www.CWA.net 5/10/2004
CWA Update on the May 7th Management Restructuring Presentation
5/10/2004
CWA Local Officers and Staff met with US Airways executives Friday, May 7, to receive a briefing on the company's finances and new business plan. This briefing was more specifically focused on passenger service than the earlier Labor Advisory Committee briefing, but covered the same subject matter.
The following description of the new business plan was given at the Wednesday, May 5, LAC meeting and also at our Friday, May 7, meeting:
PHL will be the core of US Airways network, adding more point-to-point flying;
LGA, BOS and DCA will grow with increased point-to-point flying;
The Shuttle will continue to be a key US Airways asset;
CLT will continue as a hub with a significant focus on Caribbean destinations
PIT will have far fewer flights but US Airways will still have a focus there;
There may be an expansion of European destinations some day in the future.
The following additional information from the Friday meeting was brought out in the give-and-take between the CWA'ers and US Airways executives:
There will be furloughs due to the new business plan in addition to the furloughs generated by airport automation (card readers and more kiosks).
Res employment is not being targeted by the new efforts to increase usairways.com sales. Instead, those new "dot-com" sales are expected to come from former Travelocity and Expedia customers and others who already use other on-line services. (We're skeptical about that assumption. We think there will be a drive to force people to the internet the way they are forced to the kiosks, but we'll see). CWA'ers pointed out that advertising for the new GoFares does not even carry the toll free res number.
The new business plan does not have any job-growth component for passenger service.
Management brushed off our protest that, by taking RJ's slated for MDA service and placing them with another carrier, they have eliminated the MDA passenger service jobs that they agreed to provide in return for our previous concessions. That doesn't give us much confidence in their ability to honor an agreement.
Management said their previous written agreement not ask the Bankruptcy Court to reject or modify the passenger service contract if the previous concessions were ratified, does not prevent them from again asking the Bankruptcy Code to reject or modify the passenger service contract, even though the concessions were ratified. Again, that doesn't give us much confidence in their ability to honor an agreement and indicates that they will try to play the bankruptcy card again in future negotiations. We will challenge that.
CWA'ers disputed management's view that kiosks and card readers are an "enhanced airport experience" for the passenger. CWA'ers point out that not all, but the large majority, of passengers still prefer deal with an agent and resent being pressured to go to a kiosk. They also pointed out that no passenger is likely to view a gate card reader as "an enhancement" to their travel experience. CWA'ers said that management should just admit that these forms of automation are designed to get rid of agents, not to enhance anybody's travel experience, and that over time this lack of customer service will be a competitive disadvantage to the airline.
CWA'ers went through the long list of previous passenger service pay cuts, furloughed employees, competitive productivity and lack of defined benefit pension plan that puts us on solid ground when we say, "We already gave!" We pointed out that the main threat facing the airline is Southwest at PHL, and that agent-for-agent, Southwest pays much more than US Airways ($5,966 more this year alone).
What Executives did not reveal at the Friday meeting is their plan for employee concessions. Executives have said they want further employee concessions in these areas:
pay (we expect drastic proposals),
benefits (retirement and healthcare),
seniority (we think they're talking paydate seniority),
productivity (we are already hyper-productive at both airports and res), and
scope (subcontracting out of work).
But Executives at the Friday meeting still had no proposals or even general descriptions of the cuts they are going to demand.
It's not clear to us what they think the process will be going forward, but it seems the threat of bankruptcy will be a part of it. It seems that, at this point, their idea is to excite everybody with the new business plan and then say they need to finance it with employee salary, benefit, scope, seniority, and productivity cuts.
Unfortunately, when executives say "We'll win with this new business plan," the we doesn't include thousands of furloughed passenger service agents and reps.
We'll keep you informed.
CWA Local Officers and Staff
Such a sweet person -- keep 'em coming, just bear in mind that karma can be an amazing thing. <_<
