Chief Sees More Changes for US Airways

[Dea Certe]

SpinDoc,

I can assure you it is not "envy" that drives my outrage over the $35 Million given to the Three Amigos. If I were a materialist, I certainly would not have stayed a flight attendant for all these years. I enjoy my job and take great pride in doing it well. When I''m in uniform I consider myself on duty, be it working a flight or waiting for the hotel van. I more than earn every penny I get paid.

I was given a good work ethic by my parents. I was also raised with morals that would not allow me to take money not earned or deserved under some flimsy guise called a "bonus". Wolf, Gangwal and Nagin failed to perform. They did not add value to the corporation. Those three people who took money from a nearly bankrupt company have no reason or excuse, other than unbridled greed, for their grasping behavior.

Meanwhile, thousands of people who did perform, who did meet their goals, who in many cases put in over 20 years in the service of this airline are unemployed, furloughed, stripped of their rightfully earned pensions and somehow that''s OK? Or is it just business?

No, SpinDoc, I can assure it''s not envy. It''s moral outrage. I hope to join in any lawsuit, grassroots movement to put an end to this type of corporate theft.

 

[PITbull]

I'm way over the $35 M. They were legal contract triggers and were paid out before BK, and when Dave just came on board. I can tell you for certain, specifically with G that his particular pay out was paid to him Nov. of 2001 and U had close to $1B still in cash. I also know for a fact, that there was a window of time between Oct and middle of Nov. that his contact triggered somewhere around $25 M if he left in this time frame, and he did not on purpose (had nothing to do with his pension trigger). Same with Wolf, if you can remember.

Instead, G waited for the window to close and then only asked this co. for only his pension pay out. There is much more to this issue, that should not be shared as an honor to him. Mr. G had no idea of BK possibility and obviously... in Wolf's press release in Jan. of 2002, he didn't either. He said that U would not go into BK and wouldn't need the ATSB loan and U was in the best position going forward. By March, the revenues "flat lined", for the entire industry, and U was in a precarious position above all the rest of the majors for many reasons, RJ relief for certain, and a foreboding pension liability that was sky rocketing as the market kept declining. Keep in mind, the huge pariety increases the pilots got by "default" made the liability even worse...so by April they figured they needed to have the ATSB pronto. Folks you know I respect and support labor in every endeavor, and I can tell you, as time progressed, U situation declined. Wolf did have plan for labor, I am sure. When Dave came on board, the slide presentation and all the data was ready for viewing by late April-May for relief from labor from Pilots on RJ relief, pensions and other concessions from all of labor for the ATSB.

Just trust me on the Ex CEO. He was more honorable than the "rank and file" got to witness. And I've only recently found this to be truer than true. And someone??? put a great "spin" turning folks against G. He was a Company man that pursued only success of this company, same as Dave in many, many ways, who is now beholden to RSA. Think back folks who sat on the Board besides Wolf who had "controling interest". They ran the show and drove the decisions.

Yes, I agree we enjoyed some great contractual benefits for some years with the EX management who gave us the opportunity to enjoy a decent, respectable standard of living and respected everyones postion and contribution to U. Times then were good.
I also agree, when our company is in rough waters, we need to come together and contribute to "fix" what ails our company and contribute. Does not relieve mangement of their responsibility to put their degress and education and airline experience to work and look at a combination of ways to change the bus. model and restructure the airline permanently. No matter how I look at this, and I believe in "balance" between mangement and labor....there is no way I believe this company should have made a business restructuring plan that is soley focused and centered on labor cost savings. And, as evidenced, a mangement team that continues to take from labor for every single event and downturn that happens in the market place.

No. Don't respect that at all.

However, in Dave's latest correspondence to the employees, he states he will make every effort to return this 5% pay cut at the first opportunity when feasible, and will continue to assess the situation with the War on a monthly basis.

Hopefully, he will be a man of his word.

 

[MarkMyWords]

Hedging wasn''t possible while we were in bankruptcy. To hedge now would be a real gamble. No one is certain where fuel prices are headed because the duration of the war is still uncertain.

 

[OldpropGuy]

SpinDoc wrote:
"spend 7 years of your life getting a college degree and MBA, work your way to the top of an organization like US Airways, and you will likely receive the same corporate perks that were granted by the BOD. "
--------------

PineyBob makes an excellent point with:

"When I sold for Xerox I sat next to an MBA who had to have me help him write his sales proposals and I graduated from high school, just barely. I finished 16 in the country and the highest he finished was 198 out of 400 in our Sales group. So much for the superiority of the MBA!"
--------------


The following unknown quote seems appropriate:

"One must be careful not to confuse education with intelligence!"

It seems that management has confirmed this on more than one occasion.

