Ebenezer Scrooge

T

Traveler

Guest
Mr Siegel has used a mind technique to help describe and identify iniquity by competitors in USAirways struggle for survival. Good examples of this are his description of Leo Mullen as Dr Evil and his most recent weekly message calling Southwest – the Enemy. But, these are merely business competitors. We wouldn’t vilify competitors in a NYC Marathon. We’d want to respect, understand and copy their winning techniques. If we are to become a superior competitor, we must learn and incorporate their winning strategies. Or... don’t compete with them at all.

Vilifying is more appropriately focused on those entities or people who violate laws, operate outside of the rules of truth and decency, practice the art of distrustful deceit and those who would take malicious advantage of another. It’s hard to vilify business competitors who are treating their employees (and customers) fairly by expressing appreciation for the quality, experience and value they bring to an Organization. Its hard to vilify Executive Leaders who manage their organizations effectively. It’s hard to vilify an organization which, when reaching it’s own stage of maturity in the business life cycle will preserve its commitment to employee health, wealth and post retirement security after dedicating a lifetime of loyal service.

All corporations reach a mature stage of the business life cycle. There are new challenges at this stage for sharp leadership to pump new life into the Organization thus continuing the success, prosperity and security of all those affiliated. Some companies might recognize as an asset -- the unseen, yet immeasurably valuable years of experience an employee brings to an Organization. Some might exploit this experience as a sales tool.

It’s almost unthinkable, in any reality, that an organization of a High Tech nature, might philosophically prefer high turnover where highly skilled employees would move on every 5-10 years, as they abandon their commitments and loyalties in favor of shallow, nomadic lifetime pursuits. Philosophically lamenting the years of experience which goes along with age and years of tenure in favor of more youthful transient entry level pay scales is a Corporate Philosophy which borders on discrimination. It’s hard to believe that Health costs, Sick leave, accrued benefits and retirement costs aren’t commonly associated in comparable age groups within this industry as well as other industries around the country. As an example, a comparably experienced Pilot of the same age operating the same equipment at SWA will retire with greater financial security from the years of dedicated loyal service to that Airline as those who will retire here. SWA customers don’t have to pay for this older experienced Pilot’s reward because it was the excellence in Executive leadership that has valued and rewarded this employee’s years of commitment and dedication.

Vilifying, is a more appropriate contrivance when used against – A political Tyrant; a Political System known as an “Evil Empireâ€; An Organization which knowingly profits at the expense of life and health; And Executives who, maliciously or irresponsibly, cause the ruination of those – who look to them for leadership.

Call it Vilifying, call it pointing fingers or call it what you will... We are being bathed in ignorance, contradiction and uncertainty. We have lost control of our destiny while we know, as individuals, that we are capable of much greater opportunity for ourselves, our families and our communities, through hard work, pride and dedication.

USAirways abandons Markets and Withdraws to its Core, arrogantly believing yields will increase as capacity declines – not supposing that this vacuum will be filled by our competition who, without resistance, ease into this abandoned market share without effort or battle.

The same holds true for the Internal operations of this Company. As the employees are left to wander in a void of Uncertainty, Fear and Doubt --- Rationalizations of misdeed and malicious intentions fill the space and the mind generates the substance of a Face and fixes a name to go with it. This Fear and Uncertainty must be addressed and repaired by Management or the Airline will self destruct while it hardly has the limited capacity and strength to battle it’s more motivated and goal oriented competitors.

Each week, you read of the employee disappointment in Mr Siegel’s Friday Message. The employees are looking for Inspiration. They’re searching for clear objectives and a purpose to their sacrifices. They’re waiting for – Facts. Facts which our Executives will only state the employees have little of, as we try to make sense of the unclear direction of our airline. In this void of knowledge and uncertainty, Is it appropriate to question our leadership?

Have we blindly followed leaders, in the past, to this kismet of collapse? When Mr Siegel first arrived here at USAirways, he, himself stated early on that – The people who got us here are not the ones who will get us out. Thus he should understand that we agree with his observation... We must watch the people, who we place our blind faith and trust in. Like you, we must understand and recognize those who are out of their depth in providing yet another new misdirection for our Airline.

