A Question For Non-employees

diogenes

Veteran
Aug 22, 2002
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I'm interested in what specific things you think employees should do to 'save the company.'

I'm not interested in hearing, "change the work rules." We've heard that.

What work rules? What concessions? What productivity measures?

As my freshman English teacher preached, "Be specific."

And if you have a ballpark $$ figure your idea would gain, so much the better.

For my fellow employees, don't trash the posters. Let them work. Believe me, it will be an education.

The floor is now open.
 
diogenes said:
I'm interested in what specific things you think employees should do to 'save the company.'

I'm not interested in hearing, "change the work rules." We've heard that.

What work rules? What concessions? What productivity measures?

As my freshman English teacher preached, "Be specific."

And if you have a ballpark $$ figure your idea would gain, so much the better.

For my fellow employees, don't trash the posters. Let them work. Believe me, it will be an education.

The floor is now open.
Decertify your unions. ASAP.
 
delldude said:
oooooo,shots fired! :eek:
Just to be fair if the question had been "what should management do?" my first suggestion would be "resign" B)

But back to the topic at hand...

IMHO the best bet would be a clean slate all around. I'm not so concerned about "work rules" as "work habits" as seen from both sides of the fence. Everything needs to change -- the way you work and how you're paid is, from an outsiders perspective, just nuts. Almost all of the defensive rhetoric around it boils down to "that's the way it is and the way it is is the way that it is must be."

Screw that -- you've got to change. Everything has to be on the table and people have to be willing to change. If you don't then it matters not in the least if the concession stand is open or closed because you're going to lose it all. If management hasn't got the smarts to figure out what needs to be done then do it yourselves. Stop it already with "that's managements job" and clean the place up. Work for free if that's what it takes (yes, I've done that) because there isn't going to be anything left if you don't fix the place.
 
Tom, I was on the property long before there was a union to decertify. We lost money then, too.

I also worked, non-union, for a profitable carrier prior to the U debacle.

There is nothing of significance in the contract to hinder U from tasking me just as PI did.

The two over-arching problems at U are;

1. A failed business plan that will never work.

2. Empire building. Just as soon as someone is promoted or imported into management, they seem to forget we all are here to execute U's business. They busily set up and run their own little fiefdoms. For instance, scheduling and budgeting at one station can, and all to often is, far different from another station with similiar layouts, flight and headcounts, etc. Yet no one, save employees, looks askance at the inefficient operation. Supervisors, shift managers and CSM's have far too much autonomy, and way too little accountability. Think about the long term impact that has on we grunts.
 
Offer incentives to encourage the most senior, i.e. top-of-the-pay-scale employees, to leave. In other words, early outs. That would include both retirement eligible and those close to being eligible. For example, perhaps anyone with a combo of years of service and age equalling 70.
 
It doesn't matter what the employees do or don't do. U has been so grossly mismanaged and bled by the senior executives for so long that it just doesn't matter. Management is calling the shots. Senior mangement ultimately is in it for themselves and not the airline. They're just milking it for as long as possible. And you can bet that they're going to walk away sitting pretty at the end.

But don't feel alone. There's several majors out there just like U.
 
I'm violating my vow to keep quiet here, but you did ask.

I understand that management has made some serious mistakes and that there is zero trust of anything that they say. However, it does seem clear that the red ink is real. Reading the public filings makes that evident.

In the most basic accounting, sales must increase or costs decrease. Given that this VFF is wondering if he should move to another airline, I can't imagine attracting new VFFs. Therefore, the only people available to attract are the once-in-while folks and I'm afraid that they focus almost entirely on the price of the ticket. Fare sales are probably a good idea, but it seems quite dangerous -- you might just get your regular customers at a lower cost and not attract a lot of new ones. Furthermore, no one will be afraid to compete with U on price, because they know they can outlast them. The best thing would be the return of the business traveller in numbers, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Therefore, the changes must be made on the cost side on the equation. I've read stuff from your management that indicates your cost is higher than others. It may be true or it may not, but it does appear that the costs are too high to survive without substantial revenue gains. I'm just not smart enough about the specifics of the airline business, but it seems that labor will have to accept changes that either (1) send more people home, (2) pay existing folks less or (3) both. This clearly sucks for the employees, who provide what is in my opinion the best customer experience in the business (with the possible exception of baggage handlers in Philly). Everyone here talks about "work rule changes" and the OP asked for specific rules that ought to be changed but I just don't know enough to answer. Combining duplicate facilities from PIT and CLT seems to make sense to me. Elminating PIT as a "hub" seems to make sense to me. To the extent I understand what a rolling hub is, it makes sense to me.

