Liberace
Member
Here's your boy sound familiar
After tossing down some Miller Lites and Genuine drafts, the more boisterous IAM members were getting, louder and louder, and fuses were getting shorter and shorter- so short that shop stewards had to shuttle between tables, persuading members not to take a swing at someone.
The union should never give up contract concessions to the band of losers running United, one IAM member said, declaring, "I'd rather go down fighting for the ship."
Delaney did his best to commiserate with the couple hundred baggage handlers, reservation agents and others gathered in the hall. "We would love to go in there and tell them to go to hell," he said. "That'show we were raised."
But this time was different, Delaney said. Wall Street was all but rooting for United's dissolution, arguing that the only way to cure the problem of over capacity was for a major carrier to fold. Competitors would love to pick over the best pieces of United, he warned.
The IAM had little choice but to reach a painful agreement with United management, like it or not. "The alternative," Delaney said, "is liquidation." In that case, United and their jobs would be gone for good.
Later, as dozens of union officials fanned out across the country to talk to machinists, invariably someone would ask, "If the company starts doing well again, will I get this back?"
Delaney had to tell them, "This is not temporary."
Fear of United's possible demise not only was changing the tone of labor negotiations, it was accomplishing what the airline's historic employee stock ownership plan could not: It brought workers and management together to create and airline that was a model of efficiency.
When the government's numbers came in for 2002, United place No. 1 in on-time performance for the first time since the rankings began in 1988.
High price for survival
http://www.chicagolegalnet.com/united_bankruptcy.htm
No Direction Slate 2008