See in us, your reflection – Mr Siegel. We are not a reflection of what you are thinking but a reflection of your deeds. We are not a reflection of your word of honor – but a reflection of your equivocations. We are not a reflection of mutually agreed upon contracts – but a reflection of hundreds of contract grievances. We are not a reflection of unknown, well intended Corporate Strategic Intentions – but we are reflections of unlawful Corporate Initiatives towards labor. See yourself through the eyes of others. If you employees don’t know the facts then speak to them in terms that don’t contradict the findings of industry leaders, observers and analysts. Ebenezer Scrooge wasn’t intrinsically, an evil character. He was, however completely incapable of seeing himself objectively. That is, until he saw those reflections of himself through the eyes of those who either hated him, cared for him or simply dismissed him as one of no consequence.

If you deny that your can see your reflection in your employees then you deny that the spirit of the employees’ success at Southwest is a reflection of their leadership. You deny that the energy and motivation of the employees of JetBlue are a reflection of their Chief Executive. Can you not deny that the temper and fever of discontent at Eastern was not a reflection of a, then, Chief Executive who will no longer be permitted to direct the course of any Airline now or in the future. If you don’t like what you see in your employees then you're unsatisfied with what you see in yourself.

This issue of credibility is the most important issue to the employees of this Company. It must be recognized and dealt with. The Employees have experienced years of Poor Management and have come to recognize certain patterns. Your Employees are here every day. They are involved in every aspect of the Airlines operation. There are no secrets as to how efficiently Management is using the tools your employees have given you. They interact with your customers and are the immediate gauge of our customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. They can see the “business as usual†waste and inefficiency of Management.

In one breath, Management says we must stop pointing fingers then proceeds to point fingers at the employees. Mr Siegel points his finger at the productivity of one group in particular – the Flight Crews. At no time does Management point a finger at themselves and commit themselves to meeting the highest performance expectations and sacrifice of any group at USAirways. If USAirways employees are a reflection of its Leadership, then we must agree that these employees are blameful, confused, insecure, mistrustful, uninformed and without a common goal. Not good qualities going forward.

Well what the hell do the employees want from me?!?! How do I fix this? I’m not Ebenezer the horrible! I’m a likable guy! I really, really am! I’m just... so.... misunderstood!

In a series of monthly articles, Unisys Management Consulting provides analysis of the Airline Industry. Much of their analysis and predictions are proving true with our current state of affairs as we have exited Bankruptcy almost Seven months ago. Most of the following analysis and observations were published when USAirways exited Bankruptcy.

They state:

“What’s Wrong with This Picture?
As you know by now, it is our view that the problem of the legacy carriers is neither cyclical nor terrorism-related. The problem is a business model broken beyond repair. Obviously, the legacy carriers do not agree. The solutions advanced by the legacy carriers—those in Chapter 11 and those seeking to avoid it—do not involve changing their fundamental conception of the business. Rather it is to continue to do what they have always done, but somewhat more efficiently. This is US Airways’ recovery plan, its own words.
In order to successfully respond to current industry conditions, [US Airways] initiated a restructuring plan that contains the following major elements:
1. achieve competitive mainline cost structure (emphasis supplied),
2. right-sizing the business by reducing mainline fleet count by 13% and by future deployment of 37 - 76 seat regional jets, and
3. execution of a domestic and international code-share alliance with United Airlines and Star Alliance partners.
Notice the absence of anything about changing its business model; it’s all business as usual, at somewhat lower costs. Specifically, and despite the fact that it “considers the growth of low-fare competition . . . to be [one of] its foremost competitive threatsâ€, US Airways is making no attempt to become competitive with new-generation airlines. The other foremost competitive threat is “the growing presence of competitors’ regional jets in certain of its markets.†It plans to counter this threat by deploying its own fleet of 400 regional jetsâ€

This broad observation by an outside Airline analysis and consulting firm represents the undercurrent of mistrust by employees at this Airline. Our Management is asking for more and more each time a Corporate Plan doesn’t succeed. The employees have already given Management the tools it said it needed but those tools lay idle and rusting. After their sacrifices, the employees indeed see the same pattern of “business as usual†with this uninspiring management.

