humiliated and was told I was lying about the
situation. This person also stole disability checks from employees, took
office equipment, and was promoted because he was chosen as employee
of the year. I would love to file a complaint, sue United if possible,
but cannot afford a lawyer. I have proof that this person is lying to
the company and stealing on a weekly basis.
Dear Mr. Goodwin:
I am a customer service agent at one of your major stations and
I am fed up with all the crew cancellations and crew delays. It is
not the public's fault that you and the pilot's union cannot get your
differences resolved and that UAL's unhappy pilots are deliberately not
picking up the overtime they used to and deliberately causing delays
by telling maintenance that they will not fly until that little light
switch is fixed, for example, which they would normally ignore and do
a deferrment on, and that they will not reroute when there is a weather
situation enroute, and asserting that they will only fly the route they
are scheduled for, and deliberately creating situations which involve
crew legality, and then walking off after claiming that they have already
reached their max flying time, all because their contract negotiations
are going on...while you Mr. Goodwin, make money off the hard work,
sweat, blood and tears of customer service agents on the front line,
dealing with unhappy, inconvenienced and stranded passengers, and fill
your coffers and that of your elite of 20 company officers with the
fruits of our labor. At least give a hoot about the public...don't
have them standing around the customer service center for three hours,
just to be reaccomated, and listen to their gripes...they pay your salary.
Months ago, I was disciplined by management for have been out of work
for the treatment of cancer. Sporadically, after surgery I was to
be treated further with therapy to irradicate any remaining disease.
I wrote in to this website to voice what had
happened to me, and the letter was posted. Now for an update....
We now have a wonderful union (IAM) contract which binds us basically to
the old Series 15, the United book of Law. Because of my union
representation I was made to follow the union path of greivace proceedure
before any government agency or attorney would step in. I filed a Step One
letter which was to be answered within three days. It was never answered.
Some weeks later I again filed the Step One. This took about 6 weeks to be
answered, and with a one-liner "grievance denied". I then followed through
with union representation to the Second Step level, which was a letter to
this supervisor's boss, the station manager, requesting the letter from my
file be removed and my FMLA Rights be recognized. (Here is where it gets
interesting. My FMLA Rights all along have been denied by the very people
who are supposed to recognize a potential FMLA qualifying disability.
Hell, an educated person would think cancer is one of them, but obviously
the managment team in my city did not.)
Well the Step Two grievance was to be answered in 10 days. Try another
6-8weeks !! It seems that the 3 day and 10 day process was a circus that
took four months. (There is currently NO PUNITIVE clause to dictate what
happens if a grievance is not answered within the time frame allotted by
our contract. Another one of those great things series 15 gave us that
people voted yes for in the current contract. I only hope it is resolved
with the next contract in July.)
Well, after four months of anxiety, harassment, and discrimination I was
finally told that the letter would be removed from my file and that the
FMLA (FINALLY) would be recognized back to when I was diagnosed with the
disease. Seems somebody must have read the Federal Law pertaining to
refusing the FMLA rights of an employee. And of course, the shallow
apology which was not even an admittance that they screwed up.
Today I am still being single out (yes a pattern exists) for anything that
can aggrevate me into resigning from my job. The talk in the office
(here-say) is that "...maybe he will quit." Seems they just don't learn do
they ?? As I said before, I have never seen more retaliatory, callous
management than with this company which I have done many positive thing for
in the past. I was such an employee where months of my time was
volunteered to activities that made UAL look like a wonderful place to work
through charitable events, promotions, advertising, etc. I have even
received awards for it. Today I am being rewarded for my loyalty with the
most disrespect an individual can take. I am reminded daily of a terrible
disease through intimidation, harassment, and discrimination directed to my
person while at the work place. Yes, placed in undesirable work positions
day after day while others are rotated, reasonable accomodation is denied
when I am in pain or feeling ill, positions which I am highly qualified for
are no longer made available to me, etc. That's just the start....and it
is the United way.
I do wonder how many others are treated with disrespect
who work for this company. When is United going to learn the definition of
management from Webster's ?? United is hiring management people just to
fill quotas. Get out there and find REAL management, REAL people, and you
may someday run an airline with 100% loyalty. Hire management with the
right qulifications. Loyalty ? Mine is gone now forever because of what I
have come to call "Basic human rights" violations. It is a shame that this
whole mess has happened, and the fire still burns.
I will update my situation as I continue to fight for what is right through
all channels that I can. What they did to me should not have transpired,
and this should never happen again to any employee. Thanks again for your
time to post these important messages to our fellow employees and for the
passengers who may wonder sometimes why we feel the way we do. I remember
United trying to become the "Global Employer of Choice". My god, they even
advertised it. Something is really broken here.
I hope I'm sending this letter to the appropriate channel. I just today
found your website and I'm compelled to write about my experience as an
(now ex-) employee of United Airlines.
First, let me explain that my father is a Captain with another major
carrier and my mother was a stewardess with United in the Sixties.
I grew up as a frequent-flier during the glory days of regulation and
saw the world in the Eighties as a privileged "non-rev." After getting
a marginally marketable BA in English, I was lucky enough to be hired as
a flight attendant by United, a job I held for six long years. I have
little experience from the perspective of being "just another customer,"
but I think I am qualified to validate your website's complaints and
position.
Each and every mile flown while wearing United wings was a degrading
challenge. Those of us who were fresh and enthusiastic were quickly
deflated upon going "on line." We were squeezed on all sides, from the
nasty and bitter veteran flight attendants, to the homophobic pilots,
to the undersocialized public (that characterization especially includes
the cabins up front), callous and incompetent management, nonexistent
perks and minimal pay. I started with no illusions about the supposed
glamour of the industry, but no amount of familiarity with the downside
of airline employment prepared me for the jungle into which air travel
has evolved and for which I unwittingly volunteered.
As described so well and so often in the complaint section of this
site, I'm sad to say that I too quickly developed the "if I don't
acknowledge you, you don't exist" attitude endemic to United customer
service personnel. I hated to see passengers come aboard, avoided
staying in the cabins for more than was necessary to provide the most
basic service, and couldn't wait to get the hell off the airplane at
the end of the trip. There was no reward for going the extra mile.
Premier customers would come aboard angry from chronic ticketing and
boarding errors, and my seven hours worth of sycophantic service rarely
undid the damage from the passenger's five-minute battle with the
gate agent. Coach passengers, compressed into a narrow-body 757 for
long hauls, starved by the awful and minimal catering, understandably
glared at me sitting captive in my jumpseat. I wanted to fly to serve,
to be hospitable; I could do neither. United airlines provided me
with a uniform to represent their product, failed to deliver a reliable,
quality product for me to represent, leaving me with a tired and hollow
smirk and a desire to hide in the galley as long as possible.
The day I barked at a hungry and overwrought senior citizen and made
her cry, I knew that I had had enough. United's culture is one of
indifference and I refused to participate any longer. I quit at the end
of the trip, and regret to this day that the pervasive attitude I absorbed
kept me from apologizing to this poor woman. I'd like to think that since
I'm no longer there, she has flown with United again and been treated
better by a happier FA, but I doubt it. There were too many like me.
I'm not sure if, like some say, its a problem of declining American
civility. I've flown a few European carriers and Air Canada. They are
wonderful on an exponential level. Maybe its more a problem of the
airlines' size. As far as I can tell, American (smug and snotty)
and Delta (WAY too big for their britches) are no better than United.
