I have been reading this board for a couple of years now, but I can't stand to sit on the sidelines any longer.
The majority of posters on this board need a major reality check. 1. Dave is not the enemy. 2. The company is not in the business of making us insanely rich. The ones trying to put us out of business are the enemy. Dave obviously doesn't want to do that. He even made some of you vote twice to ensure it wouldn't happen. As for the second point, if you want to get rich from working, you have to go into business for yourself. You will never strike it rich working for someone else. Those with the money work very hard to make sure you can't empower yourself and overtake them. Now, I can hear all the naysayers already, I must be a CCY lurker, a hawk, etc. or we don't want to be insanely rich, just have liveable wages. I am none of those, I'm just a lowly "Profit Sharing" employee (don't get me started on the stock allocation plan, or lack there of for some of us). Nevertheless, a reality check is in order. For once, Chip is saying all the right things. (Chip, I just don't know how you forge ahead through all of this negativity.)
Costs have got to come down. Period. Or we will all be out of jobs. We are making progress in the revenue generation dept with the code share, caribbean, and intl flying. Marketing and Advertising still have a long way to go. And Chip said it right, this doesn't have to be wage cuts, but with productivity improvements. Better people utilization, better A/C utilizition, better hub utilization, and on and on... We all know where the waste is. If jobs are eliminated, it will be an unfortunate side effect, but a necessary evil. We can not continue down this path, we must adapt and change, or we will all be out of jobs. And for all of you that say, "well, i am not going to change, so the company better go ahead and liquidate..." then you should find a new job now. You are bringing down the rest of who want to see the company survive!!!
In my opinion the unions are their own worst enemies. Their protectionism forces the company to be on the defensive. Express carriers would not have to pay poverty wages if the mainline wasn't paying exorbitant salaries to the top tier members working half the hours. As far I as I can tell, this goes for all the union groups. There must be a balance, and unions that represent both express and mainline groups can never achieve this. As for MTC outsourcing, I am 100 % against it. From my vantage point, I know all about the shortcomings in BFMH. I still can't phathom why the company would even consider this option. The only thing I can come up with is the cost of in house mtc has become so inflated, the company would be foolish not to consider a third party. And this is frightening. The IAM needs to address this issue, and not hide behind the contract. Like I said, we can't continue at this pace or its lights out. There is way too much posturing and lack of trust. Understandablely, the union wants the best for its members, and the company wants the best for the bottom line, and that can make it very hard to see eye to eye.
As for the RJ flying, we can only hope we aren't too late. They probably won't be a major revenue generator, but hopefully we can use them as a turf protection program. They will bring CASM down and allow us to retain pax. The EMB 170/175 is our only hope in PHL vs Southwest. The EMB 170/190 will be a much different experience than the small RJs. The pax will think it is a A320. The leather seats will be wider than the mainline, due to 4 across vs 6 (same dia fuselage). The RJs are for long, thin routes that can't support a A320/B737. This was the plan all along. For anyone who believed the RJ for turboprop caca, please me a call, I got some ICE to sell you on the North Pole.
As for Chip's much anticipated ICT/UCT, well of course Siegel and Co can't say anything about what's in the works, its illegal. Who knows what will happen, I bet it changes everyday. That is not bad or does it reflect lack of vision or a lack of a plan. I think it is healthy. Imagination is the key here. There will be industry consolidation lets just hope we come out ahead...we must adapt and change, or we will all be history. And I for one, like having a paycheck, however small I perceive it to be.
h34r:
