Financial Analysis

[chipmunn]

USAirBoy330:

USAirBoy330 asked: Chip, Care to go through the "time line" with us? What are we facing in terms of length of negotiations with ALPA....AFA CWA and IAM? I guess the court won't get the POR on DEC 9th like we said? Anything from the BOD?

Chip comments: There was no news reported from the BOD meeting; however, reports from the ALPA MEC meeting said there were new “dramatic developmentsâ€￾ presented by Siegel yesterday to the MEC in closed session. Presumably, this information has been provided to all of the unions.

The developments are strong enough that the CWA sent an email out to its members stating "CWA and US Airways have agreed to begin discussions on management's new restructuring proposals at 1:00 PM Eastern Time, Wednesday, December 4, 2002, at US Airways' Crystal City headquarters."

I suspect the news is either the company is not meeting the RSA DIP financing requirements, the PBGC put the airline on notice of a pending pension "distressed termination", or other airlines are lobbying the creditors committee to fragment the airline.

Regardless, the updated timeline follows:

December 12 - Fourth Omnibus Bankruptcy Hearing

December 20 - Final Plan of Reorganization (POR) must submitted to the court, with all labor cuts in place, or the DIP credit facility could be voided.

January 16 - Final POR and confirmation statement approved by the court for a March 2003 emergence provided the company could obtain the cost cuts required to emerge.

Chip

 

[chipmunn]

USAirBoy330:

USAirBoy330 asked: Chip, Care to go through the "time line" with us? What are we facing in terms of length of negotiations with ALPA....AFA CWA and IAM? I guess the court won't get the POR on DEC 9th like we said? Anything from the BOD?

Chip comments: There was no news reported from the BOD meeting; however, reports from the ALPA MEC meeting said there were new “dramatic developmentsâ€￾ presented by Siegel yesterday to the MEC in closed session. Presumably, this information has been provided to all of the unions.

The developments are strong enough that the CWA sent an email out to its members stating "CWA and US Airways have agreed to begin discussions on management's new restructuring proposals at 1:00 PM Eastern Time, Wednesday, December 4, 2002, at US Airways' Crystal City headquarters."

I suspect the news is either the company is not meeting the RSA DIP financing requirements, the PBGC put the airline on notice of a pending pension "distressed termination", or other airlines are lobbying the creditors committee to fragment the airline.

Regardless, the updated timeline follows:

December 12 - Fourth Omnibus Bankruptcy Hearing

December 20 - Final Plan of Reorganization (POR) must submitted to the court, with all labor cuts in place, or the DIP credit facility could be voided.

January 16 - Final POR and confirmation statement approved by the court for a March 2003 emergence provided the company could obtain the cost cuts required to emerge.

Chip

 

[Biffeman]

Chip once again you are wrong, I spoke with one of our negotiators yesterday he was in CLT, not DCA, so nothing was presented to the IAM yesterday, they attended a meeting with Siegel last week and as of 8pm last night the IAM told the company we have nothing to offer and nothing to negotiate about.

 

[Biffeman]

Chip once again you are wrong, I spoke with one of our negotiators yesterday he was in CLT, not DCA, so nothing was presented to the IAM yesterday, they attended a meeting with Siegel last week and as of 8pm last night the IAM told the company we have nothing to offer and nothing to negotiate about.

 

[Biffeman]

And another Chip:[BR]No airline has ever been saved by employee concessions, Pan Am, Eastern and TWA bleed their employees for concessions after concessions, resulting in thousands of layoffs and the employees that were still lucky enough to have a job earned significantly lower wages and just held off the agony of finally not having a job a little longer. [BR][BR]I for one would rather have a quick death then be bleed for months.

 

[Biffeman]

And another Chip:[BR]No airline has ever been saved by employee concessions, Pan Am, Eastern and TWA bleed their employees for concessions after concessions, resulting in thousands of layoffs and the employees that were still lucky enough to have a job earned significantly lower wages and just held off the agony of finally not having a job a little longer. [BR][BR]I for one would rather have a quick death then be bleed for months.