Southwest has lost that special quality they once had, and Alaska looks it
might be getting too big. I just don't know. But United Airlines WILL
turn the warmest, most caring individual into a grim robot with a nametag.
PS: If, by chance, you post this, and if, by chance, that poor lady
reads this, this is for her: I'm truly sorry for my behavior that
awful afternoon in the Spring of 1998. I hope you had a hot meal,
a good night's rest, and a great holiday in Florida.
Here is an update to my husbands lawsuit
against United Airlines for discrimination against him due to his
military service. The case is currently in the 7th Circuit Court of
Appeals in Chicago which also happens to be the headquarters for UAL.
UAL is trying to enforce a federal agreement my husband never saw nor
agreed to. It seems Indiana state law allows an attorney to say he has
received his clients "verbal authorization" to settle the case even if
it goes directly against previous written orders by their client. My
husband has never, nor ever would, give any attorney complete and total
control to settle his case, especially without knowing the terms and
conditions of the settlement before hand. It is my opinion that UAL
"influenced" my husbands ex-attorney by agreeing to pay his fee ($15K)
just as long as he agreed to find a way to settle the case on behalf of
my husband. For the record, my husband suffered a job related injury
which left him with a broken back and then a UAL supervisor falsified
his accident report which prevented my husband from receiving ordered
medical treatment. Medical treatment that may have prevented him from
becoming disabled. He has now been left with a permanent partial
disability and needs to medicate daily for his pain. UAL has refused
to accommodate his physical disability which has caused us to file
another law suit, this time under the American with Disabilities Act.
We have suffered great financial losses because of UAL and have only
been able to endure so because of my job. If there is a national news
agency that would like to investigate our situation and how UAL treats
its workers whom are disabled because of a work related injury, please
feel free to contact us we welcome the opportunity to show the public
UAL's true colors and to let others know how much "justice" costs. For
a corporation that says its concerned with public safety and public
service, I feel they have never shown that to my injured and now
disabled husband. If they treat their own Employee/Owner with such
disrespect and indifference, where does that leave you, the average
flying public traveler?
I recently found your website by mistake. And I must say that I have
thoroughly enjoyed reading every story and comment from customers and
employees alike.
As an employee of UAL for 4 years, I can totally relate to their stories. I
have enjoyed the life style of traveling all over the U.S. and other
destinations, but have my own horror stories onboard the planes as well as
from the company.
I can attest that the company has not changed. From the most recent story,
to the oldest dated story, they have not changed.
UAL can pay lip service and implement lapel pin winning contests (for
flight attendants) out the butt, however, fundamental management practices
are above the grasp of this company. The method and mode from which this
airline operates continues to be shut the customer up, kiss the ass of the
1K fliers and motivate the employees with fear and threats. I thank god and
all of my flying partners that we have a union, because if it weren't for
them, we would be making $7/hr and have worse working conditions.
The worst are the crew schedulers in local domiciles and at WHQ (world
headquarters), what a rude contemptuous bunch of bastards. They and the
supervisors don't care about the individual but bunch you together in the
stereo-typed f/a group and you are a mere number. Market-trak surveys and
numbers are by far more important than any flight attendant.
But seriously, if United would just employ qualified leaders who are
geniunely concerned about the employee and can motivate by example and
through genuine gestures, maybe we might do the same for the customers.
Instead they promote simple minded people who can enforce policies of not
wearing a short sleeved shirt internationally because market-trak surveys
say so.(Japan in the summer is scorchingly hot and humid) It is sort of
like working for someone who keeps kicking you in the shin before and after
every flight, then expect you to be this outstanding personable caring
individual to the customers.
As a result of my experiences in my short career with United, I have
learned that each individual must get what he/she wants from the job and
collect the paycheck and go home. Loyalty, customer satisfaction, caring
are very subjective, and virtually non-existant here because of the
company. UAL keeps saying that we are the company, but the facts are we are
a stock-held company with profit as a motivator. Money, money, money!!!
I am just thankful that I have another parallel medical-related career on
the side for income boost and a buffer, for sanity.
Please take note United, since you seem to read this website more than you
read the employee letters to WHQ, maybe, just maybe you might read this one
and change?
I am a United Airlines flight attendant who has written you previously,
and you were kind enough to post my letter on your site.
I recently had the most humbling experience with my employer. A recent
snow storm caused irregular operations in Chicago, "whats new", well my
flight to Chicago cancelled and I was stuck in Indianapollis overnight with
my other two crewmembers. When we called our crew desk we were promptley
placed on hold, for over an hour. When we finally were able to speak to
someone about our situation they informed us that we would be laying over
in Indianapolis.
The problem was that they couldnt find us a hotel room,
after another hour of waiting for them to scurry up a room they informed us
we would have to share one room, yup thats one bed for 3 flight attendants,
not acceptable. Especially since I am a male flight attendant and the
other two were older females'. So the crew desk informed me that they
couldnt help me any further and if I was unhappy with the arrangment, I
would just have to spend the night in the airport. Now this is the largest
airline in the world telling me that they can't find me, a crewmember a
hotel room! This was insulting, how am I supposed to work the next day?
Are you telling me that with all the resources United has, that they can't
find me a room?
This is more than an inconvinience but it's a big saftey
issue, how can I be expected to maybe have to evacutate an airplane if I
was up all night in an empty airport staring at the ceiling begging for a
chance that I might get some sleep. The next day I spoke to my supervisor
about what had occured, it went in one ear and out the other. I walked out
of her office and I realized that the feeling I had was the exact same
feeling United passengers have when there travel plans are disrupted by a
delay or cancellation, and then short changed by United's customer service
representatives.
Keep up the the great work your doing with this website,
maybe you'll have a positive effect on United and they'll change the
boorish corperate culture that exists.
P.S. I have your website bookmarked, keep the updates frequent put up
some advertising, maybe sell discounted tickets of United's competitors,
you'll soon have an IPO and make a mint, if that happens credit me with the
idea and give me a small cut so I can quit this unorganized mess of a
company.
Well, it finally happened. In the 15 years I have with this company I
was told never to get hurt on the job or come down with a life threatening
illness. Cause once you do, your in for a fight for your job. You become
a true number, a liability. You must be extracted from the company
as soon as possible. I have seen this happen, any they are real good
at it. UAL knows that the normal Joe doesnt have the monetary recources
to fight the goliath, and they invite you as an employee to sue them.
Problem is, most attorneys will take cases only on an hourly charge,
rather than consignment. God only knows that if attorneys would come
out from under that rock, they could basically put United at it's knees.
I was diagnosed with cancer a while back, and these morons actually wrote me
up and disciplined me for being out of work with the disease. It is no
secret where I work that I am fighting them with everything I have.
Remember people...don't get real sick, and don't get injured on the job.
It's a pink slip. Just think you flag wavers out there....take a
hint....global companies of this size usually hire from within, promote from
within, and base it upon experience and education. True global companies
have a tuition reimbursement program, a way of nurturing there employees and
keeping them loyal. True global companies value the employee....especially
the first point of contact. Not just the pilots. Hell they're mostly
millionares now anyway. Just look how customer service employees were
termed unskilled labor and fed some crap called ESOP whereby we all lost our
butts !! Hell, I could go on. It has been a long time since I have found
anything positive about United Management.
