Article from the Jet Piedmont website

[Coffee_Tea_Or_Me]

I am referring to the Piedmont Airlines that was #1 in customer satisfaction, #1 in on-time performance, and had the highest profit margin in the entire industry. The same Piedmont Airlines that respected its workers and treated them like family and thus the employees looked forward to coming to work. It is interesting that a lot of Piedmont management went to Continental after the US Air invasion and played big roles in building Continental back to greatness.

Regarding the stapling issue -- I believe that pales in comparison to US Air's systematic, methodical destruction of one of the best airlines in the world.

 

[nycbusdriver]

USAIR Gave everyone Their Rightful Senority Back!

Please tell me what you are talking about? Are you referring to a particular event?

 

[Coffee_Tea_Or_Me]

Please tell me what you are talking about? Are you referring to a particular event?

I think PHL FA is saying this: Piedmont acquired Empire and stapled their 300 or so FAs to the bottom of the Piedmont flight attendant seniority list. Piedmont FAs were not unionized. Que the northern invasion and US Air gave the Empire FAs their original seniority, making 300 employees very happy.

Good for them.

Too bad for the 20,000 or so other employees they alienated, screwed over, and p!ssed off.

 

[beachboy]

"Fast Friendly service from the InFlight staff no matter if they're stapled, shaken or stirred."

Piney, why don't you care exactly? I would not want to think you would patronize a company that treated it's employees like yesterdays dog droppings. Maybe this was a misstatement so please correct me.

 

[diogenes]

Boo Hoo!


By all accounts Piedmont had that and more. The current US Airways IMO would do well to emulate Piedmont of yesteryear.

Uhhh, the word for what actually happened is "immolate."


"...I hated that (Piedmont) airline..."

Randy Malin, former AL senior veep and contender for CEO.

 

[700UW]

USAIR Gave everyone Their Rightful Senority Back! So Cut The CRAP On How GREAT Peidmont Was! Seems No One Wants To Mention That! <_<

Better get your information from better sources, US Air did NOT give the Empire Pilots their seniority back, they only kept their Empire DOH if they stayed on the F28s, once they left that plane they lost their seniority.

Don't let the facts get in your way!

 

[WCT]

Wings, thanks for the post. Brought back memories of the old Frontier Airlines. I grew up knowing the airline very well, being from Colorado. My father worked for them during the 70's, and really got me interested in the whole airline industry. Was real sad to see the old Frontier go out of business.. I don't see the same legacy for HP, considering the track record we have had over the last 12yrs or so, and it's to bad the mgmt took over the new US. I believe a lot of my collegues would argue HP once was a proud airline, just like Piedmont, PSA, Allegheny, and others. Unfortunate to see the state of affairs that face US now.

 

[700UW]

Proud?

Operational problems reared their ugly head throughout the summer. Mechanical problems increased, unfavorable press ensued, and employee stress reached a breaking point. Union issues were becoming more and more common, for the flight attendant contract was still open. Mechanics elected the Teamsters as their representative, and were negotiating their first contract. Dispatchers had just concluded their first contract on April 13.

A well-publicized FAA fine was imposed on the airline in June. The record $5 million fine was imposed over maintenance issues, primarily oversight and changes in recommended procedures. America West admitted no wrongdoing, and half the fine was forgiven after a restructuring of the maintenance oversight procedures. Eventually, this would lead to yet another change in heavy maintenance contractors.

 

[WCT]

Proud?

700UW you are right. That is nothing to be proud of. From '83-'91, can be argued, America West was a good airline, and proud employees. But let my counterparts debate this.

 

[WCT]

As to AWA being a proud airline allow me to share a very true story.

I had been working for about 6 months for Minolta Corp in 2000 when I had to book a long swing out west. Going up and down the West Coast was not US's forte so I chose CO and it's then code share partners at the time Alaska and AWA.

So we're all sitting around after one of our rare group meetings and somone asks me "Who are you flying when you go out west?" I said, "Mostly America West". I got the unsolicited responses of:

"Hope we see you again, ha ha ha"
"Nice working with you"
"Good Luck, you're gonna need it"

Well being the resident "Newb" I just figured they were giving me a rough time.

It was an "Interesting" trip. I learned a great deal about hub operations and delays, shoddy customer service and AWA's penchant for gate changes. Additionally I also learned just how hot an A320 can be when your carrier is to cheap to cool it properly at the gate. Some lame excuse about bringing a plane from the hangar to replace our old plane that had taken a mechanical. Now I was there for over an hour and it was the same A/C at the gate the entire time. So either Commander Scott beamed over a new plane or it had been out there long enough to be cooled properly. According to the F/O the ambient temp in cabin was 89 degrees.

The reason this trip is still so vivid in my mind is the bizzarre nature of the entire trip. I remember thinking "Why does CO have these guys for a code share partner?" The other reason is that this trip was the beginning of the end of my relationship with CO. As my work assignments changed I found myself going up and down the east coast, routes that US was uniquely suited for, plus the ACY factor. By 2002 I was nearly 100% US Airways.

Piedmont as a predecessor company helped develop the route structure that allowed US to blanket the East with trips to all kinds of small cities and it's no wonder that the former employees are quite proud as they had much to be proud of. Congratulations for being the model of how great an airline can be.

Piney, was this before the HP bancruptcy?
Those days with CO were hectic, I was there then. :down:

 

[WCT]

I believe it was in the beginning of the Parker ERA, right around this time in 2000. I'll never forget the guy who had absolutely the worst in airport meltdown I've ever seen from a customer. HP Changed gates for his flight TWICE to/from different concourses and he just went over the edge. He would have been arrested today.

But his meltdown was caused by uncaring management whether post Franke or not.

Think this ever happened at PI? Probably not very often because an operationally sound airline doesn't change gates.

I've noticed as the decline in DOT stats grew the number of Gate Change announcements in PHL rose. Cause & effect? no idea.

Piney, how do you things would of faired out if HP would of merged with ATA??

 

[GoldenRam94]

I think PHL FA is saying this: Piedmont acquired Empire and stapled their 300 or so FAs to the bottom of the Piedmont flight attendant seniority list. Piedmont FAs were not unionized. Que the northern invasion and US Air gave the Empire FAs their original seniority, making 300 employees very happy.

Good for them.

Too bad for the 20,000 or so other employees they alienated, screwed over, and p!ssed off.

Yeah Right! USAir also gave those Piedmonters a hefty raise and later used them as unknowing pawns to divide the company by voting out the union on the Ramp! That's right, Piedmonter's voted out the union and started the ball rolling on many of the issues that would come to haunt the new company.

Thank you Piedmonters for being so naive as to believe in all that Uncle Ed told you!

 

[diogenes]

We certainly were naive. Up until Ed, our CEO's had shot straight with us.

 

[700UW]

Yeah Right! USAir also gave those Piedmonters a hefty raise and later used them as unknowing pawns to divide the company by voting out the union on the Ramp! That's right, Piedmonter's voted out the union and started the ball rolling on many of the issues that would come to haunt the new company.

Thank you Piedmonters for being so naive as to believe in all that Uncle Ed told you!

US Air's ramp was only unionized at four stations, BOS, BUF, PHL and PIT, not systemwide and the IBT represented workers made less than the non-union stations.

And every worker, former PSA, PI and the old US Air had the opportunity to vote for the IBT after the merger, blame everyone, not just the PI workers.

And if the IBT was so great at US, why did they only represent four cities and their pay was less?

PS. I was in Air Cargo for PI at the time and I voted for the IBT.