AA exec leaves to head DL backed Virgin Atlantic

[eolesen]

@Chris Perry, if it's so bad, why stick around? Indentured servitude ended centuries ago.

@Bigjets, Kreeger was in charge of customer experience. Experience is more than just the airport -- it's the product from booking to lounge to aircraft seat. Kreeger picked up airports after Del Valle quit, so I wouldn't hold him responsible for what's happened there.

Jon Snook is indeed his replacement for customer experience, a good pick. http://www.aa.com/i18n/amrcorp/corporateInformation/bios/snook.jsp

Both he and Franco Tedeschi (http://www.aa.com/i18n/amrcorp/corporateInformation/bios/tedeschi.jsp) started out in the Europe operation when it was growing in the late 1980's, and worked their way up into HDQ.

They're also both MBA-less, which kinda bucks the stereotype some here like to trot out. So maybe there is some hope.

 

[WorldTraveler]

It is no more logical to assume that every mgmt employee is worthless just because AA is in the shape it is in than it is to think that every frontline employee has failed to do their job well.

There are and always will be good people doing their job well in bad (or struggling) organizations as well as bad (incompetent etc) people doing their jobs poorly even in good organizations.

Even w/ responsibilities over customer service, Kreeger could not be expected to overcome some of the major problems AA has faced over the past 10 years any more than any other AA employee should be expected to show no signs of stress.

 

[FWAAA]

I am not a Parker fan, but he has made US profitable, can you say the same about AA?

Ya got me there. Parker has had some profitable years since the merger. Not terribly difficult to accomplish when your east 737/A320 pilots agree to fly for $125/hr since the merger, roughly $35k/yr on average less than AA's pilots over that 7.5 year timeframe. Similar cost savings from the other low-paid pilots (East and West) plus the low-paid FAs on both sides as well.

On an aggregate basis, however, Parker's US has shown a cumulative loss since the merger of US and HP. Several hundred million dollars in total.

And Horton must be a has been too since he left AA and came back, and the employees certainly love him dont they now?

Yes, Horton left when it looked like AA would file Ch 11 in 2002 but came back once his job was merged out of existence at AT&T and it looked like AA has accomplished an out of court restructuring. Except for the short stint at AT&T, Horton has spent his career at AA. Who cares whether the employees like him? Is Parker universally adored by the US employees?

Parker, on the other hand, left AA after some drunk driving convictions in North Texas before he completed five years at AA and went to almost-bankrupt NW. That looks a lot like someone who didn't have many options. That sometimes happens to young drunkards - their personal deficiencies interfere with their career path. He managed to mostly overcome those problems at NW and then moved to HP. But like a lot of lifelong drunkards, his problems with alcohol and poor judgment showed up again in early 2007. He's probably a decent manager, but he's clearly lacking in good judgment when he's consumed alcohol, as demonstrated by his multiple drunk driving convictions throughout his career.

 

[700UW]

But he is a money man, and he is good at that.

 

[Bob Owens]

@Chris Perry, if it's so bad, why stick around? Indentured servitude ended centuries ago.

It did? Maybe you should watch BBC news instead of FOX once in a while.

 

[eolesen]

OK, Bob --- where in the US is indentured servitude still practiced?

 

[WorldTraveler]

But he is a money man, and he is good at that.

so is it acceptable to be a "good money man" if it comes on the backs of labor?

Seems to me it would be far more commendable to be a "good money man" and pay people industry average or better, don't you think?

 

[chris perry]

Americans are already indentured (slaves) to America’s rising debt.

 

[Bob Owens]

OK, Bob --- where in the US is indentured servitude still practiced?

http://www.nytimes.c...wanted=all&_r=0

Lets not forget how the BK courts ruled that Airline unions, and only airlines unions can not call a strike even if the company alters pay and working conditions.

