PINEY,
What the employees could sink their teeth into are "Tangible" items.....not promises of possible future success or stock options that could be erased in BK court.
CASH is king. G. Bethune proved that at CAL where every employee rcvd a $60. bonus for each month that performance goals were met. That gets your attention in a hurry.....because you have some extra money in your pocket as a direct result of your efforts.
CAL also is in the habit of awarding fully-loaded Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorers to employees that have had perfect attendence for each 6 month period. They are picked from a drawing and the winners are handed the keys by G. Bethune himself at IAH-HDQS. What does this cost CAL??? $120K or so??? A small price to pay for the benefit the company realizes from such initiatives. It demonstrates that employees DO matter and are appreciated. It creates a desire to succeed at the very least.
I personally asked Wolf while he was at UAIR about such an incentive program and he curtly retorted: "Your paycheck is your incentive." :down: He didn't even wish to entertain a further discussion. LOSER!!
That is the exact managerial mentality that has flocked to and flourished at UAIR over the years. Seigel knew about the success of these programs at CAL but he did nothing of a sort to even attempt to improve morale.......to create a sense of belonging. I guess he was too busy slashing the CBA's and fabricating scams to dupe the workforce with. And I must say that he was rather successful with his "Bait-n-Switch" techniques :angry: !!
Enter Bruce Lakefield.....soft spoken, highly regarded exec who will save us <_< . Will he or is this simply another ruse to squeeze more blood from our stones??? As the good book says: Beware of false prophets.....after all, Bronner is still the Admiral and GlASS is still advising everyone with his union busting philosophy. It's like little red riding hood where grandma is really a wolf in disguise.....pay careful mind to this notion. Because after ALL unions agree to a plan for survival(and they will).....WHAMMO
!!! It will be bankruptcy part II inspite of all the assurances by Lakefield that it is not UAIR's intention to revisit BK. He wouldn't do that :huh: or would he??? I'm putting my money on the latter bet.
It's a lose-lose situation for the employees. One way or another we will be ground down into managements idea of a LCC. The problem is they are not treating the mold problem but rather repeatedly repainting it.....only to have it bleed thru time and time again. That's why failure is more than likely.
What needs to be done is to simultaneously reinvent the ENTIRE route system and perform a "stand down" while repositioning the company in the proper fashion once and for all. Then actually operate the new company with the intent to do exactly that......Run the airline instead of prepping it for sale.
NO....I will not quit but rather see this thing thru to either the bitter end or perhaps even witness a miracle?? I will just have to wait and see.