Thing is, in the mind of United Management, the employee is the enemy. We
are the bastard child that always complains and they can never make us
happy. My god, that's a great 1950's attitude there. It's true, as long as
they treat us like sh** they will get sh** in return. Especially from me.
I cannot wait until the day I can throw my keys and mu ID on the desk and
say "So-Long". No notice need be given, hell they'll fire a cancer patient
in a heartbeat if given the chance. Why give them 2 weeks to harrass you
further....just let them know who really wins the game. Go back to school,
get a real job, someplace where you will be appreciated. Folks I talk to
who have left the company have actually put their lives back together and
feel ALOT better both physically and mentally. There is LIFE after UNTIED!
United Airlines recently fired me.
The grounds of termination: Inappropriate Conversations at work
The story is:
I made a joke to someone who is a really cool coworker. In the rollocoster
of jokes he did get offended and mentioned it somehow to someone else, who
reported it to a supervisor. This supervisor confronted my coworker, who
apparently did not want to report me to management for that.
However, the supervisor informed management. Management questioned him
about the incident. My colleague was then intimidated to the point where
he had to make statements of the occurrences of that night. According to
my coworker, management said that they wanted to BUILD A CASE AGAINST ME.
Management called me into the office and proceeded to tell me about my
wrongful doing and said that "just wanted to get my statements on this
issue." Management told me that he complained. This appears to be a lie.
When I asked to apologize to this coworker, Management said "just leave it
alone, otherwise management will have to get involved in this matter."
To make a long story short
Problem is that I was in my probation.
Is there anything I can do?
If I get a written statement and the cooperation from Jeff, is there
anything that can be done?
Please feel free to include my letter on your web site, and my name
and email address so others may
contact me personally. As I said I will encourage other mechanics to come
forward with their experiences with United management trying to force
them to sign off unserviceable items to be used on united aircraft. The
general public is not aware of United jeopardizing their safety for the
greed of profits that they seek. My parents and I are hesitant to fly
because of what has happened over the years of this new management at
united and with the increase of air crashes that have taken many lives
of innocent passengers.
I have been employed with United Airlines for 15 years, my mother,
father,and uncle had worked for United dating back to 1944, and over
all the years have seen a decline in employee moral due to the lack
of competent management. I am currently being held out of service on
workers comp/disability with mental stress and panic disorder from 4
years of harassment on my job that I have had to endure from United's
management. I have been verbally threaten by two supervisors [...],
with one of them trying to provoke a fight on company property. During
an investigation hearing [...] made derogatory statements and was caught
lying in his testimony to the union and company hearing officer. On one
occasion during a daily meeting [...] told the entire group of mechanics
"If this was his own business of operations he would not hire any of us
mechanics to work here."
This statement offended the entire group, even after many complaints were
made United promoted him to manager. This manager's position became open
because [...] was retired from this position for his statement referring
to the mechanics as "assholes on the floor."
I have also been forcefully told to sign for incomplete and unserviceable
brake assemblies for use on United aircraft, and I refuse to comply
with this illegal action because this would jeopardize the safety
and airworthiness of United's aircraft. The brake shop at United's
maintenance operations center in San Francisco has become a hostile
work environment because of incompetent management. Many complaints
have been dismissed,rejected,and concealed.
As an employee and owner I
would be interested to form a group to reclaim our worker's rights and
restore the United family way of doing business "the friendly skies"
that once had existence. I am in contact with other mechanics that feel
the same way as I do and would be willing to come forward to put an
end of the harassment,discrimination and improper conduct that exist at
United Airlines. From a past motto "let's make it happen" and it could if
"our family is United". I was made aware of this web site while reading a
magazine in the doctors office,I will share this site with as many people
as I can that have the same dissatisfaction with united airlines as I
do. please feel free to contact me any time, and I would gladly provide
you with names and how to contact other mechanics that have experienced
inappropriate conduct at United Airlines.
Sincerely,
I was an employee of United until I was fired in March 1997. I
am an openly gay man who was an International Concierge at ---.
My boss, ---, hates gays and was constantly harassing me.
She yelled at me for wearing a Versace cashmere jacket one
day to work. She wasn't even working that day, but heard from another
supervisor how nice it was.
Anyway, I was fired for booking revenue space on the computer system.
One day a waitlist cleared and I was sitting at the computer of
another person (there were only 3 sets for 23 Concierges).
I made a few changes to my reservation and let the employee know who
was sitting by me. She didn't have a problem with it. When the waitlist
cleared, a res agent tried to call her to inform her since her sign
was in the system. When she was called she was very busy and forgot that
I made the changes in her sign.
She admitted that she gave approval! There was nothing out of the ordinary
with the reservation and I was a premier executive at the time. I asked
the sales office for upgrades after a fellow worker encouraged me to.
The sales office had no problem with it. No one had any problems with
it except my boss. I had only worked at United for nine months at
this time, but had worked for them before for almost four years without
any problems. I completed the management development program at LAXRR
and was considered an excellent employee.
At the hearings that followed there was no dispute about what happened.
United's policy says that if you use someone else's sign-on or allow
them to use your sign on, it is a violation. There was no malice.
Everyone used everyone else's sign due to the lack of
terminals in the office. Everyone was aware what I was doing and no one
had any problems because I wasn't doing anything wrong. My termination
wasn't reversed, even though the rule was applied unfairly. Attorneys
wouldn't take the case even though they knew it had merit because there
wasn't enough money involed. I still have all the papers and
evidence. I am still a premier executive and when I flew to Paris last
Christmas and used an upgrade given to me by a flight attendant after
being inconvenienced, she tried to have the flight attendant fired as well.
I have collected an anthology of information on how ---, manager
of the Reservations Department in --- POD Office has been capricious
in his actions as a manager, discriminated against employees that
did not cow tow to his dictatorial system, sexually harassed individuals
(even went into the bathroom on a female employee), given final notices to
individuals with impeccable reviews and orchid letters from customers,
mentally abused individuals, caused emotional trauma to a female employee
while undergoing chemo therapy, and the list goes on.
It is a shame because the upper management is well aware of this man's
behavior and condones it by not doing anything about it. I have hard
copy evidence and witnesses not speculations.
I worked with United for 6 months and the stress was horible.
I had a lot of stomach problems due to nerves. My supervisor was always
calling me in her office and telling me that I needed to do a better job.
She always said that since I came from another airline, I should be doing
better that everyone else on the floor. She was making my life miserable.
One day while working, I got sick and had to put a pax on hold to go
to the bathroom to throw up. When I got back she called me into her office
and told me to never put a pasenger on hold, not even to go
throw up. She was always badgering me. I told her that I was sorry
and that I had been real sick, she then asked me to bring her a doctors
note, which I did. The doctor wrote her a
letter on letterhead explaining my illness. When I went in the next
day to work she called me into her office, I tried to give her the
note but she would not take it, she fired me.
I am now at another airline and happy. There are alot of X-United
employees there who went through similar situations with the exact same
supervisor. The Supervisor seemed like she always wanted the people
who wanted to further their career fired and she didn't stop until she
succeeded.
I tried to sue United but I could not afford the attorneys fees.
I was put on indefinite disability by a company doctor after I fell
on the plane while working a trip. The company then denied me compensation,
claiming my injuries were not work related. I have been
receiving only $48.95 per week total income from short term disability
for the past 6 months.