After all the sacrifices these employees have made, most everyone wants the Company to exhaust every possible means of finely tuning this engine before one more concession is asked for. That’s Management’s Job. That’s the --- “GIVE†by Management “TO†the employees -- after the “TAKE†by our Management “FROM†the employees. Somehow, I think the problems of profitability, job security and growth opportunity will take care of themselves if we can give Management an incentive to keep this clear goal in mind. We’re still waiting for the Management genius on the operational and revenue side of the equation before we revisit the fixed employee cost side of the equation.

And don’t forget, the employees of this Airline are here every day. We can be found in all the departments. We know when an Aircraft sits idle at the hangar for days. We know when an Aircraft is scheduled for a three hour turn. We can see the lack of Marketing and Advertising. The Aircrews know when their trip parings reveal a one or two leg day including extensive turn times and long wasteful layovers.

With respect to Management maximizing use of existing resources, further analysis by Unisys reveals:

“When structural productivity is taken into account, it is clear that Southwest’s pilots produce substantially more ASMs than their rivals at other US Majors.

The bottom line is clear: with higher costs and lower productivity the pilots at the other Majors are handing a powerful advantage to the pilots of Southwest, themselves neither underpaid nor overworked from where we sit. This places a huge burden on the other employees of the legacy carriers to overcome a headwind that adds no value for which the public will pay a premium.â€

The fact is, that the trip parings which USAirways Management has built for these Aircrews -- work, on average, between 60% to 70% of the time that they could have both Legally and Contractually. This equates to accepting a 30% to 40% inefficiency by Management --when they have the exclusive control over building better, more productive trip parings within the constraints of employee contracts as well as the constraints of FAA crewrest requirements and Federal safety crew duty limitations. There is a high reliability of greater than 99%, that those Flight Crews who originate a trip will complete the trip. Therefore the inefficiency and waste of Hardware, Personnel and Crew resources is a function of Management. Crewmembers fly the pairings generated by Management as published. If given the option of flying a more productive 28 hour 4-day trip vs. a 20 hour 4day trip, the crewmembers would choose to maximize their productive work hours in the same given space and time they spend away from their home and families.

USAirways Management repeatedly measure and compares the unit cost of the employee without generating the opportunity for performance as the other LCC Airlines. The inefficiencies and differences of it’s Tired Corporate Model are night and day in comparison to the efficiencies of the Point to Point LCCs. If Management wishes to have the same Unit costs as the LCCs, then the Employees here would have to, in fact be paid less than their competitions in order to compensate for Management’s failure to deviate from the “business as usual†Corporate Model. The employees are too sophisticated to allow management to measure themselves by a different standard as compared to the Managements of the LCCs – While at the same time measuring the employees of USAirways by the same standard of the employees of those same LCCs.

The bottom line is that Management must prove that they have done all they can do with the sacrifices these employees have given before the modern day employee blindly gives more to feed another unremarkable, blazingly hungry, wasteful Management team.

In it’s article published in April, Unisys stated:
“On March 31, 2003, US Airways emerged from Chapter 11, a remarkable accomplishment given current industry conditions. Congratulations are in order. But now that the euphoria engendered by surviving a near-death experience is over, the question remains: Is US Airways—or any other legacy carrier—positioned to survive, much less prosper, in the years ahead? No need to keep you in suspense; unless US Airways can get its unit costs close to the levels of the new-generation airlines, we very much doubt it.â€

Unit costs is the issue. An employee’s wage is half the battle of lowering unit costs. The other half is Management’s responsibility to employ those labor resources efficiently. The employees have honored their part of the equation. Now we wait for Management to show their brilliance in leadership and design of a more efficient organization.