If we all walked in and stopped working AA would get an injunction directing us to work. So the membership is subjected to involuntary servitude. Its no different than if the courts forced some company that you owned stock in to sell their product, and continue to provide their product under terms that you did not agree to, and justified this confiscation of property by saying "Well the shareholders have the right to sell their shares and get out of the company if they dont like it".

 

[Tex-Mech]

But he is a money man, and he is good at that.

You say this but you also have this quote below your post.

There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.

Isn't that how Parker became a good "money man" by fleecing the workers of USAirways?

 

[jimntx]

Now, Tex-Mech, there you go again, trying to apply logic to 700's posts and position. I wouldn't recommend it. Parker is the savior of AA in 700's view. (Or, AA is the last best hope for LCC; I'm not exactly clear on that.)

 

[Phoenix]

@Chris Perry, if it's so bad, why stick around? Indentured servitude ended centuries ago.

...

What's a seniority number? And if the math on the debt is correct, your grandkid's grandkids are indentured.

 

[700UW]

I have never said Parker is AA's savior, I dont like Parker, he hasnt treated the employees well at US nor at HP.

Please show me where I have stated he is your savior. I wouldnt trust him as far as you could throw him.

I have never came out in favor of the merger, nor against it, it is way beyond my control or yours.

My concern is labor gets a fair deal.

I have dealt with him and his cronies, he is not a friend of the employee.

 

[WorldTraveler]

My concern is labor gets a fair deal.

then you shouldn't have any expectations that this merger will deliver it.

 

[FWAAA]

Lets not forget how the BK courts ruled that Airline unions, and only airlines unions can not call a strike even if the company alters pay and working conditions.

I don't think restrictions on your ability to collectively withhold your labor is equivalent to indentured servitude, nor do I believe that any educated person would agree with you.

FWIW, when the NW FAs saw their contract abrogated, I disagreed with the rulings that precluded them from exercising self-help. But at no time did I believe that the NW FAs were then the indentured servants of Northwest. They were free to leave and seek employment anywhere they wanted. They just couldn't strike Northwest.

If we all walked in and stopped working AA would get an injunction directing us to work. So the membership is subjected to involuntary servitude. Its no different than if the courts forced some company that you owned stock in to sell their product, and continue to provide their product under terms that you did not agree to, and justified this confiscation of property by saying "Well the shareholders have the right to sell their shares and get out of the company if they dont like it".

Now it's involuntary servitude (slavery)? Nope. You're free to leave the plantation and seek employment anywhere you choose; the law merely removed your ability to exercise collective self-help while still preserving your jobs at AA (a strike). In fact, everyone is free to leave. Just because all the other plantations have a several year progression to top pay does not mean that you're a slave to AA. No shackles, no chains, no locked gates. It's a workplace, not a prison labor camp.

Yes, bankruptcy law is draconian. It permits debtors to reject contracts - and many people believe that promises should be enforceable without such an easy escape. Nevertheless, Congress (controlled by Democrats for a majority of the past 80 years) wrote Chapter 11 to permit debtors to break almost every promise they ever made to their employees and their creditors. Even breaking the promise to fund pensions.

When US and UA failed to live up to the promises they made to their retired pilots and near-retirement pilots (slashing their pensions to a fraction of the promised value), both airlines should have been liquidated in Ch 7 and the pensions' claims should have been granted priority so those pensions would have been fully funded. It's one thing for debtors to screw the banks and other lenders who lent them money, but those airlines screwed their retired employees and there was nothing those employees could do about it. And as I posted here almost a decade ago, liquidation of US and UA would have made life easier for the employees of DL, NW and AA. It might not have prevented some restructuring concessions, but it would have removed a lot of excess capacity.

For the past decade, various airline employees have posted that their skills would enable them to toss off the chains that bind them to AA and, in the process, make even more money. Well, the 2003 concessions were imposed nearly 10 years ago and it's remarkable how many employees have not availed themselves of those abundant opportunities and gone elsewhere.