Recently, my supervisor, without my knowledge,
took me off medical leave and put me on personal leave. I did not
find this out until I was denined treatment by a physician because my
insurance had been terminated as a result of this change in leave status.
Thankfully a union rep. helped me to have that corrected. In short,
as a result of my fall, a previous back condition has been severely
aggravated. I also permanately injured my knee, shoulder and hip.
I am currently under the advisement of an attorney, and have a lawsuit pending.
I got fired from United Airlines three days ago because of poor customer
service and misinformation. The supervisor here at
--- told me this job "wasn't right" for me and fired me for no
reason. I am extremely bitter and upset because I
came in everyday, sat down on my chair, and gave 100% of my effort.
In the past few weeks I was starting to do well and getting thank you letters
from customers. I should be staying with United and NOT looking for
a job elsewhere.
We as mechanics that perform maintenance on you aircrafts feel embarassed
to say that we work for United Airlines. the problems that you passenger
see wrong in the interior of the aircraft that you fly on is the direct
fault of our Maintenance Management. The foremen do not want us to document
the problems that are "Cosmetic items" in the aircrafts. If we document
what is wrong to be fixed, and we do not have time or part to fix the
problem, it makes management look "BAD" to the upper chain of command. If
you document something and it doesn't get fix right away, they do not score
points for their job promotions. Its called "Deferred Rate Count".
We as Mechanics would like to fix everything wrong that we see but
management will find a way to punish us. Sounds stupid, but is true. The
FAA will not get involved, unless it is of a Safety matter. We have
complained to the FAA, but they say that it is a Management-worker problem
and not theirs. It is our right to document what ever we see wrong, but we
have no power to enforce our rights.
One day i documented 20 seat covers to be changed and management yelled
at me for doing it. I was alone with the forman that yelled at me, and i
said "If it isn't dirty to you then let me put it on your face". he walked
away...
Nice web site. I am a flight attendant for United Airlines and I have
seen hundreads if not thousands of passengers that have been mistreated.
Sometimes those incidents were not the fault of the employee or for that
matter the airline. Unfortunatley most of the time they are the direct
result of employee negligence.
Your complaints are welcome, I hope they are all addressed.
Although I have a sneaky suspision they will not. As an employee I have
written many a letter to management and I have never had a true response.
They just send these"template", letters, there all the same the only thing
different is the name on the header. You know what will make them listen?
When they start seeing you flying on the competition. Keep the web site up
its gonna get real busy.
I am a United Express employee and ashamed to admit it! I do try my
personal best to try to counter all of the bad attitudes, but the
attitude tends to be contagious and often I am the rude agent. At any
rate both United and United Express, with few exceptions treat the
customers like garbage. I can't say how many times I have felt guilty
looking at the people sleeping in the airport while I am on my way home
because their flight was cancelled due to weather. Often when I want
to do something for passengers, I am blocked by supervisors and always
changing "company policy" Guess what -they don't just treat their
customers bad, they treat their employees bad too. They think that the
fact that we get flight privileges erases it. The scheduling is such
that you are competing with your co-workers for a schedule and if you
have a life, you might as well seek employment elsewhere. Also, they
don't give the gate agents much of the training that they need,
especially United Express. Oh and did you hear about the kid in Boise
Idaho, where the idiot flight attendant let an unaccompanied minor off
of the plane, and he wandered 30 miles down the freeway?! I know I
personally am thinking about quitting and trying to get a job with an
airline that treats their people and customers with respect.
I can't say I enjoyed reading the web-site, becuase I do enjoy working
for United Airlines, they "were" a great company to work for as well as
a great company to fly. However, in recent months, United has made it
very clear, that that "great company to work for" is no longer part of
United Airlines.
What makes the job stressful is that United hires people with no
airline experience at all, no computer knowledge, and 1 year of
customer service backgroud from the local Burger King, sends them
through a 7 week training program, paying them $7/hour.
I came to United, because of the employee ownership, because I thought
they were a good company. And for a while, i have to admit they had me
fooled. United Reservations has voted to be unionized, and just last
week, the tentative agreement was released, all reservations employees
were bright-eyes because of the way United and the union made the
contract out to be a "great improvement over our current conditions",
exceeding airline industry standards. When we reviewed the new
agreement, we found there was free-parking and a 44 cent per hour
increase, I'm sorry, but United simply MUST do better if they want to
keep people there to answer the phones.
I must say we are lucky here in the United Sates: we United employees
can choose to take our hard work to another airline that values its
employees as well as its customers. It's most clear to me now: United
does not value either.
I was sexually harassed in the UAL pkg lot at JFK by another UAL
employee. This employee won the case, when he was in the union, I
wasn't. He lied throughout the whole hearing, and I am not getting any
justice. The company knew I was leaving for another job, perhaps that's
why they voted for him and not me. UAL places a high value on zero
tolerance... I just don't understand. This guy touched my breasts and he
gets away with it. What is wrong with you people?
Ed: According to the letter writer, she contacted Kevin Wiggins at JFK, who
conducted a hearing regarding ramp svcman [name removed], who put his
hand down her shirt to touch her breasts. After 5 weeks, the writer
was told that she lost her case.
I would like to tell all of you about my husband who currently works
for United Airlines and the discrimination the company has shown people
like him because he elects to defend this country with the Military
Reserves. He has worked for UAL for the past 9 years and has
been a part of the military for over the past 16 years. His flying job
in the Reserves requires that he serve an average of 120 days per year
to keep his flight skills current. His supervisor at UAL removed him
from scheduled training classes with the justification that "he wasn't
a dependable employee due to the time he spends with the reserves." The
same supervisor changed an accident report 2 days after it was filled
out by another supervisor and without my husband's knowledge. My
husband wrote to many management personnel, including the VP of
Maintenance about his treatment but it fell upon deaf ears. None of
them rendered any assistance nor did they investigate his complaint or
take it seriously. All of which I am told violates company regulations,
not to mention federal laws, concerning any employee who complains of
discrimination in the workplace.
Finally upset with the lack of response taken by the company's
management, he filed an official complaint with the US DOL/VETS office
here in Indiana. At the end of this federal investigation, it was found
that UAL had discriminated against my husband due to his military
obligation and stated so in a letter to the Manager of the IMC. UAL
continued to ignore the problem, so my husband wrote to Mr. Edwardson,
President and COO of UAL, and to Mr. Greenwald, CEO of UAL. Although
both of these gentlemen were sent copies of the findings by the US
DOL/VETS investigation, they too elected to take no corrective action.
Needless to say we have been forced to hire a law firm. It's a shame
that it takes a court room to get UAL to "talk". Is this the "Open
Communication" policy UAL has told its employees about?
As for the changing of the accident report by his supervisor, it prevented my
husband from getting the medical treatment ordered by a UAL doctor. Finally,
after fighting with UAL and the company's insurance administrator, they sent
him to a specialist. He was then told that his back was broken in 2 places and
the disk was shot. After the 4 1/2 hour surgery and all the pins and screws
they had to install to fix his back, he is now partially disabled. Because
this is not a "Service Related Injury" my husband will more than likely be
medically discharged out of the military with no entitlement to any retirement
benefits. My husband wasn't disabled during his 16 years of service nor was he
disabled during the Gulf War. It took his employer, United Airlines, to do
that.