What is this Company selling? We’re selling seats on those Aircraft on the line, in the hangars, and in the desert. We must move those seats as many seat-miles as possible and do our best to make sure that there is a Butt in every one of them. Every extra mile we gain reduces our unit costs. This is the major standard by which Airlines are measured. If Management cannot generate growth by generating increased available seat miles then our Unit Costs will remain high in accordance with “business as usualâ€.

Lowering Unit Costs through increased available seat miles resulting in a virtual growth of this Airline is an objective every employee can be inspired by. It’s a material goal which each employee can securely grip in his hands. It’s a measurable goal by which the employees can take pride. And the pride of an experienced work force can make it work. We have the talent and experience to maximize this objective. What we are lacking is inspirational dynamic leadership. Each one of our jobs depends on our fellow employee pulling as hard as the next one. This concept does not exclude Management from their obligation to do their part.


We want to inspire customer loyalty. We want to have another McLean Stevenson branding the good American feel of being with someone your comfortable with and can rely on – a product that is uncomplicated, friendly, convenient and efficient. We want motivated employees having fun at work. Employees who fly with smiles on their jets as well as smiles on their faces. So what do your employees want to hear from you on any given Friday’s weekly message? Inspiration, Leadership and a concrete Plan which employees can grip in their hands and measure the reward of success for their already extreme sacrifices. You would be pleased with the reflection of yourself which you see in your employees.

Customers not only want the best price, they also want the best value as well. Southwest doesn’t always have the best price but they do tell their customers that they are getting the best in simplicity and the best in value – anywhere in the Country. The best Marketing strategy is effectively TELLING the Customer what he will like relieving him of the difficult and confusing decisions he must make for himself. TELL THEM WHAT THEY LIKE, and they will believe you and the “word-of-mouth†drum beat of your sound bitten advertising strategy.

Customers Herding onto an aircraft like cattle, Hopping around the country on short flights in Cramped compartments with no guarantee you’ll sit next to your friend, relative or business partner – Sucks. An airline such as this is not marketable and shouldn’t succeed you say. When you describe what really exists there’s no doubt that our service at USAirways, at the same price for the same Class of Seat – is superior. Our service is not just better in price but in value as well. But if we don’t TELL them they’re getting a better value... If we don’t remove the complicated decision process from customers then they’ll let someone else make the decision for them. They’ll go where they are told they are LUVed.

If RJ’s are a focus of management, don’t deploy them in markets matched against the full size aircraft of our competitors. The CPSM is too high for a Regional jet in a market which will support two to three times this number of passengers carried. If our competition is carrying 140 passengers on a full flight which we service with a 50 seat Regional jet, then our strategy has failed and our Corporate model is flawed.

Siegel mentions that we must give the customer a product he wants. An RJ may not be a bad choice in customer preference in contrast to flying on a competitors Prop or a similar RJ parked out in the rain on a remote ramp. But it is not a good choice in customer preference if he can board in a cool, climate controlled docking feature with the satisfaction of knowing that all his bags will arrive at the same destination and at the same time. If Mr Siegel is not familiar with the perceptions Customers have toward Aircraft size then his corporate model will be a costly failure. Customers are aware of these things and it will affect brand loyalty and repeat business.

Has any one of you, working in this industry experienced interactions such as these with customers, friends or relatives: Regardless of you job at this Airline, have you ever been asked about the size of the aircraft which you service, you work on, or you fly? Have you ever stood at the gate and overheard a passenger make a comment about the size of the Aircraft? Do our customers, when faced with a choice, equate size with value? Do customers perceive, when there is a choice, that size equates to better service? Do customers perceive, when there is a choice, that size equates to more spaciousness? Depending on the scale of the Market we serve and the size of Aircraft of our competition; Our customers, if given a choice, will have a perceptional prejudice for our competitors larger Aircraft. It’s a truth we as employees understand to be a fact.

With respect to RJ’s, the Unisys Corporation states:

“The Strategy
US Airways’ regional jet strategy rests on three premises, each of which we believe to be faulty. They are that:
1. There are un-met customer needs that their new services will satisfy.

