Ceo Says He Has A Plan

[airlineorphan]

BoredToDeath wrote:

airlinerorphan,

That ROCKED!!!! Can I make a request for a little Rage Against the Machine next? I think that would be pretty good for this place.

Thanks BTD,

I couldn't agree more! Ya know everytime I hear people moaning and groaning that there is no choice but absolute surrender to the Great and Powerful Marketplace of Oz (pay no attention to that man behind the curtain) to offer fielty and loyalty to SuperDave and LiquiDave, that first stanza goes through my head:

"Bow down before the one you serve, You're going to get what you deserve"

So I went and looked up the complete lyrics, thinking I'd post the full first stanze... Then I was reminded that the song goes on to speak of the "GodMoney" and I figured it was too perfect....

And the line: "god money let’s go dancing on the backs of the bruised." also seems to fit the mentality of some on this board (and certainly in Labor "Relations" as well!)

In solidarity,
-Airlineorphan

P.S. This news item should offer some ideas as to what the "Plan" is: Mesa Air Group Reports 92.7% Increase in February 2004 Traffic Turn all the actual flying over to JO!

 

[delldude]

ok what happens when or if the iam takes the third round of paycuts to the employees working in expressed, outsourced cities such as abe, avp, dtw, cle, srq, pwm, and whatever other cities i missed? i mean it is bad enough that we in the above cities are living on govt approved welfare checks, food stamps, what more could the crooks of ccy take from us????? i am for one would love to see seigel and his entire group take severe paycuts and i do mean let their paychecks go from some millions down in to the single digit numbers!

that decision will be solely up to you and the other members.

 

[madders]

It seems U wants very few of it's OWN employees. Much of the flying is going to contract carriers. Replace the agents on the ticket counters with kiosk machines. Make sure passengers get ticketed on-line....not at the counter. Soon to be automated ticket readers at gate. Contract out maintenance and utility etc...

What a cold, robotic company U is turning into. I see first hand what type of influence all of this has on the public...a GREATER need for human interaction.
Can you imagine what it will be like one day when a passenger can not find but a few human airline employees in the airport? It will be like being in a constant rotation of an automated answering service. Just PLEASE let me speak to a real person.

I keep thinking of "The Stepford Wives" :unsure:

Well Delta already have machines checking passenger in and "oning " them at the gate...When a flight cancels passengers pick up a phone that rings to a reroute specialist..

Point is Delta is a cold robotic company and they did it because none of their employees that are affected are unionize.
Some may say its the wave of the future......

 

[mweiss]

Point is Delta is a cold robotic company and they did it because none of their employees that are affected are unionize.

So, if I understand you correctly, using machines for activities instead of people when people can do the job is cold and robotic. Why, then, don't the unionized employees get their companies to get rid of the tugs and conveyors? Shouldn't every bag be hand-carried to the airplane? How cold and robotic to have all of those conveyor belts and machines that take the bags to the plane...

 

[ITRADE]

Something about Luddites comes to mind.

 

[Harry Callahan]

So, if I understand you correctly, using machines for activities instead of people when people can do the job is cold and robotic. Why, then, don't the unionized employees get their companies to get rid of the tugs and conveyors? Shouldn't every bag be hand-carried to the airplane? How cold and robotic to have all of those conveyor belts and machines that take the bags to the plane...

What an idiot remark, "get rid of the tugs and conveyors". Do you have any idea how much a small bag weighs ? Well I'll tell you a "small bag" weighs 50-55 lbs.
So I don't think so!

 

[airlineorphan]

QUOTE (madders @ Mar 3 2004, 06:30 PM)
Point is Delta is a cold robotic company and they did it because none of their employees that are affected are unionize.


So, if I understand you correctly, using machines for activities instead of people when people can do the job is cold and robotic. Why, then, don't the unionized employees get their companies to get rid of the tugs and conveyors? Shouldn't every bag be hand-carried to the airplane? How cold and robotic to have all of those conveyor belts and machines that take the bags to the plane...

Ya know there's this saying about the forest and trees or something like that. Mweiss, you are willfully missing the point and you know it. You have put up a straw man and whacked it down.

You know very well that the reason folks feel negatively towards kiosks and voicemail and the like is that it is technology implimented by management with the express desire of "reducing headcount" and does nothing to make work any easier.

Some of the mechanics should comment about whether the tugs and conveyors were implemented in a manner designed to replace people or not. I doubt very much that the large planes were ever pushed back by twenty big strong guys as a general practice.

You seem to be a strong partisan to effeciency, but to borrow a rhetorical device you tried out earlier, efficiency to what end? In this case, the end is "reduction of headcount."

-Airlineorphan

The economy is doing great. It's just the people in it that are having a hard time." --unknown Latin American general

 

[mweiss]

You seem to be a strong partisan to effeciency, but to borrow a rhetorical device you tried out earlier, efficiency to what end? In this case, the end is "reduction of headcount."

I am a strong partisan to efficiency, if for no other reason than that companies that are more efficient survive. Being wasteful as a means of preserving jobs is plain silly. The analogy I used with the telephone operators is probably more appropriate...direct dial sure reduced the number of operators, but it paid dividends in many orders of magnitude. Would you prefer to be paying $100 a month for local telephone service?

Reduction of headcount should never be the goal in implementation of technology. Rather, the goal should be to use existing headcount more efficiently, so as to be able to increase capacity without increasing cost.

Things get messy when an industry has overcapacity and still is able to implement technology that increases efficiency. But WN proved that there isn't really overcapacity in the airline industry. Time and time again they have moved into a market and doubled or tripled the number of passengers in the market.

So why not grow the company with technology and skip the layoffs altogether? It's a win-win-win situation, instead of a zero-sum game.