The More Things Change... The More They Stay The S

756pro

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Feb 8, 2004
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----- Original Message -----
From: John McCorkle
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 9:21 AM
Subject: John McCorkle's Newsletter, 6-6-02


Hello Everyone:

Back in 1978, amid the disco craze, I'm reminded of a song by the group
Blondie entitled "One Way Or Another." I recall the lead singer, Deborah
Harry, belting out vocals to the lyrics of that song that went like this:

One way or another, I'm gonna find ya
I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha
One way or another, I'm gonna win ya
I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha

And so it is that employees, vendors and suppliers of US Airways find
themselves in a position of coughing up almost $1.3 billion, annually, in
concessions in order to allow the company to obtain an additional $1
billion from the federal government. Nine days and counting friends, as US
Airways President and CEO Dave Siegel has put a June 15 deadline on the
company's loan application. The government's deadline is June 28 and I
suspect Mr. Siegel implemented the June 15 deadline date so as not to incur
any unexpected last-minute hassles or in the unlikely event that our loan
application is rejected, which recently happened to Vanguard Airlines, the
company would have time to resubmit an adjusted application.

The company wants the pilot group to contribute $595 million in annual
concessions. The Air Line Pilots Association, representing the pilots, has
countered with an offer of $328 million annually for seven years.
Basically, ALPA has offered the company to go back to pay rates that were
in effect on April 30, 2001 which were rates prior to a 16.99% increase the
pilots received on May 1, 2001 and prior to a 16.07 increase they received
on May 1, 2002. ALPA has said that the parity review that is scheduled for
May 1, 2003 would be cancelled. (I get the feeling that parity reviews
will forever be cancelled, don't you?)

Additionally, ALPA wants a pay increase of 5.4% on May 1, 2003; compounded
4.3% on May 1, 2004; and compounded 3% on each succeeding May 1 during the
term of the Agreement.

The company wants the flight attendant group to contribute $90 million in
annual concessions. The Association of Flight Attendants leadership has
contracted a company to do a telephone survey (read: thousands of dollars
AFA doesn't have to spend) of its members and continues to tell the flight
attendants that they'll have a say as to whether or not concessions are
offered. AFA is seemingly oblivious to the June 15 deadline and I can
assure my fellow flight attendants that your "say" will mean very little,
if anything. There's a real false sense of authority and choice that AFA
continues to instill with their membership.

AFA has said that they want the company to come up with a sound business
plan that will increase revenue. That sounds like a great idea, doesn't
it? Get the company to raise ticket prices and all the problems will be
solved. The only problem is, you have to get the passengers to PAY those
prices and they are not and will not. So, instead of raising fares, you
must decrease expenses. Simple math, and maybe one day AFA will figure it
out -- but, I highly doubt it.

Just two months ago, the local AFA president in Pittsburgh had this to say
about concessions in an email to me: "May God be a witness to what I say
to you, Local 40 (Pittsburgh) will never concede to give cash or work rules
to the company. OUR CONTRACT IS CLOSED. THE COMPANY CAN THREATEN, STAND
ON THEIR HEADS, AND TAKE THE WORLD DOWN, but I am steadfast on my
position." (These are the kind of people working on behalf of the flight
attendants -- no clue, whatsoever). Yeah, our contract is closed all right
but as I've said before, the company will do what it wants to do, when it
wants to do it -- regardless of any closed contract.

When the Communication Workers of America (CWA) representatives met with
company officials to offer a counter proposal, management told them that
their counter proposal was not worth responding to and that it did not
offer nearly enough.

Well folks, simply put, this company is approaching the proverbial fork in
the road and one of two things will happen: the company will be
restructured either through concessions or through bankruptcy. Take your
pick, but Mr. Siegel has said he'll get what he needs either way.

In the past few weeks, I've received dozens and dozens of emails from
people wanting to know how this has happened so quickly and what has
changed so dramatically that we are in the position we are in. As I've
written before, business travel is down substantially and we all know that
a large part of our revenue comes from this small segment of our
passengers. In the past, bankruptcy really wasn't an option because there
was always a significant amount of cash on hand and as long as the business
traveler kept getting gouged (they were) and continued to pay the high
fares they traditionally paid, we were fine, regardless of ever increasing
seat costs.

Unfortunately, US Airways simply cannot continue to operate with a seat
cost of 12.91 cents per mile and expect to stay in business. Compare that
with Continental's first quarter ASM operating cost of 9.65 cents and you
get the picture.

Undoubtedly, Mr. Siegel is attempting to get employee wages in line with
what Continental pays to their employees, which, in turn, will adjust our
seat costs accordingly. It is essential that US Airways get their seat
costs UNDER .10 cents per mile in order to stay in business and attempt to
compete.

I began hearing rumors a little over a month ago from some of the CLT
mechanics on my newsletter list who thought that the A330 wide-body fleet
might be up for sale. Some people thought it would be the 767 wide-body
fleet, due to their age, that would be eliminated. I can tell you now that
IF the company can cut the right financial deal, the A330 wide-body fleet
will be sold. Although the company hasn't publicly announced this, the
B767 is more suited to their needs vs. the A330. This will be the 5th
fleet type eliminated by US Airways in the past 12 months, following the
DC-9, 737-200, MD-80 and, of course, the always maintenance-prone F-100.
In a worse case scenario -- bankruptcy -- the company announced that both
wide-body fleet types will be eliminated.

