- Aug 20, 2002
- 219
- 0
Braniff, Pan Am, Eastern....US Airways is next in line to join the prehistoric hall of fame of ill-fated airlines. Why?
First deregulation, the a$$ clowns who thought that turning airlines into Amtrak with wings was a good idea decimated an industry. Oh, that a$$ clown was the great leader himself, Mr. Jimmy Carter. Yeah, now you can get a ticket for $49 to your favorite location, but now the "customer service" rep is nothing more than a McDonald's burgermiester with a cheap blue suit. No wonder service sucks. Your airline mechanic, who used to be a seasoned professional, is now a Jiffy-lube quality hick who took a quick trip through the local A&P diploma mill after getting out of shop school with a "D-" and is working at Mobile Aerospace or another mercinary maintenance ship.
Second, greedy and stupid executives. How many BILLIONS did Wolf and Gangwal walk with? The money could have been used for growing the airline. Then, we can all remember with anger all of the plain out retarded ideas that were going to make us the carrier of choice, etc. Business Select, GhettoJet.....blah blah blah, I won't rehash all that again. Then, talk about retarded business decisions - look how US Airways management handled the mergers. Let's take three great airlines and turn them into one crappy one. Sound like a bad Vegas-show magic trick.
Lastly, a fragmented union work force and union leaders with spines of jello, who are more interested in their cushy little union job than a little workplace pressure. They reneg and cancel contracts on their employees, they don't tell mangement HE!! NO! when they want money. When the company wants to use a judge to force them to take welfare wages for professional-level work, they fold like a bad hand of poker. Whatever happened to the wildcatters? Whatever happened to the REAL unions that told ALL the corporations what the wages were going to be? Pay it or go out of business. We would be living in a very different world if ALPA for example told the airlines what the minimum acceptable wage for a pilot would be. If the airline tried to scab, well, they knew how to take care of that problem. Imagine if the MIA IAM and AMFA laid the law down at $40 an hour for an airline mechanic and made it clear that paying any airline mechanic less would not be tolerated and used some muscle to back it up.
I'll hate to see US Air go, because this "restructuring" is just a brief stop in the ER before they zip the bag up, bring you to the morgue and throw you in the freezer.
I feel bad for all of you who will be in the same boat I'm in. Laid off with no jobs close to what I used to make, no airlines left to use my skills at and no hope for the business to improve. He11, even LUV is full of HATE these days
. Maybe some of us ex-USScare people can go work for them and show how to REALLY spread the love, with the "cold cool efficiency" of Allegheny and the "go f* yourself" customer service in LGA and PHL that we are so famous for.
Have a good nite all
Smile 'cause Dave Bronner is taking care of you and Steve is still enjoying the wine and jag you bought him.
513
First deregulation, the a$$ clowns who thought that turning airlines into Amtrak with wings was a good idea decimated an industry. Oh, that a$$ clown was the great leader himself, Mr. Jimmy Carter. Yeah, now you can get a ticket for $49 to your favorite location, but now the "customer service" rep is nothing more than a McDonald's burgermiester with a cheap blue suit. No wonder service sucks. Your airline mechanic, who used to be a seasoned professional, is now a Jiffy-lube quality hick who took a quick trip through the local A&P diploma mill after getting out of shop school with a "D-" and is working at Mobile Aerospace or another mercinary maintenance ship.
Second, greedy and stupid executives. How many BILLIONS did Wolf and Gangwal walk with? The money could have been used for growing the airline. Then, we can all remember with anger all of the plain out retarded ideas that were going to make us the carrier of choice, etc. Business Select, GhettoJet.....blah blah blah, I won't rehash all that again. Then, talk about retarded business decisions - look how US Airways management handled the mergers. Let's take three great airlines and turn them into one crappy one. Sound like a bad Vegas-show magic trick.
Lastly, a fragmented union work force and union leaders with spines of jello, who are more interested in their cushy little union job than a little workplace pressure. They reneg and cancel contracts on their employees, they don't tell mangement HE!! NO! when they want money. When the company wants to use a judge to force them to take welfare wages for professional-level work, they fold like a bad hand of poker. Whatever happened to the wildcatters? Whatever happened to the REAL unions that told ALL the corporations what the wages were going to be? Pay it or go out of business. We would be living in a very different world if ALPA for example told the airlines what the minimum acceptable wage for a pilot would be. If the airline tried to scab, well, they knew how to take care of that problem. Imagine if the MIA IAM and AMFA laid the law down at $40 an hour for an airline mechanic and made it clear that paying any airline mechanic less would not be tolerated and used some muscle to back it up.
I'll hate to see US Air go, because this "restructuring" is just a brief stop in the ER before they zip the bag up, bring you to the morgue and throw you in the freezer.
I feel bad for all of you who will be in the same boat I'm in. Laid off with no jobs close to what I used to make, no airlines left to use my skills at and no hope for the business to improve. He11, even LUV is full of HATE these days
. Maybe some of us ex-USScare people can go work for them and show how to REALLY spread the love, with the "cold cool efficiency" of Allegheny and the "go f* yourself" customer service in LGA and PHL that we are so famous for.Have a good nite all
Smile 'cause Dave Bronner is taking care of you and Steve is still enjoying the wine and jag you bought him.513