If only US Airways were following this strategy it would be harmless enough; in fact, it might make sense. But all the other legacy carriers are adopting the same strategy to one degree or another. With everyone else doing the same thing, this strategy of stealing each other’s traffic will not work for the legacy carrier industry, nor will it work for US Airways.

2. They can serve these customers at premium fares.

US Airways is living in a fantasy world. Its strategy will work for only as long as there is no newgeneration airline at Philadelphia offering low-fare service to the West.

3. The lower aircraft-mile costs of the regional jets (as compared, say, to A319s) will make them profitable.

We trust that you are smarter than that. Your family automobile—even a gas-guzzling SUV—has a lower vehicle-mile direct operating cost than a Greyhound bus. But you don’t see people operating taxis between Omaha and Kansas City. They operate buses because in the bus the seat-mile cost is far lower than in the taxi and passengers buy seat miles, not vehicle miles. When you compare the regional jet with Southwest on a seat-mile basis, its costs are 54% higher;
So, just at the moment when it’s too late, US Airways has placed what might be the largest bet ever on regional jets. Let’s hope no new-generation airlines decide to take them on at their hubs.â€

Bottom line: If there is enough traffic to support the available seat miles, USAirways will have to lift three times the hulls; With three sets of engines; And three teams of ground support; With three sets of crews operating the aircraft; While occupying three times the airspace in a congested Northeast Air Traffic Control system – But only carrying the same number of Passengers as that single Southwest or JetBlue Aircraft.

Unisys states:

“...to support service with 100 plus-seat traditional jets, the regional jet is not competitive. A big part of the relative inefficiency of the regional jets is the result of fuel
consumption.†“...they simply generate a lot fewer seat miles than do the larger jets. The regional jets generate from 30 to 50 ASMs per US gallon of fuel. In contrast, Airtran’s B 717s generate about 58 ASMs/gallon at a comparable stage length while Southwest and jetBlue achieve about 70 ASMs/gallon.â€

Unisys recognizes that using RJs, competing in the same market with a Southwest or JetBlue style LCC; our customers will choose the full size jet of the LCCs. And if the market will support 140 seat aircraft then the efficiencies of the RJ are lost through increased unit costs.

So what do the employees want from Management in return for their sacrifices. The employees want Management to clearly define their Corporate Model. Are we a full service, Network carrier or are we a LC Airline. If we are a Legacy, full service Network Airline then we need to grow the mainline to support this business model. If we are to redefine ourselves as a Low Cost Airline then let’s abandon the inefficiencies of the Hub-and-Spoke Network and begin an aggressive attack on a nationwide point-to-point, Low Cost Model.

The employees witness every day, Management’s fuzzy description of USAirways Product Branding. Employees come to work every day with no measure of their productivity in terms of useful, well defined Corporate goals. The employees continue to see business as usual in the waste and unproductively of minimally generated available seat mile using available resources . The employees see everyday customer market share lost to our Competitors.

So don’t anticipate that the employees, will concede more until Management defines the kind of Airline they want to be; Set’s measurable goals for the employees; Adopt the appropriate Model for this kind of business; Maximizes the efficiencies using the concessions they have already received; and honors the already existing, agreed to, contracts with it’s employees.
 
delldude said:
kind of makes one recollect the days gone by when the UAL thing went down in flames and 'ol stevie and rakeesh let the company run itself into the ground don't it? :D
Only a more dire situation than that of UA's.


Travler..that was one hell of a post !!! You were spot on !!
 
Traveler,

Welcome to these boards. We have waited a very long time for you.


You state:
Its hard to vilify Executive Leaders who manage their organizations effectively. It’s hard to vilify an organization which, when reaching it’s own stage of maturity in the business life cycle will preserve its commitment to employee health, wealth and post retirement security after dedicating a lifetime of loyal service.