I think it is a disgrace that the negotiation that took place during Chapter 11 didn't result in changes that would permit profitability. Management should be held accountable for that. If the labor deals weren't good enough, they should have fought then and there. Going back a few months later looks like bad faith and is highly likely to be rejected. Trying to sneak around the deal by outsourcing maintenance after the fact is the wrong way to do it. They have done a crappy job and have allowed the atmosphere to become poisoned, which is on them.

However, if mistrust and ill will dominate the day and the workers and unions hold to the position that no compromise will be made under any circumstances I fear that there will no longer be a US Air before long. I fully understand why no one trusts management and why no one wants to give up anything else, especially when they have already given so much, but I don't see any other choice. Even liars tell the truth some time, they can't help it.

If there is a real plan that might really result in a profitable airline, it needs to be put on the table in as open and honest a way as can be managed. If I was running the airline, it would have to be matched by even greater real cuts in management that demonstrated an understanding of what this meant for everyone. Somehow, the message that the end is near has to be told in way that people will believe it or the end will come and go before anyone believes it will happen.

I think a new leader is the best way to reestablish some trust, but it doesn't appear that is an option. I think the bottom line is that employees are going to have to agree to cuts, but I'm not sure that they will. Perhaps it is better to be unemployed than to give up any more, that situation can happen and I've been there before in my life. If that is the answer, then I wish everyone the best and hope that everyone finds another place. Perhaps people would be willing to give up more to keep things afloat, but don't believe that the time is at hand to do that. I would have to sadly disagree. I think that U can not survive without some kind of serious change and I have no faith that anyone can make it but the employees.
 
diogenes said:
Tom, I was on the property long before there was a union to decertify. We lost money then, too.

I also worked, non-union, for a profitable carrier prior to the U debacle.

There is nothing of significance in the contract to hinder U from tasking me just as PI did.

The two over-arching problems at U are;

1. A failed business plan that will never work.

2. Empire building. Just as soon as someone is promoted or imported into management, they seem to forget we all are here to execute U's business. They busily set up and run their own little fiefdoms. For instance, scheduling and budgeting at one station can, and all to often is, far different from another station with similiar layouts, flight and headcounts, etc. Yet no one, save employees, looks askance at the inefficient operation. Supervisors, shift managers and CSM's have far too much autonomy, and way too little accountability. Think about the long term impact that has on we grunts.
In so far as I understand and believe what has been said about the contracts I agree that management ought to be able to do what they need to do with what the tools that they already have available. But management apparently thinks otherwise. I don't know why.

I also think that it's quite obvious that your union leaders are at least as big an obstacle to productive change as the two Daves. PitBull makes that amply clear every time she posts.

As for the "we've always been mismanaged" mantra... so? Take some initiative and either fix it from within or move on. It should be quite obvious that sitting on your hands waiting for management to get a clue is a fruitless endeavour that can only have one ending. It may be a thankless task and it will probably end the same way anyway but at least you can say you tried.

I don't think it's the contracts per se -- I think it's the people at the top of both management and labor. The rank and file and the investors should demand that both sets of "leadership" go so that they can get on with the business of fixing the business.
 
Contact your local and national business press. Invite them to hear/see the things you do over and above the current contract. Show them how good you are at what you do. Let them see that US is still operationally sound. Tell them what you are willing to do to keep the company in business.

If management does not have a response to that kind of press or present a plan, consider that we always need good people, in all businesses, here in Florida.

Now for some specific employee actions;

1. Present a plan to improve trip bids- more flight time in less duty time. Same number of employees can staff more equipment. Fewer hotel room nights needed.

2. Create lists of "crisis costs". AOG-N-IT leads the way here for premiums for stock items missing and flight time lost due to mis-management mx delays. Costs for non-weather delayed bag deliveries, etc.

3. Agree to mandatory OT for irregular operations. A key to bare bones staffing is the knowledge that a motivated workforce will rise up in the face of emergencies.

