This was sent to all PHL based pilots by their elected representatives. It perfectly sums up a clear, concise and reasoned response to the incompetence we have been putting up with for years. These men are leaders:
COUNCIL 41 UPDATE
MARCH 29, 2004
REALITIES AND EXPECTATIONS
With the belief that knowledge is power, we would like to review a few things about the state of the Company and the state of negotiations with the Philadelphia pilots. For a decade, long before the recession of 2002 or the 9/11 events, US Airways had been a downward trending business. Management teams have changed, but their methods have remained tediously the same: reduce costs.
The results have been dismally unsuccessful. The company is smaller, the stock worth less, the customer satisfaction rating flat. Innovation, market growth, and revenue growth have been non-existent. We cannot even list all the failed programs in these areas: Business Select and MetroJet are two.
Similarly, for a decade this MEC has tried to “save the corporation†by consistently taking the hit and giving management the concessions that they threaten, plead, or use Chapter 11 to obtain. One MEC after the next has tried to rally for the corporate good, throw away duty rigs, pay cuts, furloughs, sick policy, ACARS times, and retirement. What have been the results? More jobs, more pay, more benefits? Hardly! There are still members of this MEC that want to go down this same old rocky road.
Therefore the question is, “Should management and this MEC continue to head this company into extinction, or is now the time to break the pattern of failure and try something new?
Management is attempting to face us down with a third round of concessions. The first two rounds lead where? To Siegel’s webcast? Prominent economists are explaining that this past recession’s recovery has been jobless because standard management teams only know how to work the cost side of the equation and they have already squeezed out maximum productivity from labor. Are we not a textbook example of this phenomenon?
Incredibly, Siegel can even articulate what has to be done when he explains Southwest’s success: “(they) give the customer more, charge less, and have better ideas.†If he can articulate the path to success, why does he not implement it? In addition, does not the Chairman and the Board of Directors have some responsibility to push management or get a management team that can attack the revenue side of the equation and leave the dispirited, oppressive cost obsession alone?
The PHL representatives want to know that this pilot group, which is second to none in terms of skill and talent, will be lead by people who are innovators and industry visionaries.
How do we achieve this objective? By giving ever more to the same old paradigm? Or by standing up to this management team and demanding change in the corporate culture. It will not be easy.
In the next few days or weeks you will likely see the “heat†turned up. Our management may refuse to further negotiate the SJ scope issue, threaten themselves with not getting more SJ’s, park aircraft, furlough more, threaten to sell assets, and possibly even sell some assets. This is all part of negotiations. There is no move that the Company will make that can be caused by ALPA not capitulating. The only moves they will make are moves THEY PLANNED TO DO ANYWAY. They WILL attempt to blame any move on the pilot group, much like they blamed the shutdown and liquidation of Midway Airlines on the inability to negotiate a competitive agreement with their pilots. These Midway pilots earned only $38,000 per year flying as captain on the CRJ. Does anyone really believe that these “uncompetitive†salaries actually caused the demise of Midway Airlines? Or was it possibly another case of “let’s blame the pilots?â€
Similarly, does anyone think that immediate capitulation to these latest demands from the Company will forstall any possible fragmentation? Is it possible this Scope agreement may actually enable a quicker fragmentation?
Stay informed, read the newsletters, listen to the Code-A-Phone, and contact your representatives. Facts will see us through the difficult times ahead. Fear and emotion are tools to be used against us.
COUNCIL 41 UPDATE
MARCH 29, 2004
REALITIES AND EXPECTATIONS
With the belief that knowledge is power, we would like to review a few things about the state of the Company and the state of negotiations with the Philadelphia pilots. For a decade, long before the recession of 2002 or the 9/11 events, US Airways had been a downward trending business. Management teams have changed, but their methods have remained tediously the same: reduce costs.
The results have been dismally unsuccessful. The company is smaller, the stock worth less, the customer satisfaction rating flat. Innovation, market growth, and revenue growth have been non-existent. We cannot even list all the failed programs in these areas: Business Select and MetroJet are two.
Similarly, for a decade this MEC has tried to “save the corporation†by consistently taking the hit and giving management the concessions that they threaten, plead, or use Chapter 11 to obtain. One MEC after the next has tried to rally for the corporate good, throw away duty rigs, pay cuts, furloughs, sick policy, ACARS times, and retirement. What have been the results? More jobs, more pay, more benefits? Hardly! There are still members of this MEC that want to go down this same old rocky road.
Therefore the question is, “Should management and this MEC continue to head this company into extinction, or is now the time to break the pattern of failure and try something new?
Management is attempting to face us down with a third round of concessions. The first two rounds lead where? To Siegel’s webcast? Prominent economists are explaining that this past recession’s recovery has been jobless because standard management teams only know how to work the cost side of the equation and they have already squeezed out maximum productivity from labor. Are we not a textbook example of this phenomenon?
Incredibly, Siegel can even articulate what has to be done when he explains Southwest’s success: “(they) give the customer more, charge less, and have better ideas.†If he can articulate the path to success, why does he not implement it? In addition, does not the Chairman and the Board of Directors have some responsibility to push management or get a management team that can attack the revenue side of the equation and leave the dispirited, oppressive cost obsession alone?
The PHL representatives want to know that this pilot group, which is second to none in terms of skill and talent, will be lead by people who are innovators and industry visionaries.
How do we achieve this objective? By giving ever more to the same old paradigm? Or by standing up to this management team and demanding change in the corporate culture. It will not be easy.
In the next few days or weeks you will likely see the “heat†turned up. Our management may refuse to further negotiate the SJ scope issue, threaten themselves with not getting more SJ’s, park aircraft, furlough more, threaten to sell assets, and possibly even sell some assets. This is all part of negotiations. There is no move that the Company will make that can be caused by ALPA not capitulating. The only moves they will make are moves THEY PLANNED TO DO ANYWAY. They WILL attempt to blame any move on the pilot group, much like they blamed the shutdown and liquidation of Midway Airlines on the inability to negotiate a competitive agreement with their pilots. These Midway pilots earned only $38,000 per year flying as captain on the CRJ. Does anyone really believe that these “uncompetitive†salaries actually caused the demise of Midway Airlines? Or was it possibly another case of “let’s blame the pilots?â€
Similarly, does anyone think that immediate capitulation to these latest demands from the Company will forstall any possible fragmentation? Is it possible this Scope agreement may actually enable a quicker fragmentation?
Stay informed, read the newsletters, listen to the Code-A-Phone, and contact your representatives. Facts will see us through the difficult times ahead. Fear and emotion are tools to be used against us.
....the truth hurts sometimes.