My hope in writing this letter is to inform every employee of United Airlines
who is part of the military reserves to watch your backs! Management doesn't
want their employees spending any time away from their precious "money
machine" and it appears they will do anything it takes to keep them there
working. I hope other spouses will not have to watch their husbands or wives
become disabled, or worse, all because of UAL's "Management Team" and their
"commitment" towards the men and women who serve to keep our country free for
all of us. It is unbelievable that UAL continues to apply for and is granted
big dollar Department of Defense contracts by our government. Shame on our
government for "awarding" any of these financially lucrative Department of
Defense contracts to UAL. I guess there is no place in UAL for corporate
morality where there is money to be made.
United Airlines has forced us to resolve this complaint through federal
litigation simply because they can afford to. They are willing to spend their
record breaking profits on their attorneys, in order to defend the actions of
corporate officers. I guess their written corporate policy of "Zero Tolerance"
for discrimination in the work place does not apply to management personnel,
even prior to, during and after a federal investigation. If any of you who
read this feel that the treatment by United Airlines of a military reserve
employee is appalling, then write to them and to your elected Senators and
Congressmen and let them know it; we have.
I was employed by UAL for approximately four years, working in an
aircraft provisioning group. During this time, I was appointed to an
employee task team, based at corporate headquarters in Chicago, for
approximately one year, to establish new provisioning procedures and
implement them world-wide. On return to my normal post, I was met with
intense resistance from the supervisor and manager of the department
when I attempted to train the employees on new procedures and implement
the new process. The supervisor and manager also ignored my reports of
safety and health problems.
I filed grievances through the personnel department and eventually contacted
the FAA and FDA regarding these issues. The complaints led to retaliation
against me and intimidation of my wife, also an employee, who was acting as
my representative in the grievance hearing. I was assigned to a new work
area, a different shift assignment, and different days off, with the manager's
knowledge that I would be unable to accept, thereby forcing my resignation.
I know of several others in similar situations (some of whose letters
appear in this web site) who have been retaliated against by UAL. I am
now looking for additional employees, especially those who have filed
their own lawsuits against the airline, who have experienced similiar
situations concerning discrimination, retaliation, intimidation,
grievance steps, punishments, whistle-blowing, breach of contract,
Series 15 violations, etc, in the hopes that we can help each other.
I am a former United Airlines employee. I have worked at the corporate
office on temporary assignment, and was based in MIA as a CS/CG agent,
where some of the employees in my opinion have been discriminated
against, abused, intimidated and retaliated against by the ramp manager
and his subordinates.
I hope that my federal lawsuit, which contains 6
seperate federal counts, as well as the lawsuits of 5 of my fellow
(former) employees will wake the upper managment up, so that they stop
turning a blind eye to the unscrupulous actions of some of their
management. I have lost count of exactly how many employees have been
terminated in MIA since I have left, but the lawsuits range from racial
discrimination to whistle-blowing, and everything in between. There
are alot of good people working for this company in MIA, and I hate to
see any more of them terminated by the corrupt management in place
there. I had hoped Gerald Greenwald would remember what I told him
when I met with him in his office --- the worst thing he could possibly
do would be to turn the other way, but that's exactly what he did.
Now, the lawfirm representing United Airlines (in Florida) is trying to
find ways to keep him from appearing at a deposition, even though he is
a material witness. Good luck to those of you still employed --- if
you value your jobs, do not transfer to MIA!!! For me, I can only hope
that my lawsuit will prevent anyone else having to go through the hell
that I and many people before me had to endure.
As a former reservations agent for United, please let me defend some of
the accusations of imcompetence on the part of the reservations
agents.
Agents are given 7 weeks of training, during which time about 1/3 of
the trainees drop out due to the high stress level. Before training is
completed they start taking "live" calls from customers - customers who
have no idea that they are talking to a trainee with no experience. At
the completion of training agents are sent "to the floor" to begin
taking calls 8 hours a day. Even after 7 weeks though, the agents
still have only about 1/3 of the knowledge necessary to truly be of
service to the customers. This results in customers continually put
on hold while the agent tries to get help (one "help desk" for as many
as 25 agents). Agents are tethered to the computer and phone console
for the entire 8 hours with only 1/2 an hour for lunch and 2 15 minute
breaks - all of which are timed to the second by the phone console.
Also timed are the number of instances that the agent goes to
"after call work" or any other times that he/she is not taking a call.
Agents take an enormous amount of verbal abuse from customers - called
liars, foul names, sworn at, screamed at, blamed for loss of luggage,
blamed for late flights, blamed for airport delays and on and on. All
this for $6.75/hour and and a 6 month wait for flight benefits, lousy
shift hours, working holidays and weekends.
I came from a class of 12
(started out at 20). Just a few months after training, only 5 remain
"on the floor". Needless to say, classes are run in continual cycles
due to the high turnover. It is impossible to give the best in
customer service when turnover is so high, stress and exhaustion are
factors, and your every move and word is being monitored. Because the
800# routes calls to the least busy reservation center in the nation,
it is impossible to track down a certain agent or to request the same
one you talked to last time. The agents know this and therefore are
comfortable in their virtual anonimity when they know they've screwed
up because the customer won't be able to call them back and
scream.
I'm sure the 6 month wait for benefits is because they are
fairly certain that most of the agents will quit before the 6 months is
up and they'll never have to worry about giving away "free" flights.
So the next time you get an agent on the line that seems lost,
hesitant, puts you on hold frequently, doesn't know the answers to
your questions, etc. keep in mind that that agent has probably only
been on the job a few days or weeks and won't last much longer than
that. And the next time you call, you'll be getting another
inexperienced agent and so on and so on.
Ed: Untied.com does not condone the abusive treatment that some passengers
show toward reservations agents nor any other airline employees.
By the same token though, it seems highly irresponsible of UAL to
put new or untrained agents to work without adequate support from
more experienced personnel. Given
these working conditions, it is little wonder
that the airline has so many problems.
Have you thought of doing an expose on employees with United who are
wrongfully terminated from the company? I do not work for UAL but my
husband DID and I know of numerous employee horror stories -- all of whom
have been fired for having disabilities.
United DOES NOT like to
accommodate disabilities. If they do, it is after a very long battle in
which they are finally forced to do so. Then, usually, the individuals
are targeted for termination. This has been verified by several
supervisors.
United has the abilities to manipulate the system to
fire the employees wrongfully, but try to justifiy it rightfully. They
need to be exposed to the public for this kind of treatment. If the
public was aware of this, they would be appalled.
Unfortunately, for now, this should be anonymous due to possible
litigation matters we are pursuing along with a host of other
individuals here and in other areas of the country. I have seen UAL
spend thousands of dollars on, for example, an $800 Workman's Comp.
Claim that they did not want to pay for. Why??? And, where do you
think they are getting the money to fight the litigation? From the
public who is buying their tickets!
I work for UAL and daily see kennels that are unfit to send on a plane
due to Dept. of Agriculture regulations: no water dishes; too bad,
collapsable kennel; too bad, duct tape used to hold kennel together is
not the worst I've seen. I've reported all this and more to
supervisors, Dept. heads and even regional VPs with no luck. Finally I
contacted the USDA directly and am waiting to file a deposition. In
short please don't send your pets on United unless you really don't
care if they arrive alive or not.