4. Make it clear that 60 more busses are in everyones' best interest. To paraphase "W", "Bring'em on!".
 
sorry but I must interject...

ever considered why 'those KIOSK-clone soldiers are pushed?'

sta mgr's r given a bonus ;)
 
It's probably too late. The unions are no longer a problem. Your managment got dealt a bad hand, and have not played it well. It started with the old BOD incentivizing the Wolf team by creating an environment where a sale of the company was the way to get their payday. The bungling of the UA deal, which was sheer greed (driving the per share price to a level the deal wouldn't support), which then led UA management to look for a way out. When the government questioned the anti trust part of the transaction, that was UA's cue to let it die on the vine by not proactively defending the deal. To Wolf's partial credit, had the deal gone through, the employees would have been better protected than most in similar deals. That ensured US employee support for what was esssentially a sale of the company. When it cratered, it turned out there was no contingency plan for continuing operations. The newly recruited operating team, combined with a return driven equity investor, whose goals are somewhat unclear, then proceeded to make changes in the marketing and operational sructures. They seem to have been very sure of themselves, and also seemed to have made decisions in a vacuum, appearing to believe that whatever they did, no competitor would challenge them in their strongholds. This seems not to have worked, especially in the case of WN coming directly at them in Philadelphia, where the strategic turnaround plan seems to have been predicated on driving yields in a very large monoply market. Since LUV knows it can't outboard them, and its normal strategy in approaching markets like PHL is the use of peripheral airports (eg. ABE, ACY, Trenton), one has to assume this is a direct attempt to damage yields, and hasten the demise of the company, which I suppose creates opportunities up and down the east coast. The company obviously can count. It knows if and when it might run out of cash. Perhaps that's why the fire sale fares they have come out with. In a tribal business, where nobody new ever seems to come in, it seems you find the same guys running places. Like baseball managers, they just recirculate. If US takes the pipe, a lot of great folks will be looking for new things to do, but no doubt, a year or so later, those of us still nutty enough to fly around every week will open some letter from our new regular carrier, look down, and see it signed with a familiar name.
 
Get rid of the Unions.

I've always viewed pilots and flight attendants as professionals. The mechanics can think differently, but you fix some pretty complex aircraft. To be a mechanic you need a lot of training and education - I'm my book you’re professionals.

Why do you insist upon working in an environment that forces you into a blue-collar atmosphere? I'm not slighting blue-collar workers - god bless them. My father and grandfather were both autoworkers.

However, today we live in a different time. In my opinion, unions have outlived their usefulness. We have the US Dept. of Labor and 50 other State labor organizations that protect the rights of employees.

If you are a good employee, your employer will recognize this and you will never have to worry about your job.

I can’t understand why you would be apart of an organization that scares you into believing that unless you join the union, management will take advantage of you.

That's a crock! If management is treating you poorly - quit. There are plenty of other jobs out there - although they may not be in the same field. That’s unfortunate, but thats reality. I've moved three times for a job.

I'd love to be a pilot, but unfortunately - I can't. The pay and the hours are not conducive to the happiness of my family. So I got my wings at the local airport and fly Cessnas on the weekends.

I am however in a job that provides me the financial stability and security I need. I work hard and I am rewarded accordingly. Yes, my employer could fire me at any time – but, guess what? They never would because they value me and probably need me more than I need them. The key here is that I am rewarded for MY performance.

I couldn’t imagine working in an organization that forces me to join a union where everyone thinks a 10-cent raise over 5 years negotiated by some union boss is a victory.

How many people do you know that supported the union, paid their dues every week and sat by as the union leadership trashed management daily... Only to find out that they would be laid off because the company was packing up and moving south or overseas?

Despite everything you hear from the dopey Democratic Presidential candidates, unemployment is at an unprecedented historic low. Does anyone remember the 70’s?

5.5% unemployment is something Europe, Japan and other industrialized nations could only dream of. 3-4% of the population is unemployable (students, seniors, disabled, indigent, etc,).

Now, please don't take my comments as a slight to anyone that has been furloughed or has lost their jobs because of regional labor issues. Their situation is one I can understand and pray they will overcome. However the vast majority of Americans can find good jobs and will do well in this new economy.

Just my thoughts... I wish you all the best.
 
You have to be kidding?

If it was not for unions you would be flying on airplanes that would be crashing all the time.

You seriousily need help.