ELP_WN_Psgr
Senior
- Nov 29, 2003
- 419
- 0
You know, for someone as pro-management and anti-union as I have been all my life, watching this imbroglio....even from afar...turns my stomach.
True. The reservations agents with degrees chose to be reservations agents. Their unions negotiated compensation packages for them in good faith with the company. Now, because of gross negligence and maybe even willful malfeasance on the part of management, the reservation agent is being asked to contribute mightily to salvage the fir. Since it was not his or her ineptitude that got the airline where it is, is it not just that the culprits absorb a part of the damage?
Part of the problem for USAirways is that the whole thing has been run, or so it would seem, by a bunch of over-educated fools. If the President/CEO has ever emptied a honey bucket or thrown bags into the rear bin during a 15 minute turn, it is news to me. Granted, the obstetrician doesn't have to have a baby in order to know how to deliver one......but some empathy and understanding as to what everyone's job entails does a lot to build credibility with subordinate employees.
Why do you think Bethune is such a hit at CO? True, Herb Kelleher never was a ramp rat, but his subordinates during the formative years were all people who had, at one time or another, "worked for a living." The VP-Ground Opns and VP-Inflight had both started out as TTA station agents, VP-Flight Opns had flown as a FO and Capt in the CR Smith days (when they had to stick the little flag on the nose of the DC-3 before taxiing up to the terminal) and VP-Maintenance had spent 25 yrs plus as a line mechanic for Braniff.
That knife cuts both ways. Those employees who feel that they have given up something that their unionized brethren and cistern (sistern?) have had due to their union management should have gotten off their goat-smelling butts and organized. Employees should neither be penalized nor rewarded for their membership or lack thereof in a collective bargaining organization. It would be like playing favorites with employees who are Methodists, Mormons, Masons, or Harvard grads.
1. You will never fix the airline til you fix the culture.
2. You will never fix the culture til leadership sets an example.
3. Leadership will not set an example, expecting all or at least most of the concessions to come from the rank and file.
This whole thing is a snake swallowing its tail. IF the so-called management wanted to salvage the airline, they ought to be busting their butts making structural changes to demonstrate to the employees that they are serious about wanting to save it. The carrot and the stick we see --- we are going to make changes after we have fixed the cost side of the equation ---it's a total non-starter. All it does is demonstrate for the employees that management has absolutely no desire to save the airline.....they want something they can sell to someone.....and Mesa-level labor costs are about the only shade of lipstick you can put on this pig that makes it vaguely appealing.
Okay, enough wisdom from the desert. It's back to the pool. (95 degrees, not a cloud in the El Paso west Texas sky, and the pool is a pleasant 96 degrees)
True. The reservations agents with degrees chose to be reservations agents. Their unions negotiated compensation packages for them in good faith with the company. Now, because of gross negligence and maybe even willful malfeasance on the part of management, the reservation agent is being asked to contribute mightily to salvage the fir. Since it was not his or her ineptitude that got the airline where it is, is it not just that the culprits absorb a part of the damage?
Part of the problem for USAirways is that the whole thing has been run, or so it would seem, by a bunch of over-educated fools. If the President/CEO has ever emptied a honey bucket or thrown bags into the rear bin during a 15 minute turn, it is news to me. Granted, the obstetrician doesn't have to have a baby in order to know how to deliver one......but some empathy and understanding as to what everyone's job entails does a lot to build credibility with subordinate employees.
Why do you think Bethune is such a hit at CO? True, Herb Kelleher never was a ramp rat, but his subordinates during the formative years were all people who had, at one time or another, "worked for a living." The VP-Ground Opns and VP-Inflight had both started out as TTA station agents, VP-Flight Opns had flown as a FO and Capt in the CR Smith days (when they had to stick the little flag on the nose of the DC-3 before taxiing up to the terminal) and VP-Maintenance had spent 25 yrs plus as a line mechanic for Braniff.
That knife cuts both ways. Those employees who feel that they have given up something that their unionized brethren and cistern (sistern?) have had due to their union management should have gotten off their goat-smelling butts and organized. Employees should neither be penalized nor rewarded for their membership or lack thereof in a collective bargaining organization. It would be like playing favorites with employees who are Methodists, Mormons, Masons, or Harvard grads.
1. You will never fix the airline til you fix the culture.
2. You will never fix the culture til leadership sets an example.
3. Leadership will not set an example, expecting all or at least most of the concessions to come from the rank and file.
This whole thing is a snake swallowing its tail. IF the so-called management wanted to salvage the airline, they ought to be busting their butts making structural changes to demonstrate to the employees that they are serious about wanting to save it. The carrot and the stick we see --- we are going to make changes after we have fixed the cost side of the equation ---it's a total non-starter. All it does is demonstrate for the employees that management has absolutely no desire to save the airline.....they want something they can sell to someone.....and Mesa-level labor costs are about the only shade of lipstick you can put on this pig that makes it vaguely appealing.
Okay, enough wisdom from the desert. It's back to the pool. (95 degrees, not a cloud in the El Paso west Texas sky, and the pool is a pleasant 96 degrees)
