So DP why are the transition agreements taking so long?

[Henderfuzz]

Well here we are approaching Sept. and still no aggrements for pilots , f/a or fleet. From what I see I dont expect we will see much on these agreements. Why not we are making money just fine without them. All of us on the frontline are getting our butts kicked short handed and all but thats fine, Dave has his 9 mill. So I suspect that as long as the money keeps flowing no agreements will be made. Just today I heard a story that at my station where we work side by side with the west guys who are very short handed that our regional wants the west guys to send some temp help to MSP. What are these people thinking? I mean just last month the on time performance at our station was only 32 percent. Some days the west guys have just 2 guys on the ramp to get out 4 orginators all mainline flights. Thats right 2 guys.. The IAM in there last meeting from what I understood was offering the company to bring back our furloghed guys into some of the west cities but the company refused becasue they wanted to treat them as new hires.
DP this is for you. I am a 22 year agent from the east and Ive been thru a lot in those years as a fleet agent as has many of my friends and coworkers. We have very professional people and all I have seen since you guys took over is a lot of backwards thinking and some strange ideas.
You think working short staffed is some kind of bonus.
Well it must be you have 9 million to prove that.
Im tired of seeing all this talk and fluff like "I make us fly" Its time to show the employees of this company east and west that you are on our side not in the back pockets of the board of directors. This company is made up of the employees who have made it strong and we need some help out here on the frontlines. As well as some improved benifits.
If not this company is not going to survive. The attitude I see at my station is really bad as is the morale.
Its just not fun going to work anymore.
When you start to lose people like myself you are going to lose a lot.

 

[FutureUScapt]

I agree, its time that DP and Jerry Glass learn the definition of negotiating. They keep stating that they are willing to negotiate a cost-neutral contract, but that is worthless. Negotiating requires giving on both sides. The employees of US-East and US-West have worked hard to get this airline where it is today and they don't deserve to be paid ch.11 like wages.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Bob,

There's a couple of problems with your plan, though it's good in theory.

First, our current "industry leading" profit sharing plan will pay out the equivalent of something like 75 cents per hour for the average ramper, CSA, etc - if the analyst's are right with their profit projections. Since there's a bigger difference than that between East and West pay scales in some cases, quite a few folks would see more taken from one pocket thru "cost neutral" contracts than they'd hope to get in the other pocket from the current profit sharing plan.

Second, the hope for a "richer" profit sharing plan is probably close to nil. We actually negotiated a better plan on the East side - 50-66% better. What happened? It disappeared in the POR, replaced by the current plan. Supposedly, the investors wouldn't go along with a bigger share of profits for the employees. Parker was on the scene, though somewhat in the background, when that took place.

DP apparently believes, or at least says repeatedly, that US pays "industry standard" wages and has no trouble getting "well qualified" employees at these wages. On the other hand, you've seen or read about the "quality" of some of these new-hires or how long they stay around with these "industry standard" wages.

Jim

 

[luvn737s]

Bob-
You can't plant onions and pray that tomatoes will grow. US knows exactly what it's doing and praying that the employees will respond with great customer service.

 

[algflyr]

OK, if we were to agree to some sort of performance based incentive plan, everyone seems happy because of this great plan and busts their butt at work. U becomes the best performing airline. Great. Then the managers come up with some sort of "one time charge" to offset any profit at the end of the year and we get nothing, they say... so sorry, lets try harder next time .... Meanwhile upper mangt get millions more in bonuses for such great performance... no thanks...

 

[Elevation]

