This is an open letter sent to UAL management by a senior, dedicated employee.
Substitute symbol UAIR where applicable.
Date: February 23, 2004
From: NAME DELETED, UAL Employee
Mr. Glenn Tilton,
Chief Executive Officer United Airlines
World Headquarters
P. O. Box 66100
Chicago, IL 60666
Dear Mr. Tilton:
There come moments when the individual must stand up and speak out on critical issues, and today at United Airlines is one of those times. My perspective on the airline industry, and United in particular, spans forty years. You are a newcomer to the company; I on the other hand started work for UAL in April 19**, have been honored as Flight Attendant of the Year, and have a lengthy history of service to the company in which personal excellence was my chosen sole alternative. So you and the other executives should bear close attention to what I have to say.
A big, and potentially fatal, change in corporate culture has swept across America during the past four decades, and United Airlines has been a part of this. What is different now? The "family" business environment that I happily entered into all those years ago, where everyone helped each other and executive doors were open to the rank and file, is gone. Now employees are treated like peons of little value, completely fungible, and with no right to full disclosure or even common decency from management. While executives are awarded immense salaries and golden parachutes, the lowly workers are viewed as an enemy to be held at bay, lied to as needed, and at retirement tossed over the side like garbage. The intolerable pattern does not end there. Terms of security provided in retirement income and medical benefits are not safe and can be truncated without warning. As a result, at UAL there is a wide spread culture of fear and apprehension completely unrelated to the present bankruptcy negotiations. Supposedly, by July of this year bankruptcy will no longer be an issue. The fear will continue.
I place the blame for this on you and those like you. I have witnessed unimaginable increases in your incomes and benefits while you fight to keep our worker wages as low as possible, even as they are gnawed away by inflation. The model now is a Time magazine photograph of a recent UAL chief executive announcing his status as the highest paid CEO in the world, which same executive was at that moment traveling the country asking flight attendants to accept a voluntary 10% pay cut. He was earning more money than all the flight attendants together, and some B-scale attendants were already below the federally-defined poverty level, yet his obscene income was sacrosanct while theirs should be adjusted downward "for the good of the company."
The main causes of United's problems right now are managerial arrogance, poor understanding of the realities of day-to-day flying, and quite frequently arrant stupidity right at the top. The carpetbagger executives intending to bump-and-go with suitcases full of money have no reason to care whether their policies are contradictory or shortsighted, and they don't. After all, none of them have given their lives to the company. They are here for just a few years, and their motivation is to sweep through the accounts and bail out. Anything that doesn't glaringly undermine is fine. Stay right on the edge of legal parameters, but just the edge. Then hop off the bubble before it breaks. Tens of thousands are injured, you say? Well, we all must make decisions in a free market economy. No one had to work for an airline, particularly United. If you have a problem with that idea, tough. And turn off the lights on the way out.
But how could this sort of thing come to pass? What has happened to higher management? The answer is simple: Hotshots with MBAs from name-brand schools, who scored big on theory courses, cannot balance out in any industry without listening to people who have been on site for decades and know how this business, this one, actually works. Unlike during my early years of flying for United, the period building up to bankruptcy was attended with an unending series of micro-managerial screw-ups that could have been avoided. This could have been done just by asking a few questions and looking at our history - instead of buying consultation contracts that were as expensive as they were cock-eyed. Repaint the planes, swap out the china, alter the uniforms, change the tray configurations, hand them scarves that must be dry cleaned, lengthen the trips, cut down rest periods between flights, and on and on. But don't even think about trimming the number of marginal junior executives, and for Heaven's sake don't consider knocking back top management incomes during hard times!
And how about this? Let's see: United is struggling through bankruptcy problems right now, and times are rough. How can we make some quick cash? I know, gang; let's put together a show in the garage, the neighbors will all come to see it, and we'll be in great shape! No, no! I have a better idea: let's try another short-haul paste-on airline! It didn't work the last time, but on the principle that spoiled milk will taste sweet the second time you sip it, let's give it another try! Where's my banjo?
There's something else wrong with the big shots at United. In addition to the arrogance-inexperience-stupidity triad, we turn to your flat-out dishonesty and unethical treatment of workers. In a business where success is measured even on the short-call by interaction of workers with the public, you have maintained a consistent policy of their mistreatment, all the while saying that you are doing the very best you can. You think that holding down wages and creating a hostile work environment won't be noticed by the dumb-bunnies you've hired, or that they won't pass it on to the customers? Perhaps you imagine that handing us "attaboy" pins once in a while will cloak United with a veil of invisibility if you consult the right witch doctor. Sorry, that hasn't happened. I have a box of attaboys and 20-20 vision to prove it.