Ed: This note came from an individual who, earlier,
had dismissed the initial version of the Untied website,
and in particular, our own initial letter
of complaint to United, as he apparently misunderstood many
of the key points. Interestingly, his comments, below, indicate
that he now takes the site far more seriously. Not surprisingly,
so does UAL management!
I've just read some of the employee letters. As an employee myself I
must say I agree with 99 percent of them. Complaining is something we
can all do, what about a solution? One of Greenwalds popular
references directs us to take a look at UA's profits. His belief is
that if it makes a profit it must be correct. If this were only true.
Well it is not. I can tell you a few of his profit making schemes
don't work. UA hires anybody and I mean anybody. Recently, a Customer
Service agent was promoted to the Human Resources department at a Major
hub of UA. Most of the CS agents were happy to hear this, as it may
help in the hiring of proper individuals. After all a CS agent can see
the the kind of people working around him have been put there by
mistake (by management who know nothing about what it takes to be a cs
agent). This persons ideas were shattered when he was told that he has
a quota to fill, a turnover rate to match and that the only way to do
that is to hire anything that breathes.
I quote directly from a member
of the hiring department as saying, "We'll hire anyone that breathes."
So I will tell you that as long as UA hires anything that breathes,
that is the only thing that you are going to get in response to your
complaints.....breathing, after all that's all it takes to get hired at
UA. And for you Greenwald. Yes hiring gangmembers, computer
illiterates, high school drop outs and employees who can't speak
english, does make a profit for YOU in the short run. But you get what
you pay for. And a web page like this is what you pay for and believe
me it's costing.
I enjoy your site imensely. I am from a UA family. My brother, uncle
and 2 cousins work at ORD (Chicago). I even gave up a chance to work
there to finish my grad degree. Maybe the best move of my life...
I often am given "buddy pasees" for UA which I don't use. I have my own
share of horror stories as does my entire family. I have deduced that
the only way to get good service on UA is to fly with an employee who
knows the crew. I am hesitant to share my stories as it may reflect
badly on my family members at UA. They are the last of the good ones. I
just laugh (cry?) when I read about luggage that can't be loaded at the
gate!! My brother is a lead at ORD. All they have to do is drop it down
through the jetway. The FAs are just too damn lazy!!!!
I just perused your web site "Untied Airlines" and I love it.
I'm an eleven year United Airlines employee working at [...]
I can relate to the many sad stories about the poor service rude,
employees, and misinformation we provide to our customers.
It's really too bad we have employees give such poor service and who
are totally inconsiderate towards the passengers.
I believe this is a result of poor managment because we react and
interact towards the customer just as management reacts and interacts
with us. I'm talking about mid management. I've written many letters
to senior management and even discussed the behavior of mid management
with Mr. Greenwald who assured me that changes would be made. This was
in 1995 and things have changed little.
Thanks for taking the time to establish this web site. I really hope
that senior management takes the time to really make the necessary
personal changes in mid management that we so badly need to occur in
order for our sevice to improve.
I was a United Customer Service Representative for two years and find
your Web site sad but true. I agree with presenting the problem of poor
service to United's staff but the sad truth is they have no idea how to
fix it.
A friend of mine was at a general communications UA meeting with several
senior managers at Elk Grove Village. Presentations were made, goals set,
plans made, rhetoric rang through the auditorium. After several ideas were
presented about making improvements to UA's service the floor was opened to
questions. My friend, a experienced business person who had flown thousands of
miles on his own airline thought about it and asked "How can we train our
flight attendants and customer service people to handle the stress of their
jobs and maintain courteous and professional relationships with our
customers?" The flight attendants in the audience started to make rude
comments and get irritated. The senior manager became very nervous and started
to summarize how well the inflight service staff did their jobs and the
meeting nervously proceeded around the question.
The flight attendants are unionized at United. They did not participate
in the ownership deal. The bottom line it's damn hard to discipline or
fire a flight attendant and even harder to set up a reward system for
the really good attendants. The truth is there are some great
attendants at United. These people love what they do and love the
people that fly with them. There is also the other extreme, they are
rude, thoughtless, and seem to relish in the small amount of power they
get when the aircraft door closes. Ironically, the good, the bad, and
the ugly get treated all the same. Does UA want to improve the inflight
service? Step one. Set up HR policies that motivate the crews, are
fair, and maintain professional competent staff. Step two. Ditch the
union. Some unions help companies grow a keep good people, this one
doesn't.
The customer service agents are not unionized and are paid low and
assigned mandatory overtime resulting in long hours. When I worked for
United, I started at $16,500, two years later I was making a salary of
$18,300 after two high rated reviews. I was college educated and would
have been homeless except for family. Sure there were great flight
benefits, but you couldn't eat those. They didn't help you pay your car
payments either. I quit UA for a better job I hear stories from a few
die hard friends who stayed in UA about gang people working at the
reservations centers. My point in all of this is that you get what you
pay for in hiring and compensating people. United has invested very
little in its people capital as of recent and it shows. The Ivy League
degrees at WHQ are useful tools, but management needs fly their airline
and make honest evaluations, meet their employees and work with them.
The management at United needs to drop grandiose ideas about slogans
and commercials. They need to commit to the field and build the best
business practices they can from operations of the aircraft cleaning
crews to Chief Executive Office. They are a world class airline no
doubt, but they could be the best in their class.
I replied to the
Premier Executive who felt he had been lied to at Traverse City. I
think he was treated terrible. There were things I felt he should know. I
am thoroughly convinced he was a victim of stupidity and not dishonesty.
The gate agent probably didn't even know what the passenger paid for
his ticket. The individual at the gate was a Great Lakes employee and
probably had no idea how to handle the situation, he or she was
probably poorly trained. United like all airlines overbooks flights on
a history basis. A majority of the time this works fine but sometimes
everyone shows up and there begins the trouble. Most airlines give the
people with seat assignments priority. (This based on the assumption
that these people booked first and took the assignments) But Apollo and
Sabre (UA and AA Reservation systems) erase seat assignments on any
equipment change. This poor fellow probably got his seat assignments,
the EQC happened and he lost them (even though they're still printed on
his ticket) in the system. Other people call after the EQC and get new
seat assignments or book afterward and our poor traveller is dropped in
priority in an over capacity case. Here is what should have happened:
1. Your travel agent should have checked your reservation 24 hours
prior to your travel. That is what you pay them for. The error would
have been fixed by a United Travel Agency Customer Service Rep. and
most definitely and Premier Executive CR worth his/her weight in dirt
would have fixed this for your agent long before you and your family
hit the airport. Shame on the travel agent.
2. The United Express/Great Lakes Rep. should have had the brains to
find you a flight back home WITH THE TICKET YOU HAD. Any CSR with a bit
of United training would have least recognized you were a PE and at
least done that. The connections might have been unconventional but you
would have gotten there none the less. I've offered compensation to
other passengers to get them off planes so I could get PE's on. Shame
on GL for lousy training. Shame on UA for letting a partner carrier
abuse a valued customer.
My message is long but heart felt. I am not a "UA basher". I truly love
UA despite it's need for improvement. I was never rich at United but I
had some wonderful times. I met some excellent people ( including my
wife) when I worked there in my associations with co-workers,
customers, and people I met on trips. I still fly UA and sometimes I'm
treated like royalty and other times..... well like a refugee. I hope
UA fires some damn lawyers and hires some outstanding managers. Maybe
that will bring change for the better.