PITbull comments : I have expressed in somewhat different terms and not quite as eloquentely, how important it is to any business to have an employee who stays with a company over longevity and dedicates themselves to that business. And in return for that committement of years and years of service, to one exclusive company that the employee will recieve the employers commitment of health, wealth, and retirment commitment; that set post retirement security, at a set age, as an exchange for that loyalty of years. I have said this over and over again on these boards for those who challenged the defined pension benefit VS 401K, or who stated adamently, "you're an "at will" employee, like it or lump it and move on." This management has no concept to your logic and rationale above. They would dismiss you and call it and you a "socialistic" thinker.

Traveler comments: So don’t anticipate that the employees, will concede more until Management defines the kind of Airline they want to be; Set’s measurable goals for the employees; Adopt the appropriate Model for this kind of business; Maximizes the efficiencies using the concessions they have already received; and honors the already existing, agreed to, contracts with it’s employees.

PITbull comments: The employees will NOT concede to more concessions in any capapcity. This management has not defined what we are or what part of this plan the employees are part of or share. What has been defined very clearly is that there is some higher mission, or order, and that we as employees are nothing more than "collateral damage".


Thank you for your insightfulness on every paragragh you've writen to get your points across. They are well received.

I don't suspect you are an employee, but rather, someone who either understands profoundly the industry or perhaps a CEO. I have seen your handle name on the boards for a very, very long time , and you never posted until recently.

Again welcome.
 
Well written and researched. Hardly a stone left unturned. If Siegel were to quit next week it would probably still be too late. We will NEVER be able to repay the Govt backed loan with our stupid business model.

Clueless, reckless, arrogant leaders these men are. Not 1 of them could work anywhere else in the industry. We just saved Avis from exstinction (wasn't that Super Dave's last stop?)What we now have is a Board of Directors that is asleep at the switch, just exactly like the previous Board that ruber stamped every thing that Rakesh and Steve could dream up, including MetroJet that cannibalized the mainline revenue.

Who else could hatch a plan of what US should have done 10 years ago (with RJ's) and sell anyone on how it could work today.

I only wish that I could watch this slowmotion trainwreck without actually being on the train!
 
Fatherknowsbest said:
Well written and researched. Hardly a stone left unturned. If Siegel were to quit next week it would probably still be too late. We will NEVER be able to repay the Govt backed loan with our stupid business model.

Clueless, reckless, arrogant leaders these men are. Not 1 of them could work anywhere else in the industry. We just saved Avis from exstinction (wasn't that Super Dave's last stop?)What we now have is a Board of Directors that is asleep at the switch, just exactly like the previous Board that ruber stamped every thing that Rakesh and Steve could dream up, including MetroJet that cannibalized the mainline revenue.

Who else could hatch a plan of what US should have done 10 years ago (with RJ's) and sell anyone on how it could work today.

I only wish that I could watch this slowmotion trainwreck without actually being on the train!
but do we actually think dave would "punch out" at this stage???
seems to me and some others he is 'doc bronner's'-"fair haired boy"......
no way can anyone dissuade me that st aero [in ala] was a coincidence..i've been told by other people who have a much more insightful view as to how the BOD operates and they have told me "uncle dave " is the one running the company....my comment:yeah-dude owns some 37% and dave does as he wishes?NOT... i seriously think "doc" dicktates as he wishes [ no pun intended]...dave most likely confers on a daily basis with the old 'which doctor'....
bronner has an almost ruthless method of investing and maintaining his monies to the good people of RSA systems....he is mandated to....but alas...we become pawns in his game of life......and his way of investing and getting solid returns...
proof in the pudding is their attempt to abrogate IAM'S CBA and everyone else's on the property.....so let us all collectively keep our solidarity together for a change,because we must work together to address these professionally trained anti-union busting goons!
LONG LIVE THE LAVMAN
 
Thank you for your insightfulness on every paragragh you've writen to get your points across. They are well received

Thanks for the kind words.

Watching USAirways Executives operate this Airline is like watching befuddled Surgeons conduct spinal surgery on a patient without the administer of anesthesia.