----------------
On 4/16/2003 2:54:16 PM kcabpilot wrote:
The company, under the steerage of Goodwin, made a huge blunder at the end of the ESOP. They chose not to concentrate on making the timely "seamless" contract renewals that had been promised and instead focused, with complete tunnel-vision, on a very expensive aquisition of US Air. They evidently assumed that they could get away with the usual 2 year delay tactics normally used under the RLA at contract renewal time. They were so utterly unaware of the mindset of the employees who had just finished making six years of "sacrifices". It wasn't just the pilots, they did the same with the IAM and that even went as far as a restraining order. They simply had no intention of settling those contracts. Expecting the absolute most from your workers under a restraining order is a clear demonstration of how clueless and detached from reality this management team was.
Now, that may all be "water under the bridge" as they say. Tilton once said that we were caryying this heavy suitcase full of old baggage and we needed to let it go. Well, I might be willing but he's still putting stuff in that suitcase.
We are now facing another six year "program". The more things change, the more they look just the same.
----------------
I was about to say that in the pilots defense. Check out this article:
In May, James E. Goodwin, the new chairman and CEO of UAL Corp. (UAL), stunned the industry by agreeing to buy US Airways Group Inc. (U) for $11.6 billion. Since then, however, UAL has been the one in shock.
The proposed deal brought wage discontent among UAL pilots to a head. They staged a summer work slowdown that disrupted schedules, cost UAL's United Airlines tens of millions of dollars, and infuriated passengers. The pilots ended up with big pay raises. But their slowdown has emboldened other unions--both at UAL and other carriers--to threaten similar job actions. And to top it all off, Goodwin, 56, still hasn't gotten the antitrust O.K. needed to clinch the US Airways deal. As a result, UAL shares fell by more than 50% in 2000. That's some record for your first full year as CEO.
As much as it hurts our company, our stocks going down, it's ironic because we would've loved to have our own Dubinsky. That's where a lot of people(mechs)thinks AMFA comes in.