Mitch Cronin Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 Hi Robert, You suggested in one of your communications to me that I could let you know if I see anything that I think needs addressing that isn't being addressed.... Well, here's a big one: I recently learned of an IAM proposed idea to begin "scheduled mandatory overtime", in order to save money by allowing staffing levels to drop, to cover only the minimum staffing requirement and "scheduling" overtime to cover the times when more staff is required. Incredible! Incredible that the IAM would have proposed it(!), and incredible that management would even think about applying it! It may sound like a good idea that could save money, but I can tell you with certainty it will not work in many (perhaps all?) environments! The mere mention of such a thing where I work has already gotten people extremely upset, and production has already suffered as a result. Yes, we won't get paid for that overtime, the time will go into a time bank until 200 hours are accumulated, then we can be sent home for a week at a time to drain those hours, when things are slower.... Sounds good, right? Wrong. What you'll get is people on all shifts working very slowly and when they're on that "scheduled mandatory overtime" they'll be there serving as little more than wheel chocks. Think about it. It's a horrible way to treat people! Many of us work shifts that allow us precious little time to schedule anything at home, we get only a few weekends off, depending how our schedule works, and now we'll be completely unable to plan for anything. Many of us are already so "stressed" by events, and the general state of affairs at work, that we absolutely need our time off. It's often only the thought of our days off that enables us to stand the constant turmoil in our work place. We have lives, thank goodness, outside of this troubled environment. We need some means of maintaining some sense of normalcy. Are we now expected to divorce our families completely? I've heard that your comments at one time were, "If you don't like it, quit." I can tell you I'm not about to quit, and neither are most of my colleagues. Many of us will, in all likelihood, be here long after you're gone. I'm here for the long haul, and I'm going to continue to try to fix what's wrong with this company. I've always considered myself to be something of a "company man", I don't relish the thought of an adversarial relationship with my employer and I hope to be able to fix any difficulties that develop. So far, I've been able to get by all such troubles and maintain a good relationship with my managers. I've never needed the "union" to bail me out of anything and I hope I never will... I'm telling you this now because I want you to know that I'm serious when I say I want to make this work. But you need to hear that treating people like machines won't work. Like it or not, you need us, and you'd better hope we don't quit. You need us because these machines that we call airplanes need us. We - that is the Aircraft Maintenance Engineers that keep these aircraft at Air Canada fit to fly - are not about to sit around and be treated like machines. In spite of what Ron Fontaine and Dave Ritchie will tell you (and perhaps you already know that they are not known to have, or want, any respect from those of us in maintenance), this will not work! What you'll end up with is a huge bunch of very unhappy, very angry employees who will be producing very little, and taking a lot of time off for their very unproductive hours spent in this forced overtime. I know that on paper this probably looks like a great idea... I know this was proposed (by our union) to mitigate a 10% pay reduction, and I know that "we agreed to it". But I can assure you that the vast majority of us had no idea that this ridiculous idea was part of the bargain! We knew of the 200 hour time bank, but we were not told of the "scheduled overtime" plan. We've agreed to reductions, that we knew of, that amount to far more than that 10% (reportedly about 21% for the average midnight shift AME who's been around more than 10 years), and 64% is already a pretty sad acceptance percentage, but I can assure you that it wouldn't have been nearly as high, had this been known. I don't know what kind of a handle you have on maintenance procedures, but I can tell you (and please don't take this as a threat, it's just my opinion and I'm only being as frank and honest as I always am) there are many, many ways maintenance employees know that they can flex their muscles, and the company would suffer as a result. Please, for the sake of the airline, for the sake of all the airline's employees, and for the sake of all of our customers, please, shift gears and tell your underlings to rethink, before it gets silly! I'm sure this isn't the kind of message you'd hope to be hearing from your employees at a time when we're struggling to get our heads out of the water, but as I've said, we're not machines, and whether or not you can quantify the effect of morale on the bottom line, you can't be so blind as to assume it has zero value! In fact, I believe it has a huge value, and the lack of same has a huge impact on our bottom line, as airplanes are delayed and flights are cancelled and customers get angry. The effects of this particular device, will, in my opinion, be very real. It may be that I've been mislead, and perhaps I'm over reacting based on a misunderstanding, but from what I and others with me have heard so far, it will not go over well at all, and some serious damage control is in order to prevent a pending disaster. Sincerely, Mitch Cronin P.S. I gave a great deal of thought to this letter. My better half was concerned it may sound too threatening and she suggested I first ask for the opinions of some people I respect.... So I did... One of those people suggested I might want to change that last line because it could sound wrong. In other words, "pending disaster" could be read another way. Well, you know what?.... I left it just the way it was, because that meaning too could be realistic. I don't know what understanding of "human factors" you might have, but there definitely is a safety issue in keeping AME's so unhappy, and so distracted by their displeasure. I certainly hope I'm just being an alarmist, but in addition to my above objections, I honestly don't think it's wise to mess, so badly, with the minds of employees who's work is so important that they hold the lives of so many people in their hands. How would you feel if you wound up being the CEO of a company that.... Never mind, I'll leave the rest unsaid. Please... give this matter some serious thought. It's a bad move from a business perspective, it's a wrong move from a human rights perspective, and I also believe it's unwise from a safety perspective. cc: the Canadian Aircraft Maintenance Association website (CAMA) www.canama.ca The Aviation Employee Forum www.theairlinewebsite.