I agree Jim but it is not so much bad legacy management (I would contend that airline management is not much different the management in other industries) but militant unionism that is the root of the problem. The industry as a hole is bad but US is even worse due to its PIT roots.
The only way to change the culture now is over a long period of time and by mostly getting rid of all the old timers.
Obviously the observation of one very junior, very naive, Cactus Kool Aid drinking fool. Kudos Jerry Glass - you are definitely making an impression on the desert southwest and on all the kids at the sandcastle.
OK - assuming you are correct..... and you are not.
Let's fire everyone over 20 years seniority......then we can lower the hiring standards for pilots to ANYONE that has "logged" MS Flight Sim time and a GED because they came up with software on the A-BUS that would allow even Bud Boy to fly it inebriated. AMTs can now work under the Shop Steward's license - and you only need a referral from Jiffy Lube to work for LCC.
In fact maybe we can lower all the hiring standards to the point where maybe the "west" no longer experiences the HUGE turnover because now no one else will hire these people except USAIR. Problem solved.
Or is it? Maybe seniority and the employees that YOU perceive to be the problem are not the problem at all?
Someone with 20 years experience has just that: 20 years experience. Regardless of what their position is with the company it's experience, something that we have lost a whole lot of the last three years AND IT SHOWS. Experienced means these people are seasoned and know what to expect when everything falls apart... say during RES MIGRATION and can think on their feet. They don't have to look it up in the FOM, or QIK Shares, or even need to ask someone. They already know what to do because they have EXPERIENCE.
Have you been through DCA lately after we had the mass exodus of EXPERIENCED EMPLOYEES. DCA was one of the best run station in the country and now has been lowered to the mean average. Operative word in that sentence: AVERAGE......actually BELOW AVERAGE. We lost all the experience because of the high cost of being CHEAP now you have a bunch of new people that are micro managed. Like I said: Been through DCA lately?
The sandcastle mission at merger was ZERO COST, guess what? Those chickens and are coming home to roost.
Instead of integrating the fleet, hammering out FAIR CONTRACTS for all. They concentrated their efforts on lowering the bar and the now HIGH COST OF CHEAP. Need examples Kool-Aid drinkers?
Shares
Res Migration
Aircraft Reconfiguration (more like butchering)
Frequent Flyer Program
F/A Uniform Roll out
ENVOY "American Brunch" serving inedible "FRENCH TOAST" :blink:
This INEPT Amateur West management team does not know how to run an airline. If you disagree then prove me wrong.
Maybe I too would have gotten hammered (if I was CEO) after I came to a realization that a REAL AIRLINE didn't want anything to do with the abortion I created called the US/AWA merger, even when I and my crack MANAGEMENT TEAM were willing to pay 3 times book net worth on the street.....of course using the shareholder's and employees money.
DELTA kept "DELTA their DELTA" and our leader got hammered.
True Leadership would have taken a cab and so would the majority of us.
One's thing is for sure - TEMPE HAD the opportunity to integrate this airline BUT THEY BLEW IT. This could be a WIN WIN MERGER, but GREED, ARROGANCE and IGNORANCE are the only things standing in the way.
LCC has become....what did the UAL MEC call it? A Toxic Stew. They said that about Jack Welch too.....but for an entirely different reason - but he was a leader.
GO TEAM TEMPE - Great leadership.
No disrespect to anyone: but the WEST needed the EAST as much as The EAST needed the WEST. The employees and their respective seniority is not the problem......(well except for those single handily trying to SAVE the airline at any cost.)
Need it spelled out?
"Doug says it's OK negate work rules and FARS because oil is $140 a barrel and we are in CRISIS MODE. "So It's OK Captain - we want you to take off in that LEVEL 5 cell - because we need to be ON TIME for our 3rd QTR DOT stats" - "That pesky lightning - go ahead and tell your people to unload that plane and fuel even though the ramp is closed - We need to be on time!." "APU you don't need a working APU it's been on MEL for two months because we have no parts, besides JP4 is $4.00 a gallon - so screw the passengers they don't need Air Conditioning - they didn't pay for it anyway".
Employees are not the problem - it is however the thick headed "wunderkind" cannot lead and integrate the combined employees, groups, and systems of an airline that is now smaller than the size of US AIRWAYS before we merged. We already had a capable RES SYSTEM. What was the exact cost savings of RES MIGRATION back over to DOS 2.0?
Trust Me, Stan Herman circa 1982 UAL uniforms are not going fix the problems, leadership will.
We don't need any more management (even the brainwashed kind) at any level. We need leadership. If Bud Boy and Zoomie want to cut costs, get rid of the incompetents now with the title of MANAGER on the gates that stand around and harass the crews about closing the door early. Maybe woo back the talent you ran off.....you know quality people that won't work for $9 an hour, but that won't cost your loyal frequent business passengers or thousands of dollars daily by their incompetence. AND START RUNNING AN AIRLINE.
It's true that SENIORITY MATTER,
It's also true that INTEGRITY MATTERS,
but more importantly:
INTELLIGENCE MATTERS and LEADERSHIP MATTERS
It's time for this company's executives to get their collective !@#! together and integrate the company. If that means furloughs so be it, if it means signing a contract, do it. But get it done YESTERDAY. Pulling pretzels off the planes is not going to fix the problem anymore more that a gasoline tax holiday.
Competent Leadership and realizing these so-called synergies of the combined airline was the sole reason for the US/AWA merger (and it was a merger). It wasn't to give stock options and millions away to enrich a misguided few in TEMPE (again at the employees/shareholder expense).
:angry:
START HOLDING OUR LEADERSHIP/MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBLE :angry:
There is no more time or excuses for greed and arrogance....it's time for the "over paid- sigma six-focus group-soft skill management team to wake up from that "convection oven induced coma" and start running the airline ......and not the bus service you have managed to turn this place into - in only three years. Otherwise it's just MORE bad management.
But, if your content with that, I would start working on your resume. Someone that had been around for a merger or three you would already have known this.
I truly hope you'll get the opportunity (say twenty years from now) to have someone newly hired ignoramus refer to you as one of the "old timers" and blame you for the reason he/she is only getting paid $11 an hour as an AMT in 2028.
Maybe it's not the old timer's fault for being out spoken, maybe WE are just tired of accepting the bar being lowered year after year and remembering what working for a real airline that respected and appreciated their employees felt like. Maybe one day you'll get that chance.
"militant unionism" maybe you will catch it.
Good luck - we all are going to need it.
