Getting the strollers down is the easy part, you just send them down the slide, unless the oweners are watching. Some of these people are really fanatical about their strollers, and after I paid as much as I did for mine, I probably would be too. Getting them back up is the sucky part.
Now, as far as rampers getting paid, they get paid to work in all weather (hot, cold, rain, snow, ice, etc) in a loud, dangerous environment for at least 8 hours a day. Depending on the airline and station, you could be at a busy station or a slow station. If you're at a slow station or one that's not short staffed, then you really have no right to complain. If you're on your third flight in an hour, have had to cart 10 strollers per flight up the stairs, stack 120 bags in a bin (IF you have help, otherwise it's more like 200), all while it's raining and/or 98 degrees outside, I think the guys should be cut a little slack.
Too many people walk by and see rampers sitting around watching TV. Well, that's about like saying that all pilots do is read the paper all day b/c that's what they do in cruise flight. On top of that, I took a pay CUT to start as a ramper at SWA from my supervisor job at Sea World.
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Isn't that what the rampers are paid for?
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On the flip side, why do pilots complain about short overnights, quick turns that you can't get out and get food, delays and missing their commute flight home due the weather? Isn't that what they get paid for? Every job has it's drawbacks.
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No disrespect but I get a lot of grief from rampers about starting #2 (NO APU INSTALLED) to cool the plane while boarding. Unfortunately, this creates a hot and loud baggage hold. Just wondering when ramper comfort came ahead of passenger comfort.
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Simple solution to help both sides: hook up the a/c. Pax are cooled off, and it's still realtively quiet on the outside. On the 737 it was DANGEROUS to start the #2 engine while we were still loading, so it wasn't even an option. On the RJ, the engines were above us and relatively quiet. I never heard them in the bin if they did start the #2 engine. If someone's complaining about that, then they're just whining. Besides, if you're actually WORKING the bin is gonna be hot no matter what.