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cargo Agent Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 Can't wait to see this in the media and the great twist they will put on it. "AC Mechanic threatens disaster" Way to go Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted July 13, 2003 Author Share Posted July 13, 2003 I'm not "threatening" anything. I'm pleading for reconsideration and offering my honest opinions of why I think that's necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cargo Agent Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 The media will take your comments and use whatever they choose to sensationalize it. They will pick and choose, take comments out of context. They want headlines and you provide them. The words are all there. Whether you are threatening or not means nothing to them in their quest to grab the attention of the populace. I just think that a public forum such as this, where we know the media trolls for stories is not a good place for your post. Your giving them a great story, that could end up causing a lot more harm. Just my opinion of course, CA Paul Lees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted July 13, 2003 Author Share Posted July 13, 2003 Well, here's my thoughts on that.... If you're right, then I'll have to add, "and wrong from a public relations perspective" to that list of reasons of why it's wrong to treat employees this way. And if the decision is perchance reversed, I assure you that I'll actively persue the follow-up public relations (which would be fairly owed) to point out the decency of that reconsideration. Cheers Paul, Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AME Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 Mitch Very well stated, maybe it's time the stresses and responsiblities in maintenance were aired in public. I for one would like to see a duty time imposed on AMEs, but the main lobby group for engineers (the various assn) are mostly run by DOMs etc... whose primary interest is in production. This is very evident by the changes to our licences over the last number of years. Keep up the fight, and know that you have the right to refuse work, and fatigue is a valid reason. Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BAE 146 Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 I hope that the media does blow this way out of preportion. It might show that milton and his cronies really are incompetent fools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 You've got Gigante cajones my friend, I hope for all our sakes this is stopped dead in its tracks. Good, bad or indifferent, precedence knows no boundaries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vsplat Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 My opinion: Leave the letter as is. It's not your job, or mine to try and out-spin the media. That's Robert's job, and if he didn't see a response like this coming, then maybe he deserves the shock. The fact is, Air Canada is going down a very dark road with how its employees are being treated. I have witnessed first-hand simply brutal dismissals, for absolutely no reason. There are some mid-level managers who have taken these times as their personal licence to do what they please to their staff, in the name of restructuring. It's not restructuring, it's bad management. Can a poor working environment impact safety? That's a no-brainer. The media already knows it. Don't shoot the messenger, go after the cause of the problem. Good job Mitch. I suggest you might want a work-place petition, though, so you don't become the sole lightning rod. Best wishes Vs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vsplat Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 "Let's just hope nothing happens" I have to comment on this. I heard a fellow pilot at a company up north say this once, about a simply ghastly operation. I quit the company after three aircraft broke in one day, including one in-flight fire and an engine shutdown on the second aircraft. Your words are verbatim the last ones I heard from him as he decided to stick it out. He died six weeks later in an accident, at that company. In aviation, we do not have the luxury of hoping nothing will happen. We either intervene to break the chain or accept our part in it. It sounds like it is time to rattle the safety officer's chain in your organization. Vs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky High Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 Good letter Mitch. I think you've outlined the problem pretty well and I suspect as others have said, the media will put their own spin on it. Its a well known fact that productivity and safety are directly related to many intangibles such as employee morale and job satisfaction. An unhappy employee is more likely to make a mistake when his mind may be occupied with other concerns. I sincerely hope such an event never occurs but we have to admit the possibility is increased in a work environment where employee morale has been neglected. IMHO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest buswrench Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 This is right on the money,Kudos to mitch for the cajones.AC mtc is primed for a human factors incident IMO.Lets hope it's not a big one.AC pays nothing more than lip service to hbuman factors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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