Quit Fighting Among Yourselves

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Member
Sep 2, 2002
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UA employees: quit fighting among yourselves! It is not one group''s fault, or another group''s fault or management''s fault. The way you do business and the way you are organized has simply been outflanked by more aggressive competitors.
Joseph Schumpeter, the economist, recognized that our capitalist economy grows by having new competitors vanquish old competitors by innovation. You must recognize that the airlines who are winning this game are populated by pilots and mechanics and management who are willing and able to do more work for less money. PERIOD.
Mechanics AND pilots at Southwest and Jetblue work much, much more for much, much less than do UA employees. NO WONDER YOURE UPSET!
But it''s the truth. And if UA fails, there will be many more THOUSANDS of employees who will suddenly be motivated to do much more, for much less.
Count on it.
It may not be fair...but it IS REAL.
 
A quote from Schumpeter who din't even consider airlines....[BR][BR]"But in capitalist reality as distinguished from its textbook picture, it is not that kind of competition which counts but the competition from the new commodity, the new technology, the new source of supply, [STRONG]the new type of organization[/STRONG] (the largest-scale unit of control for instance)–competition which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms [STRONG]but at their foundations and their very lives[/STRONG]. This kind of competition is as much more effective than the other as a bombardment is in comparison with forcing a door, and so much more important that it becomes a matter of comparative indifference whether competition in the ordinary sense functions more or less promptly; the powerful lever that in the long run expands output and brings down prices is in any case made of other stuff."[BR] [BR]Compete...or DIE!!!
 
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"Joseph Schumpeter, the economist, recognized that our capitalist economy grows by having new competitors "vanquish" old competitors by innovation. You must recognize that the airlines who are winning this game are populated by pilots and mechanics and management who are willing and able to do more work for less money. PERIOD.

Mechanics AND pilots at Southwest and Jetblue work much, much more for much, much less than do UA employees. NO WONDER YOU"RE UPSET!"


http://www.swaforamfa.com/swamechanicsforamfa/id5.html

10 Year AMT(A&P) Line Mechanic
UAL/IAM $34.91
SWA/Teamsters $34.98

If you go to the link above, you will see a table that represents the pay scales for all the US Major carriers.

Please notice that SWA Mechanics in fact make MORE per hour than UAL Mechanics. Again, it is not the wage rate that generates the higher ASM cost factors but the structure around which the Hub-n-Spoke carriers are built which leads to the total cost being non-competitive. The strucutre of an individual airline is not the result of Union decisions, it is the perogative of management.
 
That is right. "The workrules can be different".

So why doesn't the IAM favor changing workrules instead of insisting on paycuts and days without pay period?

It's about dues payers and dues money to give to liberals. That's why!
 
Thanks, Boomer. I stand corrected about mechanics' pay.[BR][BR]My original point is more directed towards the organization, a management responsibility, as you correctly noted.[BR][BR]Our hub and spoke organization clearly limits the productivity of aircraft, pilots, and line mechanics who receive and dispatch aircraft.[BR][BR]I'm not aware of contractual work rule differences between UA and WN, but they can be significant, as well.[BR][BR]My point is all "legacy" carriers MUST reinvent themselves to effectively compete with the newer, more productive airline model. That reinvention must be comprehensive and touch nearly every aspect of organization, marketing, work rules, fleet choices, etc.[BR][BR]But all of this change will absolutly demand that airline employees cooperate and stop trying to asassinate each other. That divisiveness will only guarantee total failure.[BR][BR]