As another UA employee that was referred to this web site, I also spent a
great deal of time reading all of the comments and information contained in
this site. I must admit that I am not surprised by what I have read. On the
contrary, it is old news to me.
There is a plethora of several reasons why the quality of our customer
service has deteriorated - probably some I don't know about - but a few key
reasons. First, although the value of our stock has skyrocketed since the
employee take-over (ESOP), this is something that has really benefitted the
senior employees. Anyone with less than three years of service with United
is getting a VERY poor compensation package.
This problem snowballed into the next one - interoffice divisions. We are
not a United airline. Flight attendants are not part of the ESOP. The
unions are heavily involved in contracts that contain some very
questionable provisions. Pilots are getting a fabulous deal from the ESOP
thanks to their contract. Senior management has been getting huge bonuses
thanks to the airline's Wall Street performance, while we are all told that
nothing can be done to improve our compensaton packages.
There is no pay-for-skill at United. And this does not create a
comfortable nor amicable work environment. I can't believe that
United's senior management didn't have the foresight to see that this
would create serious problems.
As an instructor, I don't feel that the majority of new hires has the
skills necessary to do the job that's asked of them. This is not to say
they couldn't develop the skills (let's face it, we're not surgeons), but,
in my opinion, they are not given adequate training, and the 1K desk was
the largest offender of this. After just seven weeks of very intense
training, and two weeks of on-the-job training, some agents were
immediately sent to the Premier Desk to serve our most valuable customers.
As a pilot with over 30 years service with United, I've become
ineasingly disgusted and appalled at management's blatant disregard for
the customers who gave us our success.I live in the Pacific NorthWest,
and no longer even attempt to apologize or excuse the way our
management has deliberately and stupidly shafted one of the most
prosperous and heretofore loyal customer bases we once had. When asked
why United no longer offers service along many very lucrative routes we
once served from Seattle and Portland, I only tell people that out
geniuses have decided that everyone now must be herded through the
cattle chute in San Francisco. San Francisco, where even the slightest
cloud cover causes massive delays, diversions, and cancellations. Where
we once flew full airplanes to London, Hong Kong, Honolulu Reno,
Sacramento, and many other destinations, our geniuses destroyed all
service to those places and told this entire region that "if you want
to go anywhere from here, you have to be herded through the San
Francisco cattle chute, and if you don't like it, then, to hell with you
and your money."
When disillusioned travelers ask (or berate) me about this, I can only
tell them that this airline is managed by "geniuses" who think they
know what's best, and that we are mere digits in their silly little
computer model. These "geniuses" have a total pig-headed commitment to
their "hubs', and no amout of logic, costs, inconvenience, customer
dissatisfaction delays, experience or pleading is going to change that.
So all I do is strap on my airplane and fly it the best way I know how,
but tell people if it were me traveling, I would go by any means
possible to avoid the horror story on the bay.
Dear Mr. Greenwald,
I just visited a web page called Untied.com. May I suggest that you
read the letters and comments therein VERY CAREFULLY, and then act on
this information? It would be far more productive than the new, empty
ad campaign.
Sincerely,
Mr. Greenwald has alot of gentlemanly manners, diplomacy and even an
upfront no holds barred discussions with us employees at airport
sites. However you are right that these new directives [concerning
improved service as promised by the new United ad campaign] have to
filter down through management and supervision.
But you know what, we don't have such supervision anymore. All the
people who made United Airlines at one time a place where employees had
a "family" feel and people who really cared is long gone and it left
round about 1978. Alot of these longtime employees and caring people
have retired and left this airline. In the past year United has made
it mandatory that all or most employees attend a one-day session called
"Mission United". This was a useful "tool" but not long enough (one
day, 200 people in one session) primarily aimed at getting us to see
the benefits of being caring employees and happy to work for United and
make it the BEST airline etc, etc.
Oh, lets not forget we are employee/owners and we are allowed to be
"empowered" to make decisions towards the customer (not always having
to run to a supervisor to ask for permission); however, I have yet to
make a decision towards a customer (hopefully in his/her favor) that
wasn't "shot down" by my peers. I either get flack or negative
comments or I'm surrounded by fellow workers who can't make a decision
to save their life. Thank God I have the strength and mindset to
ignore them and make the decisions I have to make.
One letter in this
website concerning a lady with lupus who was traveling with a piece
of medical equipment and got no help or compassion, compounded by
insensitive comments, really got to me. The best point this writer
made was about flight attendants and employees who said it wasn't in
their contract to lift the equipment. What assholes - their parents
obviously never taught them about human compassion. I have been
brought down a peg myself after "losing it" with a customer or being
somewhat sarcastic when the next person that comes in front of me has
an infirmity or is elderly or somewhat lost or helpless - this is the
thing that should humble people toward others.
Here's an example of a longtime United Airlines employee (now retired)
who behaved differently. One time he observed a young girl with parents
traveling to Mayo Clinic (she was in the late stages of cancer). He
allowed her brothers on the plane to say their last goodbyes as they
were not traveling with her. The tears and emotions he said were
wrenching as it was obvious they would probably never see her again.
On another occasion, the same agent helped a Viet Vet with no legs and
only one arm be lifted into his seat. It was mandatory to tell the
gentleman that in the event of an emergency probably no one would be
able to aid him. (He did tell him quite diplomatically and the
gentleman understood completely).
The bottom line is THEY DON'T MAKE THEM LIKE THAT ANYMORE.
Mr. Cooperstock, I will try in my own small way to be a better customer
service person for United, your site has humbled me. I thank you and
probably will never have the pleasure of meeting you on a United
Airlines flight. Nevertheless, keep up the good work and I will look
at this site frequently.
Ed: And if United encouraged its other employees to adopt a similar
attitude to that described above, rather than continue to
treat its passengers with contempt, this web site would have no
reason to exist.
Thanks for a great web site. I am a United employee for 18 years and
although I honestly have to say I really enjoy working for United and
United has been good to me, I can see the reason for such complaints.
In my opinion the reason is the people they have hired in the past 5,
10, 15 years. Because of the "politically correct" and "diversity
accepting" society we all have to live in, they have hired many
incompetent, inarticulate, nonthinking, noneducated people who only
take up space and still think working for the airlines is so
glamorous. They are now on C and D level pay scales which equate to
about $6-$7 per hour with less than the same medical/travel benefits
those of us hired pre-1975.
What is so glamorous about this starting pay with no hope for maximum
for about 10 years. The turnover is in a constant state of flux - who
would stay at this rate of pay if they can't even enjoy the travel
benefits because they can't afford to go where they want to go? United
for the past 10 years has paid people peanuts so all they have is
"monkeys". Until they pay a decent starting wage and hire people who
are educated, experienced and able to speak English they will continue
to get the employees and service that these people have rightfully
complained about.
A coworker at UAL directed me to your Untied website. And I promptly
spent much to much time reading the horror stories. Although most of
it is negative, I can only hope more UAL employees read it and strive
to eliminate the need for it. As for me, I work baggage service at
[airport name] and if I can ever be of assistance in the lost luggage
field, feel free to e-mail me.
I just read the new letter about lost baggage. It does sound like a
clear UA error. I am surprised that we have not settled with these pax
yet. It sounds like her info just got lost by UA, not a very good
commentary, but it does happen. Unfortunately it seems like they are
starting from square one at this point.