The most egregiously unethical thing high management has done is to bait-and-switch United's retirement policies. That's right, we have noticed what you are doing. No doubt guided by the Bush Administration's "see it then, see it now" approach to politics, the UAL promises I actually believed have been shaken in front of me, then pulled away in the most outrageous bit of managerial presto-gizmo I ever heard of. I dream of broken promises . .
Fly free for the rest of your life? Well, you misunderstood. You actually will have to pay something, and since booking has gotten a lot better you may stand around in Kalamazoo waiting for your cattle car seat out, but it's better than nothing, isn't it? You say you now have to pay more than the cost of the trip itself and might as well fly another airline? We'll have to look into that one. Expect a call when the whole situation is examined.
Solid, low-cost medical treatment and medicines, you say? Ummm . . that's one of those cases where we meant it at the time, but times change and we have to change with them. Actually, we never formally made such a commitment. We're making a profit now, but that doesn't alter the fact that the cost of health insurance is shooting upward, so all of us have to hang in there together.
You say that a ten-fold or greater increase in medical costs hits a retired ticket agent a lot more than a retired vice-prez? Again, that's capitalism one more time. You should have made better decisions along the way.
What's that about being told retirement medical costs would never go up if you retired before you planned to, and then six months after you took the notion and retired you got a letter explaining that business conditions have forced modifications? That wasn't duplicity! We have to be business-like. Think about this in a reasonable way. Now that you can't afford your taxes and the raised costs of doctors and medicine, get out there and show what Americans are like. Get a great job (if you can find one at your age) and that will keep you going! Oh, you're supposed to be taking a break after forty years on the line? Look at it this way: working until you die is normal in most countries.
Mr. Tilton, if you examine my personnel file you will see a number of letters there that I wrote over the years describing conditions, answering questions, applauding good work, and offering suggestions for improvements. The paper those letters were written on is still crisp as the day I mailed them, since few up there pay any attention to the serfs doing the actual work for United Air Lines. In the case of this letter right here, whoever the secretary is who opens and reads your unsolicited mail had better sit up, pay attention, and pass it on to you, because this one goes out to the media and onto the Internet the day it arrives in your office. You have plenty to answer for, and now the genie is out of the bottle.
Have a nice day.
Yours truly,
NAME DELETED
Substitute symbol UAIR where applicable.
Date: February 23, 2004
From: NAME DELETED, UAL Employee
Mr. Glenn Tilton,
Chief Executive Officer United Airlines
World Headquarters
P. O. Box 66100
Chicago, IL 60666
Dear Mr. Tilton:
There come moments when the individual must stand up and speak out on critical issues, and today at United Airlines is one of those times. My perspective on the airline industry, and United in particular, spans forty years. You are a newcomer to the company; I on the other hand started work for UAL in April 19**, have been honored as Flight Attendant of the Year, and have a lengthy history of service to the company in which personal excellence was my chosen sole alternative. So you and the other executives should bear close attention to what I have to say.
A big, and potentially fatal, change in corporate culture has swept across America during the past four decades, and United Airlines has been a part of this. What is different now? The "family" business environment that I happily entered into all those years ago, where everyone helped each other and executive doors were open to the rank and file, is gone. Now employees are treated like peons of little value, completely fungible, and with no right to full disclosure or even common decency from management. While executives are awarded immense salaries and golden parachutes, the lowly workers are viewed as an enemy to be held at bay, lied to as needed, and at retirement tossed over the side like garbage. The intolerable pattern does not end there. Terms of security provided in retirement income and medical benefits are not safe and can be truncated without warning. As a result, at UAL there is a wide spread culture of fear and apprehension completely unrelated to the present bankruptcy negotiations. Supposedly, by July of this year bankruptcy will no longer be an issue. The fear will continue.
I place the blame for this on you and those like you. I have witnessed unimaginable increases in your incomes and benefits while you fight to keep our worker wages as low as possible, even as they are gnawed away by inflation. The model now is a Time magazine photograph of a recent UAL chief executive announcing his status as the highest paid CEO in the world, which same executive was at that moment traveling the country asking flight attendants to accept a voluntary 10% pay cut. He was earning more money than all the flight attendants together, and some B-scale attendants were already below the federally-defined poverty level, yet his obscene income was sacrosanct while theirs should be adjusted downward "for the good of the company."
