I Doubt That Employees Will Vote 4 Concessions

[Traveler]

Traveler,

And Bob has been saying that for at least the past two years...

BTW, excellent prospective, so well thought out, and is exactly how all employees feel at present.

BTW, I would like to live with you....

Our house would be a very, very, very fine house;

With two cats in the yard - which is where, I must insist, they stay ;

Life used to be so hard - And nothing will change thatway.

But, however, everythins seems easy... Because of you.

 

[TransatlanticFlyGuy]

I can say to you this, if you have room in your paycheck to give to U managment, please fill free to write Dave out a check every single month to help them out. If you can petition f/as to give more, I am sure your LECP will be happy to present that to the entire MEC that the majority want to give more.

As far as your statement wanting USAirways to survive, I don't believe there is a poster on here or anyone who wants U to not survive; it our jobs. However we will not continue to give to inept mangement our hard earned dollars OR our "quality of life".

Again, If you are that sicncere and believe that more concessions are necessary, you need to circulate a petition among your ranks who agree with you. In fact, you can write a letter and post it. Make sure to put your name and base on it OR it will be torn down. Make 300 hundred copies and place it on the tables for all to receive. Share your love for more concessions with others. Put your money where your mouth is...and share your wealth.

OK....he we go PITBULL...you just dont know when to stop. All i said in my original post was that cost cuts MIGHT have to happen and that Id be open to listening to what the company has to say. Thats a lot different from what you are saying I said.
The main part of my post has to do with all the negative posts that are being presented here by employees. Do all of us a favor and leave US if you are happy.
If you are that ignorant to the fact that times have changed since last year when AFA and all the other unions agreed to managements concessions, I feel for you. Things need to be done in order for our jobs to stay intact and Im going to keep my mind open to what management has to say. PITBULL, i recomend that before you respond to someone you read the entire article and understand what they are saying, instead of having us suffer through one of your close-minded written diatribes again.

 

[PITbull]

Trans,

WARNING: Do not read if you can't handle the heat.

As far as me leaving U, I am not sure of the time you have invested in this company. My years are 23. I don't think I will be leaving because I don't subscribe to what you are trying to dish out.

Second, You may be willing to listen to what managment has to say on more concessions, don't worry, friend, your wish is their COMMAND. They will tell you whether you have an ear for it or not. So listen up! The WORLD has changed for everyone, however, many carriers who are in this "same world" are not having the problems of surviving, stabilizing and profiting as U is having. Not only that, those who are stabilizing and showing profits ARE "legacy" carriers that did not have the gift of going into BK, major, unprecedented concessions from labor, and ATSB approval...sooooooo, are we on the same planet as you?

I read your post again....and I come up with the same response as above.

 

[700UW]

Travler, one word:

AWESOME!

 

[delldude]

Traveler....you have deep insight ...........keep it coming.

 

[Twicebaked]

I will probably lose my head for this, but here goes....

I personally will not give anything else to this management. I believe that the majority WILL NOT either.

I personally would give back up to 5% (I survived from the "deferal") if Dave and company would step down with no parachute.

I know what people are going to say.....the next one will ask for more, blah, blah, blah.

My answer to that is....We cannot survive with Uncle Dave at the helm. HE MUST BE REPLACED NOW.

If our only shot at survival is to get rid of him with a price...I would do it.

NO MORE FOR THIS CLOWN!!!!!!!!

Let's take that to Bronner...little bargaining...you give us Dave's resignation and we will give you a tiny repreve (short term). With first snap back at first sign of profit NO MATTER WHY IT IS.

 

[Twicebaked]

I guess some of us assumed that "change" & "lower wages" coupled with Dave's talk of more cost cutting meant concessions.

Jim

Has Siegel denied it??

NO, HE HASN'T.

Who are you kidding?

 

[pitguy]

You know what folks? There are some of us here at US Airways that really do want our airline to survive and prosper and really believe that we can. I have looked at and read over so much negativity that is written by US Airways employees here at usaviation.com but i never respond. The hatred that some of these posters throw out to fellow employees and management is just unbelieveable. If some of you would spend just half the time putting the effort into your jobs on the line as you do writing on here I think our passengers would notice. Im the first one to admit that Im not happy with all the changes that have come into effect with our jobs over the last 2 1/2 years. In the end though, I love my job as a flight attendant and would not give it up for anything. The airline industry as we know it is SO DIFFRENT from what it was like 12 months ago. This is not a 9/11 thing anymore. US has to compete with all the LCCs that are now beginning to swallow up our turf, plain and simple. As much as I hate to admit it, cost cutting just might have to take place. My ears will be open to see what can be done. Dont call me a company guy folks! Im just a 30 yr old who is being realistic and sees what is going on around us in our industry.

Nobody works here that is that young (30). The world is different where we live son.

If there is then he could not have been here very long. (Me confused)

 

[BoeingBoy]

Bob,

One day I really would like to meet and share that "adult beverage" you mentioned in another post somewhere.

That would give me a chance to ask where you acquired your deep understanding of airline operations. Honest, I'm not being sarcastic. It's just that you sometimes come across as having most, if not all the answers.

Sustainable profits is a somewhat amorphus term. To the best of my knowledge, Southwest is the only airline that has been in existence for a long time that has consistently made a profit - seems like I saw the figure of 50 straight quarters, but that could be wrong. Overall, much has occassionally been said about commercial aviation being in the red if looked at over it's entire history.

It has been said that if you discount catastrophic events like 9/11 and average out the good and bad economic times, the difference between profit and loss for the average airline is 1 or 2 passengers per flight. You can do the math yourself if you'd like - 150 seat airplane, average stage length of say 900 miles, average fare of maybe $200. How many passengers would it take to increase RASM by the 0.5 cent difference that U had in the 3rd quarter?

