Hey Jim, ask your "friends" at the 'Nuts BB if bending over for 3 rounds of iam concessions at US Air got them anywhere. Here is a sad post by a US Air employee that will disagree.
]Name: Real tired
E-Mail:
Employer: USAirways
Location: Pit
Message:
USAirways update:
Good Friday through Easter Sunday were the worst, most depressing days of my 25 years with this company. Worse than the three days of 9-11 when we were closed up. 800 maintenance and related. Gone. Almost all the utility people, many many stock clerks, and too many Mechanics. Gone. All these people were hard working people who made this company strong, and once the 'darling' of Wall Street. Cast out on the street like garbage. It didn't have to be this way. It could have been different. If we would have just stayed strong and unified, it could have been different.
If I had to say one more 'good-bye', I was going to bust. I just couldn't do it anymore. I finally had to hide out and pretend I was busy, just so I wouldn't have to say one more 'good-bye'. I just couldn't look in the eyes of one more co-worker and say 'good luck'. Most of the utilty people, and the stock clerks had more than 20 years. The Mechanics, most of them around 15 years. I knew many of them most of my adult life. That's a lot of years with a company to be booted out on the street without even a thank you, or a good luck by anyone from management. Not even a 'so long' from any foreman, manager, director, or VP. Not a word.
We gave them everything they asked for. From the very start, anything they wanted, they got. They told us we were saving the company, and our jobs. They lied every step of the way. The union included. And never once was it fair. Never once was it equal. After all these people gone, they still have the same number of foreman on up to VP's. In fact, they have more. After all the pay-cuts that we took, they never really took one. And the management people still have their pensions too. It was never fair.
Pittsbugh, up until a couple of years ago, was USAir's biggest hub, and it's biggest maintenance base. We were close to 600 flights a day out of here. This was a big operation. Gone. 5 hangers, with a huge Ground Equipment operation, a computerized stock room with a robot, a brand new engine shop and test cell. Gone.
The machine shop, hydro shop, electric shop, APU shop, instrument shop, cleaning shop, seat shop, wheels and brakes shop, this shop, that shop, ALL the shops, I can't even remember all the shops shop. Gone. Hell, our machine shop alone was bigger and more 'state of the art' than most private machine shops in this country. Those guys were pros. They could make you anything. Anything. All the guys are gone now, and the million dollar machines just sit there collecting dust and rusting out. That's USAir's way of saving money. They don't utilize the equipment, they just turn it off and get rid of the employees.
Take heed you people at United, Northwest, American, and all the others, Alaska and CAL too. Stay strong. Don't give in to their demands. They'll walk all over you. You won't be saving any company or any jobs. Never give in to their concessions unless they share in the pain also. The USAir Mechanics are some of the weakest in the industry, and now we are paying the price. We didn't save one job. And now look at the company. There's not much left. Except management.