So about 7 years ago, I was employed with a major airline in their cargo department. I worked in a cargo warehouse assisting companies and individuals who wanted to ship items on our airplanes.
We were chronically understaffed. When you started the job, you were on a 6-month probationary period before you were let into the Union. It was almost like management made it their mission to fire people before they could reach that 6 month mark. Any small occurrence could get you canned.
Even with the Union, we got what we’re literally called “occurrences” for anything you can think of. We punched a clock to start our shift. 5 seconds late on the clock? Occurrence. Once you hit 3 occurrences, you were written up and put on special probation. For the subsequent 12 months, if you were 1 second or more late clocking in, you’d be fired. That’s WITH union protection.
Management also used a mandatory overtime system to compensate for their shitty (lack of) hiring. We called it being “mando’d.” I had coworkers, and myself, work a 8 hour swing shift, say 2pm – 10:30pm. (The extra 30 minutes was an unpaid lunch). We’d then get mando’d to work for another 8.5 hours until 7:00am. If you had to work the next day, didn’t matter. Oh, and it could be your day off and you could get mando’d. A manager would call you from an unknown number. If you answered and said no, that’s an occurrence. I’m not joking. So we all stopped answering numbers we didn’t recognize.
They only required an 8 hour turn time between shifts. So from the moment you clocked out to the moment you needed to be back clocking in – 8 hours. 8 hours to commute both ways again, shower, eat, sleep, and do everything else life requires.
By the way, I made $10.25 per hour. In a major city. But hey, free flight benefits flying standby!
This airline is viewed very positively by the general public. Even by employees. It’s weird – almost a cult like feeling. We’d know how horrible conditions were but at the same time people were so thankful for a pizza party and health insurance we needed to survive.
Anyway, not major point to this story. Other than the fact that airlines treat their front line employees horribly. So please treat them well when you’re traveling.