 

[LavMan]

Assign the Blame Where it Belongs

As we face a difficult time at US Airways due to their financial condition, all I hear is take from this classification not from me. We as union members need to use this situation as a time to unify and not throw stones at each other saying, “This person makes too much, take from them not me!†or “That group should not be with us or do that particular job!†The members out there saying this are falling right into the company’s tactics of divide and conquer. We attack each other instead of remaining focused and assign the blame where it belongs. It belongs on over 10 years of mismanagement of this company.

As far back as Ed Colodny mistakes have been made that has probably cost this company millions if not billons if you add all the blunders.

Colodny’s Blunders:

· Mirror Image, imposing US Air’s business methods upon Piedmont and PSA, instead of looking at each respective airline and adapting their successful practices. Some examples would be dismantling of the Piedmont Shuttle which accounted for 32% of Piedmont’s Gross Revenue.

· Not furthering International Service and canceling the last three 767s on order from Boeing, then realizing how much money was made serving international destinations and paying Boeing a $30 million penalty to reorder the three planes.

Schofield’s Blunders:

· Business select, $50 million on wasted seats that never worked properly and we eventually removed from the 737-200 fleet. Operation Highground.

· The IAM Mechanic and Related Strike of 1992 in which US Air lost $35 million and agreeing to pay all the pilots during our strike regardless if they flew or not.

· The hiring of Joe Gorman from United Airlines. Gorman stayed a few months then went right back to United, then United started taking us on head to head in numerous markets where we did not compete before Gorman’s tenure.

· The alliance with British Airways to infuse quick cash, but not on favorable terms to US Air, BA got more out of the alliance then we did.

Wolf and Gangwal:

· Canceling all the Boeing orders and having to pay a substantial penalty to Boeing to this day the dollar amount is not known as it was a confidential out of court settlement after Boeing sued US Airways, but it is believed to be hundreds of millions of dollars.

· Closing of three maintenance bases and trying to accomplish all the work in just three bases, which caused a backlog of airplanes awaiting “Q†and “C†checks and Mod visits. At one point you could see numerous airplanes parked in Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Tampa awaiting maintenance.

· Buying back over $1.5 billon of US Airways stock instead of using the money as operating capital or paying down debt or just having it around for a downturn.

· Selling the company to United Airlines and then for the next 14 months having no direction and running the company into the ground.

· Overreacting to the September 11th tragedy and shrinking the airline by 23% and increasing costs by putting larger airplanes on shorter routes.

Many mistakes have been made by so called corporate executives in this company and the majority of executives who made this horrible business decisions are still here. So now the hard working employees who have kept US Airways going and you can look at the Department of Transportation statistics that have us in the top tier of performance are going to be faced with major decision on concessions to try and keep this company a viable operation. Now is the time to not listen or spread rumors, use sound judgments when the FACTS are explained to you and stop pointing fingers at other workers who are out here just trying to survive and support themselves and/or their families. Many employees are writing executives saying get rid of this classification or that classification, just don’t touch what I have. I do believe a union is supposed to be about what is best for all, not one. All showing the company that we are a group that would eat our young to save ourselves accomplishes nothing positive for our membership.

 

[PITbull]

Lavman,

You bring up some valid points and I agree with your premise for your post.

I think the focus and blame is mostly on the Board of Directors who bring the agenda items to the Board meetings, hash it out, take the vote, and decide on which corporate plan of action to take to maximise their profits, and protect their investment, and boost the share price.

The stock "by back" which I believe was a mistake retrospectively, was a decision made by the Board. Think back who controlled the Board and the seats? There was Bob Johnson, Julian Roberts of Tiger, and of course Steven Wolf. Our mangement had to carry out and be reesponsible for the ratified Agenda items. This will be the very same with this new Board. Rest Assured, RSA is going after maximizing profits and share price harder and tougher than anyone.

My focus, is the day to day opertion, going forward. I am purposely outspoken against Labor Relations because I don't see any respect from Labor or an effor small effort to bring up the morale of the employees. There is no "plan" for that. But, we have a ton of VPs running around pretending to run departments that focus on making more stringent rules, policies and procedures, ignoring contact language, cause they think we are too beaten down to notice, or fight back and protect what we have left. Disciplines are extremely punitve and they are centered around decreasing numbers and terminations.

So, I let them know that PIT is not a sleeping giant. Trust me... I let them know...every damn day! We can't change the business plan, but we can influence the outcome and Labor and mangement needs to be on board and recognize this issue,. (And I'm not talkin some icentive to travel First Class, going on flights you can't get on, and time off to take it).

Perhaps with the Labor seats, they collectively can have some influence and voice and bring forth Agenda items that protect the operation and protect labor. After all, we are stake holders and you have to be stupid not to recognize that employee morale EFFECTS the customer perception and thus, the bottom line.

Time will tell.

 

[OldpropGuy]

PineyBob, I edited my previous confusing post!