Of course, we must carefully watch some of the decisions that management
makes. If Mr. Siegel wants to use Continental as a guide or reference
point, let me remind you that for the first quarter of 2002, Continental
paid 64.39 cents, including taxes, for a gallon of aviation fuel. For the
same period, US Airways paid 68.31 cents, including taxes, for a gallon of
aviation fuel. That's almost 4 cents a gallon more which may not seem like
much, but US Airways consumed 245 million gallons of aviation fuel in the
first quarter alone. That folks, is a BIG difference and multiply that
over the four quarters in a fiscal year, and it's a HUGE difference. We
can't allow ourselves to pay MORE for the SAME product as our competitors.

Additionally, as I've written over and over again, something must be done
to change the fare structure. Mr. Siegel recently addressed this issue and
was quoted as saying "the days of $2,000. coast to coast fares are over."
Well, yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) at 1:50 p.m., I called US Airways
reservations to get some quotes on two tickets. I had to call because the
company's website booking product at www.usairways.com was unavailable for
most of the day.

So, I wanted to find out how much a round-trip coach ticket would cost on
US Airways from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, departing on Thursday, June
6th and returning on Friday, June 7th. Final answer: $2,506.50

I then inquired about a round-trip coach ticket from Charlotte to Los
Angeles, again departing on June 6th and returning on June 7th. Final
answer: $2,178.00

Is there ANY question as to where the business traveler is now?

A few weeks ago, in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Senior VP,
Employee Relations, Jerry Glass told a reporter that the company did not
"intend" to lay off any more employees. Mr. Siegel has been quoted as
saying he wants to "preserve" as many jobs as possible. I don't know about
you, but if I had to read between the lines, I would venture to say that
the mainline operation is going to get smaller before it gets bigger and
we've all heard those "there won't be anymore layoffs" announcements in the
past. Add to the mix that US Airways and Continental have been in talks to
form some type of alliance and ask yourself if Continental would want to
get involved with an airline that was going to get bigger. I don't think
so.

Additionally, Mr. Glass stated that the company wanted to "bulk up"
operations in Philadelphia. This could be a disaster in the making due to
PHL's notorious delay problems and although PHL has recently added a new
radar system, called 'Precision Runway Monitor (PRM), only time will tell
if it helps to alleviate PHL's congestion.

As I've said before, it's a shame that all this falls on the shoulders of
the employees. We didn't create this mess but we're asked, once again, to
clean it up. It seems that no matter what plan a management team
implements, it never works and the employees end up paying dearly for it.
Management: "we'll give you parity plus 1%." Two years later: "oops,
this won't work ... sorry."

However, the reality is that US Airways is just about at the end of its
rope -- we are a highly leveraged airline (for the AFA leadership - that
means we have no assets left to mortgage) and the clock is ticking.
Something is going to happen very soon and if concessions are ultimately
granted to the company, they will become effective on July 1.

In an email to Mr. Siegel, I suggested he ask for Mr. Wolf's resignation
from the board. Although Stephen Wolf is in a non-executive, non-decision
making capacity with the company, he still retains a seat on the board and
the title of Chairman. I see no benefit to the company or the employees in
his being in either position. Some may think that Mr. Wolf turned this
airline around when he came on board in 1996 but I would like to remind you
that US Airways was profitable in 1995 - the year BEFORE he and Mr. Gangwal
arrived. Mr. Wolf was the beneficiary of an incredible economy and if you
would have put a monkey in front of a globe, given enough bananas, it would
have pointed to Europe and the Caribbean if you said the word "expansion."
Please resign Mr. Wolf and thanks for that whole 'United merger' disaster.
Send comments to: [email protected]
 
Code:
[CODE][SIZE=7][SIZE=14]My Hero's Wolf and Gangwal
The one's that purchased over $1.5 billon of US Airways stock instead of using the money as operating capital or paying down debt or just having it around for a downturn.[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[/CODE]
 
My Hero's Wolf and Gangwal
The one's that purchased over $1.5 billon of US Airways stock instead of using the money as operating capital or paying down debt or just having it around for a downturn.

There you go Zone.........
 
Winglet said:
Labor concessions won't do the job. Siegel will keep coming back for more until you're willing to walk away and let him fail.
This statement rings so true and until people wake up and realize it's truth Siegel will keep up his feeding frenzy until we all die slowly and painfully. :down:
 
I will say, this!!! I will not vote for ANYTHING TO GIVE BACK TO THIS COMPANY. I HAVE NOTHING MORE TO GIVE. PERIOD. I WILL WORK TIL THE END AND LET THE COMPANY CLOSE AND GO ON FROM THERE. Seiglel and all of his other cronies can go f .....themselves as far as I am concerned.No one is going to put their scare tatics on me. I have been a good loyal devoted hardworking employee of this company for many many years and what they have done is criminal in my book. It is nothing more than Corporate Greed which is the desicretion of this Country. I would rather be out on the streets without a pot to piss in then give on thing back to my job. PERIOD> :angry: :down: :angry: :down:
 
ktflyhome said:
I will say, this!!! I will not vote for ANYTHING TO GIVE BACK TO THIS COMPANY. I HAVE NOTHING MORE TO GIVE. PERIOD. I WILL WORK TIL THE END AND LET THE COMPANY CLOSE AND GO ON FROM THERE. Seiglel and all of his other cronies can go f .....themselves as far as I am concerned.No one is going to put their scare tatics on me. I have been a good loyal devoted hardworking employee of this company for many many years and what they have done is criminal in my book. It is nothing more than Corporate Greed which is the desicretion of this Country. I would rather be out on the streets without a pot to piss in then give on thing back to my job. PERIOD> :angry: :down: :angry: :down:
I LOVE THIS POSTER!! :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: