Letter To Tilton

[dc3fanatic]

Sure, makes sense to me. Lets give this stock to the folks most responisible for UAL's massive cut in cost, and improvements in operational performance..... The employees who accepted massive paycuts and still pull rabbits out of a hat every day to keep UAL one of the best in the business.

So, labor is responsible for all the good things that happen and management for all the bad. Got it! Thanks for the insight.

 

[maddogdriver]

It was said before - love him or hate him, United is still in business and puts food on the table for some 60,000 employees. One thing everyone has to remember - Tilton accepted the job knowing the ship was sinking. He had very limited options: sell assets, reorganize, or allow an outside investor group to takeover. Ask your close TWA / PanAm / Eastern friends what they think about selling assets or groups with guys like Carl Ichan. The reality is, United is in tact and about to emerge a strong, growing airline.

In the past five years, this company has survived the end of ESOP, labor issues, economic stagnation terrorism, SARS, skyrocketing fuel, etc. The perfect storm happened and the fact the United name survives is amazing.

I don't blame Tilton for the current problems. I blame those who preceeded him. Goodwin and Greenwald failed to make LONG TERM economic decisions for the corporation. They failed the employees, not Tilton. I'm not saying he's perfect, but he didn't put us in bancruptcy. He's getting us out. Unfortunately, NO MATTER WHO took the job as CEO of United would have to piss off thousands of people. It was and is unavoidable.

 

[Busdrvr]

So, labor is responsible for all the good things that happen and management for all the bad. Got it! Thanks for the insight.

So where was it that I stated that Labor was responsible for all good things and management for all the bad? I suggest pulling your head out of your arse and re-reading my post. Do the math, where did most of the cost cuts come from? Should Tilton get all the benefit for being able to talk us unto it while negotiating with a gun to our head? Sure, he deserves to be compensated VERY WELL for his efforts, but wasn't that one of the reasons he kept his pension? He's lived VERY well since comming to UAL, often at the level of tackiness while handing out pink slips. To know argue that he and a few other should share 15% of what will be a company with a value of over $10 Billion by virtue of extracting paycuts and ownership from employee groups who owned 50%, is offensive.

 

[SmoothRide]

To know argue that he and a few other should share 15% of what will be a company with a value of over $10 Billion by virtue of extracting paycuts and ownership from employee groups who owned 50%, is offensive.

Offensive? It's a lot more than that. It is insulting!

I likewise don't really blame Tilton. He's not a true leader in the classic sense. In my opinion he is more of a "hired gun, a hatchet man, a front man"...somebody like that. And he has been very effective when many Wall Street pundits didn't think he could pull it off. He should be given a lot of credit. But nobody on this forum should believe for one second that he's here out of the goodness of his heart or that he thought United worth saving or that he did it because he wanted one more challenge before he retired to the golf course and chuckle about his experiences over cocktails with like-minded execs.

How many people are really, really inspired by his weekly newsline pep talks to the employees...or when he congratulates "thee" employees (when he could be saying MY employees, btw!) for their willingness to 'negotiate' (with a BK judge's loaded gun to their collective heads)? In my opinion, if he really wanted to inspire and rally his employees, he would not only discipline and fire non-producing executive deadenders (he's got a long way to go!) but ensure that the pain shared by the executive suite remains until the job is done - not just a pay cut followed by an even potentially MORE lucrative pay package! Rank and file don't have much to look forward to and are just left to feel (again) that the often blundering exec is far more valuable than the slob that works paycheck to paycheck. Great way to inspire, Mr Tilton...and showing us how much you really, really care!

 

[novaqt]

Maddogdriver you are absolutely correct. United is still doing the same old, same old by putting "Yes" people in management positions who do not possess leadership abilities. Don't get me wrong, there are a few gutsy good leaders in management, but for the most part, the rest are a bunch of followers afraid to be leaders and afraid of who they report to. If the VP's don't take a good hard look at every management employee to see if they possess leadership qualities and capabilities, once we emerge from bankruptcy, we will be on the path to repeating old habits. I have felt pretty good with the leadership of the company while the banks and lawyers have been running the Company. Tilton needs to looks at every management employee from top to bottom to see if they have the qualities needed to lead this company well into the future.

 

[dc3fanatic]

Recently all my questions were answered. You see, I came upon
the book The Sociopath Next Door, by Dr. Martha Stout, and
everything snapped into sharp focus. A sociopath is someone who
has no conscience, who is incapable of feeling empathy or sorrow.
It's not a truly evil trait, it's simply a genetic disorder, like being
color-blind. An alarming number of people (1 in 25) are
sociopaths. You are one of them. You, sir, are a sociopath. The
reason you can do unconscionable things is you have no conscience.
And when I realized that, I stopped being angry at you.

He did what he needed to do. If you remember, he tried to save the pensions, but the ATSB and capital markets denied pensions as part of the exit plans.

So, under what criteria would he have not been labelled a sociopath in your eyes?

Did he need to break down, cry in your arms and beg for your forgiveness in doing what he needed to do to save the company? How many pilots does he have to do that for (to not meet your criteria of a sociapath)? All the pilots? What about the other employees?

Finally, (it seems) to meet your criteria of a sociapath, he had to take pleasure in canceling the pensions. Do you really think he sat down with a close friend, toasted and said "Ha! I screwed them and it felt good!" You have no data that such an event has occured.

Your diagnosis of GT as a sociapath has many holes. You can't base a diagnosis on one public meeting.