 

[MCORORES]

IMHO the company needs to be UP FRONT to the labor groups in regards to the biz plan. The company needs to be UP FRONT with how many more are going to loose there jobs and allow the employees ample time to make a choice on what they want to do. A one week deadline here in MCO is totally insufficant time for one to make a choice in what he/she wants to do. Very hard choice. To think that some will transfer to another city only to be furloughed at some point. Waste of money by the company. If I knew that I had a darn good chance to be furloughed in the near future my choice would be totally different than what it is now. On the otherhand we could've been treated like the TPA hanger employees which even though I believe the closing of MCO res office was handled and still is being handle poorly what happened 90 miles to my west just makes no sense. And yet the company is going to expect BOTH labor groups to go in with an open mind, I just do not see it happening. Amazing what would happen the TPA/MCO events were handled differently.

 

[MCORORES]

IMHO the company needs to be UP FRONT to the labor groups in regards to the biz plan. The company needs to be UP FRONT with how many more are going to loose there jobs and allow the employees ample time to make a choice on what they want to do. A one week deadline here in MCO is totally insufficant time for one to make a choice in what he/she wants to do. Very hard choice. To think that some will transfer to another city only to be furloughed at some point. Waste of money by the company. If I knew that I had a darn good chance to be furloughed in the near future my choice would be totally different than what it is now. On the otherhand we could've been treated like the TPA hanger employees which even though I believe the closing of MCO res office was handled and still is being handle poorly what happened 90 miles to my west just makes no sense. And yet the company is going to expect BOTH labor groups to go in with an open mind, I just do not see it happening. Amazing what would happen the TPA/MCO events were handled differently.

 

[pitguy]

MarkMyWords,

In the end the union will cave. Just wait and see.

 

[pitguy]

MarkMyWords,

In the end the union will cave. Just wait and see.

 

[Biffeman]

Well Chip:[BR]The IAM both groups have told the company there is nothing to talk about, we gave, there is nothing left to give.[BR][BR]And like I said no airline has been saved by ramming it to the employees, you seem to have failed to address this, Pan Am, Eastern and TWA, none of them were saved

 

[Biffeman]

Well Chip:[BR]The IAM both groups have told the company there is nothing to talk about, we gave, there is nothing left to give.[BR][BR]And like I said no airline has been saved by ramming it to the employees, you seem to have failed to address this, Pan Am, Eastern and TWA, none of them were saved

 

[chipmunn]

Biff:[BR][BR]I never said the IAM was in DCA. I said, "US Airways is at a "crossroads" and there was dramatic new information presented to the unions yesterday."[BR][BR]ALPA received the information in person when it meet with Dave Siegel. The other unnions are in conversation with the company all the time, via phone, letters, email, and faxes. In addition, the labor coalition communicates with one another and the information is in the mainstream.[BR][BR]Chip

 

[chipmunn]

Biff:[BR][BR]I never said the IAM was in DCA. I said, "US Airways is at a "crossroads" and there was dramatic new information presented to the unions yesterday."[BR][BR]ALPA received the information in person when it meet with Dave Siegel. The other unnions are in conversation with the company all the time, via phone, letters, email, and faxes. In addition, the labor coalition communicates with one another and the information is in the mainstream.[BR][BR]Chip

 

[tug_slug]

[P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"][SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"][FONT color=#000000]Markmywords,[?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /][o][/o][/FONT][/SPAN][/P]
[P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"][SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"][BR][FONT color=#000000]The differences the IAM and its members have arent whats creating the problem its the work rule concessions that the company is trying to jam down our throats thats creating the problem.[BR][BR]From what Im told some of ALPA's MEC are junior and that by voting these new "cost cutting measures" in they'll be voting themselves out of a job? You know why their willing to do this? Because they know that once the company becomes profitable again they'll be called back where as the mechanics wont have that luxury. If these new concessions are forced on us its more than likely I can kiss my 15 years with the company goodbye. [BR][BR]I voted yes on the first round of concessions and talked till I was blue in the face to convince my peers to see how voting no would cost us our jobs, but if U would have placed the same language in the first package that were currently facing I would have voted no.[/FONT][/SPAN][/P]