Our costs are too high. But cost is also an amorphus term in the airline business. I could say that our costs are lower than AMR's, or CAL's, or NWA's. Does that mean that we're better off than they are? I could even say that our costs are only about 15% higher than LUV's while our revenues are 14% higher than LUV's. Does that mean that we're in about as well off as they are? What matters is not cost, but CASM. Not revenue, but RASM.

In many other businesses, labor is the largest of a few controllable costs. Not so in the airline business. Many factors affect the real measure of cost - CASM. Nearly all of these factors are directly controlled by management - the rank and file employee has no way to affect them. How else do you explain the 30+% drop in employee cost in two years, but only a 9.5% drop in CASM in the same period.

That's why we are worse off than AMR, CAL, and NWA though we have lower costs. They manage their airlines to produce lower CASM than our management does. That's why LUV is doing so much better in spite of the cost and revenue differences being about the same. Their management has structured that airline so that it has an almost insurmountable advantage in CASM.

Ok, I'm tired of beating this dead horse. Either you'll realize that airlines aren't just another business or you'll continue to believe that we employees are responsible for dragging this airline down with our outrageous demands.

Respectfully,

Jim

 

[TransatlanticFlyGuy]

Nobody works here that is that young (30). The world is different where we live son.

If there is then he could not have been here very long. (Me confused)

Please tell me that you are kidding with the idea that we have no employees aged 30 or less!! I fly with flight attendants that are younger than me!

 

[BoeingBoy]

Bob,

I agree with just about everything you said.

I do think that, given nearly 1.2 billion in labor concessions, 700 million in other concessions, termination of the pilots pension plan, a 1 billion government guaranteed loan, and a trip through bankruptcy, my kids could do about as well as Dave has done.

However, we were in a deep hole when he arrived. I do not place all the blame on his shoulders. I do blame him for not taking the many other actions that are necessary if this airline is to survive. I blame him for his narrow focus on "cost" to the exclusion of pretty much everything else.

Jim

 

[Light Years]

There are flight attendants under 30, but very few. Id guess less than 15%.

Lets do the math.... all flight attendants below August 1999 are gone. So even if the most junior was 20 when hired (the hiring age at the time until it changed to 19 in 2001 to be in line with United) he or she would be 24. So there may be a few left that are in thier twenties.

I dont know ages, but if you go on the hub you can pull up the entire (includes everyone) US Airways Flight Attendant System Seniority List. You would be surprised at just how senior the current workforce is. There were periods of years where U didnt hire a single F/A, therefore only a small percentage of the current workforce was hired in the 1990's, and none left from the 00's. The highest percentage were hired in the 70's and 80's, there are also many from the 60's and a small group from the 50's.

 

[repeet]

PineyBob,

If I may, let me take a shot at this.

PB: I do know that sick call rates in excess of 10% are bad!

Since the employees have created such an unhealthy work environment, it's the company's job to enforce company policy and rectify the situation. Unless.....
It's the company that's creating an unhealthy work environment. At which case you would expect the employees to complain. Wait, we've been complaining for so long and so hard, that we are now dismissed as WHINERS.



I do know that work rules can totally hamstring a company. USWA was well know for arcane work rules and look what happened to Big Steel!

I'm tired of having these mysterious, and nebulous "work rules" thrown in our faces. Just what are you talking about? Eliminating utility at the gates and having the Flight Attendants clean the aircraft? FOR FREE? Yes free. Wheels down and doors open, anything a flight attentant does for the company is gratis. Please excuse the Flight Attendants if that if they are going to be ASSIGNED a job, that they require at least the comerserate pay.


PB: I do know that when you merge companies and fail to take into account the corporate cultures you have a potential for disaster!


Agreed. I don't know about the employees of the other aquisitions; but, when we at Piedmont started questioning some of the corporate cullture, we were told: " Southern hospitality is ok, but we're busy running an airline here!"

PB: I firmly believe you can not have true customer satisfaction without employee satisfaction.

Agreed. Too bad that I'm on the wrong side of the management fence for my opinion to matter.

I firmly believe that US has the talent in the ranks to turn the airline into a profit making juggernaut if someone would just harness and exploit that talent.

Agreed. As a matter of fact, it is this belief that is the corner stone of the current employee movement to save this airline.

PB: I feel that outsourcing mission critical activities such as Airbus Mtc is a short term solution and a potential safety hazard

Agreed.

PB: I do believe that Dave S deserves some credit for getting the company this far.

Oh gawsh, don't tell anybody I said this.... I agree.

And in case any of my answers might be construed by management as weakness, let me remind them:

 

[stoopidute442]

Nobody works here that is that young (30). The world is different where we live son.

If there is then he could not have been here very long. (Me confused)

There may not be many in the air that are under 30...but there are plenty of bag smashers and straightners that are. I am only 24...got hired at 19......in fact i believe that we still have a straightner that is only 21. Back to the original subject.....people always ask me "you have an a&p lic. why are you still working here as a straightner?" And i tell them "I am young....i can wait out all the old head mechanics....they'll retire or die before me." I would love to retire at US but as repeet always says "The Concession Stand is CLOSED!"

 

[crazyincanton]

I cannot believe that after reading some of these posts, after taking it up the rump twice already, there are still people out there willing to bend over for a third time. Where do you draw the line? How bad do your working conditions have to be and how low does your pay and bennies have to go before you say enough is enough? My line was drawn at concession # 2. NO MORE!

crazyincanton