Well here we are approaching Sept. and still no aggrements for pilots , f/a or fleet. From what I see I dont expect we will see much on these agreements. Why not we are making money just fine without them. All of us on the frontline are getting our butts kicked short handed and all but thats fine, Dave has his 9 mill. So I suspect that as long as the money keeps flowing no agreements will be made. Just today I heard a story that at my station where we work side by side with the west guys who are very short handed that our regional wants the west guys to send some temp help to MSP. What are these people thinking? I mean just last month the on time performance at our station was only 32 percent. Some days the west guys have just 2 guys on the ramp to get out 4 orginators all mainline flights. Thats right 2 guys.. The IAM in there last meeting from what I understood was offering the company to bring back our furloghed guys into some of the west cities but the company refused becasue they wanted to treat them as new hires.
DP this is for you. I am a 22 year agent from the east and Ive been thru a lot in those years as a fleet agent as has many of my friends and coworkers. We have very professional people and all I have seen since you guys took over is a lot of backwards thinking and some strange ideas.
You think working short staffed is some kind of bonus.
Well it must be you have 9 million to prove that.
Im tired of seeing all this talk and fluff like "I make us fly" Its time to show the employees of this company east and west that you are on our side not in the back pockets of the board of directors. This company is made up of the employees who have made it strong and we need some help out here on the frontlines. As well as some improved benifits.
If not this company is not going to survive. The attitude I see at my station is really bad as is the morale.
Its just not fun going to work anymore.
When you start to lose people like myself you are going to lose a lot.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the pilots and the FA's have transition agreements. Also who is Dave and where did he get 9 mil :blink:

 

[Career Reserve]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the pilots and the FA's have transition agreements. Also who is Dave and where did he get 9 mil :blink:

I believe Henderfuzz meant Doug Parker.

 

[High Iron]

OK, if we were to agree to some sort of performance based incentive plan, everyone seems happy because of this great plan and busts their butt at work. U becomes the best performing airline. Great. Then the managers come up with some sort of "one time charge" to offset any profit at the end of the year and we get nothing, they say... so sorry, lets try harder next time .... Meanwhile upper mangt get millions more in bonuses for such great performance... no thanks...

Too ( likely ) true for comfort. Chillingly so.

 

[a320av8r]

Dave, Doug, Steve, Rakeesh, Butch, Ed- they're all interchangable.

 

[john john]

Doug and gang have exercises their options to weather the storm.
This is cold calculating American business 101. Now the stock is flat who knows what the 3rd quarter is going to be if it is flat management will want to negotiate if they see a profit they will stall

 

[crj58]

Would HP be able to operate the 767-200ER/300ER on
their present certificate or would it require a whole
new recertification process? I know the pilots would
only need differences training according to an F/O I
spoke to. Ground support for wide-bodies is already
in place at PHX and LAS. Should this be as easy as it sounds or is this a more complicated issue?

 

[700UW]

You wont see the 767 at PHX or LAS anytime soon for regular flights, there are just enough to cover the Europe flights.

 

[FutureUScapt]

OK, if we were to agree to some sort of performance based incentive plan, everyone seems happy because of this great plan and busts their butt at work. U becomes the best performing airline. Great. Then the managers come up with some sort of "one time charge" to offset any profit at the end of the year and we get nothing, they say... so sorry, lets try harder next time .... Meanwhile upper mangt get millions more in bonuses for such great performance... no thanks...

Thats why most employees would rather see hourly pay increases and better benefits in exchange for the profit sharing plan and of course that's why management would like it to stay exactly as it is.

 

[diogenes]

Companies manage their earnings all the time to hit their quarterly and annual projections to keep Wall Street happy.

They can certainly manage them to keep employee bonuses low.

 

[StuckHere]

Bob - I've got to say I agree with you. I am a huge proponent of pay for performance and have seen it executed quite successfully in a number of instances.

The key to a successful implementation is the cooperative development of clearly defined, easily measured performance metrics and goals. You cannot tie a compensation plan like this to overall company performance. I mean, just how much impact does a single employee have on ALL factors that tie into profitability (as a group we all do, but stay with me here...)

Tie performance pay to something truly within the employee's control that does impact operations. At Res, for example, attendance, availability, calls per hour, call monitoring, etc, can all be tied together to form the basis of a "bonus" pay plan. This bonus should not be a small component of pay, but rather a sizable chunk of overall compensation. The better you do, the more you make.

In short, every position in the company should start to consider which metrics they impact and how those metrics affect the overall health of the company.

What's great about a good implementation like this, is that employees can track their progress and take action to improve their own pay.

I don't know what the union implications to something like this would be, but I'd be grateful to hear from someone about them.