The main causes of United's problems right now are managerial arrogance, poor understanding of the realities of day-to-day flying, and quite frequently arrant stupidity right at the top. The carpetbagger executives intending to bump-and-go with suitcases full of money have no reason to care whether their policies are contradictory or shortsighted, and they don't. After all, none of them have given their lives to the company. They are here for just a few years, and their motivation is to sweep through the accounts and bail out. Anything that doesn't glaringly undermine is fine. Stay right on the edge of legal parameters, but just the edge. Then hop off the bubble before it breaks. Tens of thousands are injured, you say? Well, we all must make decisions in a free market economy. No one had to work for an airline, particularly United. If you have a problem with that idea, tough. And turn off the lights on the way out.
But how could this sort of thing come to pass? What has happened to higher management? The answer is simple: Hotshots with MBAs from name-brand schools, who scored big on theory courses, cannot balance out in any industry without listening to people who have been on site for decades and know how this business, this one, actually works. Unlike during my early years of flying for United, the period building up to bankruptcy was attended with an unending series of micro-managerial screw-ups that could have been avoided. This could have been done just by asking a few questions and looking at our history - instead of buying consultation contracts that were as expensive as they were cock-eyed. Repaint the planes, swap out the china, alter the uniforms, change the tray configurations, hand them scarves that must be dry cleaned, lengthen the trips, cut down rest periods between flights, and on and on. But don't even think about trimming the number of marginal junior executives, and for Heaven's sake don't consider knocking back top management incomes during hard times!
And how about this? Let's see: United is struggling through bankruptcy problems right now, and times are rough. How can we make some quick cash? I know, gang; let's put together a show in the garage, the neighbors will all come to see it, and we'll be in great shape! No, no! I have a better idea: let's try another short-haul paste-on airline! It didn't work the last time, but on the principle that spoiled milk will taste sweet the second time you sip it, let's give it another try! Where's my banjo?
There's something else wrong with the big shots at United. In addition to the arrogance-inexperience-stupidity triad, we turn to your flat-out dishonesty and unethical treatment of workers. In a business where success is measured even on the short-call by interaction of workers with the public, you have maintained a consistent policy of their mistreatment, all the while saying that you are doing the very best you can. You think that holding down wages and creating a hostile work environment won't be noticed by the dumb-bunnies you've hired, or that they won't pass it on to the customers? Perhaps you imagine that handing us "attaboy" pins once in a while will cloak United with a veil of invisibility if you consult the right witch doctor. Sorry, that hasn't happened. I have a box of attaboys and 20-20 vision to prove it.
The most egregiously unethical thing high management has done is to bait-and-switch United's retirement policies. That's right, we have noticed what you are doing. No doubt guided by the Bush Administration's "see it then, see it now" approach to politics, the UAL promises I actually believed have been shaken in front of me, then pulled away in the most outrageous bit of managerial presto-gizmo I ever heard of. I dream of broken promises . .
Fly free for the rest of your life? Well, you misunderstood. You actually will have to pay something, and since booking has gotten a lot better you may stand around in Kalamazoo waiting for your cattle car seat out, but it's better than nothing, isn't it? You say you now have to pay more than the cost of the trip itself and might as well fly another airline? We'll have to look into that one. Expect a call when the whole situation is examined.
Solid, low-cost medical treatment and medicines, you say? Ummm . . that's one of those cases where we meant it at the time, but times change and we have to change with them. Actually, we never formally made such a commitment. We're making a profit now, but that doesn't alter the fact that the cost of health insurance is shooting upward, so all of us have to hang in there together.
You say that a ten-fold or greater increase in medical costs hits a retired ticket agent a lot more than a retired vice-prez? Again, that's capitalism one more time. You should have made better decisions along the way.
What's that about being told retirement medical costs would never go up if you retired before you planned to, and then six months after you took the notion and retired you got a letter explaining that business conditions have forced modifications? That wasn't duplicity! We have to be business-like. Think about this in a reasonable way. Now that you can't afford your taxes and the raised costs of doctors and medicine, get out there and show what Americans are like. Get a great job (if you can find one at your age) and that will keep you going! Oh, you're supposed to be taking a break after forty years on the line? Look at it this way: working until you die is normal in most countries.
Mr. Tilton, if you examine my personnel file you will see a number of letters there that I wrote over the years describing conditions, answering questions, applauding good work, and offering suggestions for improvements. The paper those letters were written on is still crisp as the day I mailed them, since few up there pay any attention to the serfs doing the actual work for United Air Lines. In the case of this letter right here, whoever the secretary is who opens and reads your unsolicited mail had better sit up, pay attention, and pass it on to you, because this one goes out to the media and onto the Internet the day it arrives in your office. You have plenty to answer for, and now the genie is out of the bottle.
Have a nice day.
Yours truly,
NAME DELETED