I am an eight year flight attendant with United Airlines, and I found
your pages very interesting. I have to say that I think some very good
points are raised in the many letters I have read. These changes need
to start from the top and work their way down. No service that can't be
provided in a consistant manner should be offered. It's that simple.
Please keep writing management! Believe it not, we are in this thing
together!
I find it humorous that UAL has had lawyers write you as opposed to a
customer relations person. I know that all you want is an
acknowledgement of the problem. I bet it would have been easier for UAL
to admit the problem than to get lawyers involved.
I am a [six year] UA employee. The instances that I have read about
are in many ways inexcusable, at least the service given to passengers
was.
December 14, 2006
November 6, 2006
October 28, 2006
October 28, 2006
October 23, 2006
October 5, 2006
September 23, 2006
August 21, 2006
August 20, 2006
August 8, 2006
August 6, 2006
July 14, 2006
July 8, 2006
July 7, 2006
July 4, 2006
July 4, 2006
July 1, 2006
June 30, 2006
June 29, 2006
June 22, 2006
May 27, 2006
May 16, 2006
May 13, 2006
May 11, 2006
April 7, 2006
February 19, 2006
February 1, 2006
January 31, 2006
January 30, 2006
October 31, 2005
October 24, 2005
October 11, 2005
September 25, 2005
August 10, 2005
June 14, 2005
June 13, 2005
June 10, 2005
June 6, 2005
June 3, 2005
May 24, 2005
May 22, 2005
May 18, 2005
May 17, 2005
May 17, 2005
May 15, 2005
May 13, 2005
May 12, 2005
May 11, 2005
May 11, 2005
May 10, 2005
May 2, 2005
April 22, 2005
April 13, 2005
January 12, 2005
December 10, 2004
ORDSW F/A)
November 14, 2004
October 9, 2004
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
Wed August 25 2004
Mon August 23 2004
Sat July 10 2004
Wed April 14 2004
Thu October 30 2003
Wed August 27, 2003
Mon June 30, 2003
Mon June 9, 2003
Tue March 18, 2003
Sat, March 1, 2003
Thur Feb 20, 2003
I was one of the contracted instructors for the Cabin Defense Security
training that was run from October to December 2002. I was terminated
due to my "irresponsible comments" about UAL during my instructing
of the classes. Basically I told the truth that the training
"approved" by UAL was useless and likely to get flight
attendants and passengers injured or worse.
Sat Feb 8, 2003
Sun Jan 12, 2003
Sat Dec 21, 2002
Fri Nov 22, 2002
Fri Sep 20, 2002
Fri Sep 20, 2002
Fri Aug 23, 2002
Sunday, Aug 18, 2002
Thu Aug 08, 2002
Mar. 28, 2002 01:52 PM
Mar. 17, 2002 10:49 AM
Mar. 16, 2002 18:32:07 PST
Feb. 4, 2002 02:46 AM
Jan. 16, 2002 09:56 AM
Jan. 8, 2002 07:32 PM
Oct. 30, 2001 02:56 PM
Oct. 30, 2001 01:20 AM
Oct. 26, 2001 02:16 PM
Oct. 25, 2001 07:05 AM
Oct. 23, 2001 08:50 PM
Oct. 23, 2001 08:44 PM
Oct. 22, 2001 09:35 AM
Oct. 22, 2001 07:34 AM
Oct. 6, 2001 10:59 AM
Oct. 6, 2001 01:11 AM
Tue Oct 2 21:26:18 MDT 2001
Sept. 29, 2001 02:34 PM
Sept. 28, 2001 10:17 AM
Sept. 15, 2001 12:22 PM
Sept. 14, 2001 01:50 PM
Wed Sep 5 14:31:18 EDT 2001
Tue, June 26 12:27:23 MDT 2001
Friday, 4 May 2001 15:23:58 -0700
Thu Apr 19 11:59:23 CST 2001
Friday, February 16, 2001 4:14 AM
Symbolically, using the Untied.com venue, I am calling United Airlines on
violation of the Rules of the Road authored by same.
Sun Dec 31 16:36:36 PST 2000
Thu Dec 14 04:44:53 PST 2000
Sun Dec 10 15:51:18 PST 2000
Fri Dec 1 14:32:12 PST 2000
Sat Sep 30 20:45:24 PDT 2000
Wed Sep 27 10:56:24 PDT 2000
Thu, 14 Sep 2000 05:21:52 EDT
September 8, 2000
Senior Vice-President and General Counsel
United Airlines
P.O. Box 66100
Chicago, IL 60666
Sheryl Beitsch
encl:
Sun Jul 30 08:52:14 PDT 2000
Sun Jul 23 11:16:14 PDT 2000
Fri, 21 Jul 2000 05:23:54 -0700 (PDT)
Thursday, July 06, 2000 12:36 PM
Mon Jun 26 22:18:17 PDT 2000
Sun Jun 4 11:36:38 PDT 2000
Fri, 14 Apr 2000 11:56:19 -0500
Fri, 10 Mar 2000 13:00:59 -0800 (PST)
Fri Feb 25 04:59:51 PST 2000
Sun Feb 20 00:03:40 PST 2000
Wed, 9 Feb 2000 23:54:15 -0700
Fri Jan 28 16:49:24 PST 2000
Fri, 28 Jan 2000 16:06:00 -0800 (PST)
Edwin J House
Fri, 20 Aug 1999 10:25:30 -0700 (PDT)
Thu, 12 Aug 1999 22:14:20 -0700 (PDT)
Tue, 10 Aug 1999 00:13:11 -0700 (PDT)
Mon, 2 Aug 1999 09:11:25 -0700 (PDT)
Sat, 24 Jul 1999 12:30:11 EDT
Mon Jun 21 08:33:53 PDT 1999
Wed, 16 Jun 1999 07:59:05 EDT
Sun May 9 01:22:33 PDT 1999
Tue May 4 10:40:58 PDT 1999
Sat, 31 Oct 1998 05:15:53 -0800 (PST)
Fri, 19 Jun 1998 23:08:57 -0400 (EDT)
Tue, 7 Apr 1998 21:21:41 EDT
Wed, 18 Mar 1998 23:41:21 EST
Mon, 16 Mar 1998 17:50:35 -0500 (EST)
Sun, 25 Jan 1998 15:09:46 -0500 (EST)
Wed, 14 Jan 1998 23:31:33 -0500 (EST)
Tue, 16 Dec 1997 04:27:12 -0500 (EST)
Sun, 16 Nov 1997 13:58:29 -0500
Sun, 21 Sep 1997 09:40:27 -0500
11 Sep 1997 22:07:41
Sun, 20 Jul 1997 23:23:40 -0400
Sun, 20 Jul 1997 12:19:52 -0400 (EDT)
Sat, 19 Jul 1997 21:36:14 -0400 (EDT)
[name removed]
Captain
Fri, 11 Jul 1997 03:13:20 -0400
Wed, 9 Jul 1997 02:44:12 -0400
Wed, 11 Jun 1997 13:52:29 -0400
Wed, 04 Jun 1997 14:31:40 -0500
Sun, 25 May 1997 11:38:01 -0400 (EDT)
Wed, 09 Apr 1997 21:29:26 -0500
Tue, 04 Feb 1997 14:45:08 -0800