cwa.net 12/5/03
A New US Airways Business Plan, or A New Employee Concession Plan?
"If they say it's not about concessions, it's about concessions"
CWA local presidents and staff have discussed and taken the following positions regarding US Airways executives' invitation to CWA, along with other unions, to participate in the development of the company's new business plan:
1. A majority of passenger service employees do not have confidence that management's current business plan is working, according to our recent Lauer Research Inc. poll.
2. CWA will accept management's invitation to participate, along with the other unions, in the discussions about a new business plan, but we are skeptical.
* We have our doubts that company executives are sincerely interested in union input to their business plan, particularly regarding the fundamental operations of the airline; nothing in their performance to date suggests that they value that sort of employee input.
* This looks similar to the procedural run-up to the 2002 concessions bargaining: then, the executives agreed to open their books to convince us that we have to participate in restructuring (concessions).
* Our members have told us, as recently as one month ago (Lauer Research Poll), that they do not believe any further concessions are justified. That poll shows that 95% of passenger service employees are against further concessions.
3. We would agree to send a research economist from the CWA Research Department to participate in business plan discussions with the company, along with the participants from the other unions. We would rely on our research department rather than a contractor because we would want our participant to be:
* completely familiar with our passenger service issues;
* an advocate for a business plan that is beneficial to long term interests of passenger service employees;
* accountable to CWA passenger service members.
4. We would want to make it clear to management that our participation in this process would be designed to provide input to the new business plan, and should not be misinterpreted as a willingness to consider proposals for employee concessions or as a willingness to reopen our passenger service contract for any other purpose.
A New US Airways Business Plan, or A New Employee Concession Plan?
"If they say it's not about concessions, it's about concessions"
CWA local presidents and staff have discussed and taken the following positions regarding US Airways executives' invitation to CWA, along with other unions, to participate in the development of the company's new business plan:
1. A majority of passenger service employees do not have confidence that management's current business plan is working, according to our recent Lauer Research Inc. poll.
2. CWA will accept management's invitation to participate, along with the other unions, in the discussions about a new business plan, but we are skeptical.
* We have our doubts that company executives are sincerely interested in union input to their business plan, particularly regarding the fundamental operations of the airline; nothing in their performance to date suggests that they value that sort of employee input.
* This looks similar to the procedural run-up to the 2002 concessions bargaining: then, the executives agreed to open their books to convince us that we have to participate in restructuring (concessions).
* Our members have told us, as recently as one month ago (Lauer Research Poll), that they do not believe any further concessions are justified. That poll shows that 95% of passenger service employees are against further concessions.
3. We would agree to send a research economist from the CWA Research Department to participate in business plan discussions with the company, along with the participants from the other unions. We would rely on our research department rather than a contractor because we would want our participant to be:
* completely familiar with our passenger service issues;
* an advocate for a business plan that is beneficial to long term interests of passenger service employees;
* accountable to CWA passenger service members.
4. We would want to make it clear to management that our participation in this process would be designed to provide input to the new business plan, and should not be misinterpreted as a willingness to consider proposals for employee concessions or as a willingness to reopen our passenger service contract for any other purpose.
