I dunno....I think a little perspective is necessary in order to understand the situation. First thing, "how do other carriers do it?" CO in EWR? DL in JFK?
I understand your point...but the part that provides a clear disconnect in that logic is that "hubs and happy employees are being managed in the Northeast."
The point I think is important is not only has the old US culture not been killed off, but DP and gang have actually succeeded at "enhancing" it, if you will, and making it worse.
When HP and DP's gang came along, I believe the overwhelming majority were happy and hopeful. Happy to have managers like Wolf, Gungwall and Siegel gone. These were execs that leveraged HEAVILY off the employees. Wolf got something like $10 Million and Gungwall $3 Million, JUST for proposing the UA/US merger...that failed. Now, I don't care who says what, if you are working hard and doing your best...for $40K....or $250K...that just smacks of stupidity....to get paid a LOT of money to fail in your attempt. Siegel got, I believe, $7 Million to get out of dodge.
Thats the perspective....the good people in the east are just sick of being leveraged on. And who can blame them?
Now, you get HP and DP in...and there is optimism....only to see them not only leverage even harder off them...but turn the airline into the laughing stock of modern aviation.
Your point isn't wrong...I don't think...but where you are assigning the blame, from my vantage point, is.
Flip it around....CO has an ENTIRELY different corporate culture. Entirely. Their pension plan is....get this...OVER-FUNDED! Their management isn't making headlines for getting HUGE bonuses while their employees are scrapping for a 3% raise....they actually went to their pilots group, something like 18 months early, to open negotiations to get everyone where they want to go.
Yes, the old culture needed/needs to be killed off...and the new miss-management team TOTALLY squandered an opportunity to do just that.
Right....see above....EVERYONE is now firmly in an "us against them." And, frankly, DP handled that ALL wrong...and came off looking silly. Forget all the venom spewed by many, myself included...he just isn't being honest...instead of making excuses, he would be better off saying, "the base simply does not fit into out plans, period." Instead, he tries to make all these lack of profit excuses...while others move in. What did I see in "About US" a couple weeks back that had me stunned....someone asked the exact question, "why can't we as an LCC make a profit yet others can?" And the answer was just the dumbest answer I've ever seen...."we've discontinued all the routes that don't compete with other LCCs." (Something to that affect.) I mean, that almost HAD to be a typo.
Could be.....and we all remember Eastern and Pan Am amongst others that disappeared with ticked off people. ESPECIALLY Eastern.
But consider this: Great leadership is able to set the tone. Look at what we have in DC now as the President. REGARDLESS of where one resides politcally, the great failing of this President and Administration is their inability to get people onto the same page. We all remember how people HATED Regan and his conservative philosophy....and Clinton and his polticial genius. But these guys managed, despite their enemies, to get people moving in a common direction.
This miss-management team has not, can not do it. They've shown ZERO ability to get people moving in one direction...and a great reason why is they are not concerned with their most valuable asset, their people, first and foremost. They are living their lives through George, Abe, Alexander, Ben, etc...and not looking at the impact it's having on the people and product.
As a customer...and a family member of US Airways....I find it sad.
I now HATE the product...and have more or less moved my flying to CO and UA. I hate the pricing of the product...and I see, first hand, daily, the silly things from the eyes of a family member and loved one. I see that person TRYING to do their job to the best of their ability...trying for example, to get a flight out on time, only to be ready to go and say to a poorly paid and trained newbie G/A, "we need weight and balances please" and the agent says, "oh, thats right" and then disappear....meaning the flight leaves 20 minutes late. That's just ridiculous.
So, you can blame east culture...and I understand what you are saying...but at some point, there must be leadership that understands it and can find a way to solve it, not just beat them and say, "TS."
And paying people low wages and beating them won't get it done....unfortunately, the cost of living in New York, Boston or Washington DC is just VERY different then the Pacific Northwest....or Southwest...or Midwest. Its one of the great miss-understandings of the Sand Castle People.
Self pride and pride in your company are TWO different things. The delusion of all all of us singing, "We Are The Champions" while management screws up left and right day in and day our are ludicrous.
