Merger News

[freedom]

Id like to interject that parker has had to make hard calls as well over these last few years , there have been A LOT of changes at US airways and many of them have taken the long term employees out of their comfort zone . However in the end he managed to save not only AWA but us air as well . While labor always wants more, there is a grudging respect for the work he's done,thus far .

While I don't speak for every US Airways employee ,I for one can say that I feel that I'm under sound and caring managment and my morale is heightened because of it .

 

[BigMac]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/02/11/three-thumbs-down-for-american-airlinesus-airways-merger/

 

[TWU informer]

http://www.forbes.co...airways-merger/

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,...That article lacks anything of significant value.

 

[eolesen]

Id like to interject that parker has had to make hard calls as well over these last few years

Yes, like making sure there are integrated seniority lists and new contracts?

Parker's done the branding and financial integration, he really has yet to deal meaningfully with labor. You'd think there'd be some resolution with the pilots by now. Instead, he seems to be content waiting for the malcontents to retire...

 

[WorldTraveler]

Kat, K*88, et al,

It would be easy to lay the loss of pensions at the feet of a shortage of unionized workers, but I would encourage you to take a far bigger picture of the situation.

The core notion that has failed is the idea that people can be cared for my an organization bigger than themselves from cradle to grave – health care and pension in particular.
Up until World War II, the expectation was that workers, even in the west, LARGELY had to work hard, save and prepare for their retirement. Post WWII, some countries chose to socialize the retirement of its citizens, esp. in Europe. European government takes 40% or more of the total production of the economy in order to deliver social promises.

IN the US, we as a country decided that retirement for most working Americans was the responsibility of business and industry. The US economy post-WWII was enormously powerful and could meet the challenge. Pensions largely could be funded by business until 10 years ago, when speculative investments like the dot com bubble ended and a host of other countries around the world became economic competitors to the US on a large enough scale that US economic dominance began to erode– but US consumer spending continued at the same pace.

The US’ economy during WWII was fuel by war; post war, the economy shifted to global production and exports and when that was challenged by global competitors, the US economy has shifted to consumer spending.
The Japanese economy post WWII was driven by producing high quality consumer goods. The European economy post WWII was surpassed by the US economy.

The Japanese and European GOVERNMENTS in the past 20 years have had to start paying the tab for the enormous social benefits they promised post WWII. The US, Europe, and Japan all suffer from the same aging populations – which means fewer workers contributing to retirement plans while more people draw from them and stay alive longer and longer.

The US, with economic strength to carry it a little further down the road, has not had to deal with the same problems as soon, but it is BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY are the ones that are realizing they cannot pay for the benefits that were once promised.

American companies are increasingly shifting responsibility for pensions to the worker and the government because they know business CANNOT sustain the responsibility for the very same reason gov’t pensions in Europe and Japan are failing – not enough economic growth and too many “takers” compared to contributers. Government can print money but business cannot. The US CURRENTLY has an advantage over Europe and Japan in that the strength of the US economy makes the US dollar still the preferred global reserve currency. Thought not as easily as it once did, the US can still print money to pay for promises. Business has no choice but to send the bill somewhere, esp. in light of the fact that most countries around the world have far more government involvement in retirement systems than the US does.

The problem at its core is that western societies aren’t spending enough to fund the retirement promises they made, whether they be private sector promises such as pensions or public sector such as social security and its foreign counterparts. The only western countries that are economically strong enough to continue to fulfill their obligations are those that have thrown open their doors for immigrants, legally bringing in new workers who can keep the current system running. The difference in approach between the US and its neighbor to the north is a perfect example.

In other words, retirement benefits are increasingly becoming socialized in the US – just like they are in most of the rest of the world.

The next major cost item that is in the crosshairs for American business is health care. Most countries have socialized it, the population is aging, fewer people are contributing, and the US economy is not growing as fast as health care costs are rising.

The only solution to ensure retirement is for Americans to recognize that if they want to have a retirement, they will have to cut their personal spending, obtain financial security when they are working (savings, home ownership) sufficiently large to draw upon in retirement.
Health care will follow the same path but it is more difficult… the likely solution is that you will see more and more Americans seeking health care benefits in other countries where it is much cheaper and/or government sponsored.

There are people on this forum who understand that the government and business cannot be counted on to continue to provide the “cradle to grave” benefits that the western economies all promised post WWII.
Americans who economically survive will have to take responsibility for a great deal more of their own futures and divert money away from consumer spending today in order to save for what is needed tomorrow. And Americans will have to learn to shop for services such as health care and places to retire in the global marketplace where what Americans have saved can go further.

Government leaders won’t tell you western economies are no longer viable, business will not tell you to stop spending and save for your own future, and unions cannot solve problems which are far larger than even government can solve.

May those who understand what is at risk work secure their own futures even if it means accepting that a lot of promises have been broken and it will require great personal cost to fix a system which government leaders and business should have ensured could survive decades ago.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Id like to interject that parker has had to make hard calls as well over these last few years , there have been A LOT of changes at US airways and many of them have taken the long term employees out of their comfort zone . However in the end he managed to save not only AWA but us air as well . While labor always wants more, there is a grudging respect for the work he's done,thus far .

While I don't speak for every US Airways employee ,I for one can say that I feel that I'm under sound and caring managment and my morale is heightened because of it .

Parker has indeed taken US from a very difficult position and created a lot of stability.
The chances are fairly high that he can do the same thing at AA - perhaps getting AA back in the game even at some level.

But if you look at what US is today compared to what it was years ago and compared to its competitors, there has been a high price paid in order to turn US around.

No one should have any illusions that there won't be an equally high price that will have to be paid to turn AA around and to create a single airline out of two airlines that have lost a whole lot in the past decade.

If it works, then perhaps all AA-US stakeholders will be better off than what they could have been independently.

But if the merger is unable to deliver, then the pain will be much higher than what it is today and competitors will have even more opening to gain at AA-US' expense, only adding to the gap between those two and the rest of the industry.

 

[wings396]

Yes, like making sure there are integrated seniority lists and new contracts?

Parker's done the branding and financial integration, he really has yet to deal meaningfully with labor. You'd think there'd be some resolution with the pilots by now. Instead, he seems to be content waiting for the malcontents to retire...

While I respect your opinion is most cases, I'm sort of surprised that you don't have your facts in order about the seniority integration pilot issues. I thought that you were aware as to how that went down, and that the company has no way to settle this dispute. It started out as a battle within the rank and file union people, then evolved into one court case after another. To the best of my knowledge, the company can't step in and overturn any legal or union related decisions.

 

[UPNAWAY]

I agree Freedom, Parker has shown in a crisis he is the guy you want at the helm, he most likely will now get a chance to see how he leads from a position of strength.

 

[BigMac]

http://twu514.org/blog/2013/02/12/us-airways-contract-and-seniority-lists/

 

[Super FLUF]

To be fair, it's not the same management team. You've got a lot of people in C-level positions that weren't there two years ago, and a lot more people in SVP positions who weren't there two years ago.

Once again, all this could very well be true. However, none of this matters now.

If Horton did indeed bring in a new team, have a new vision, and want to mend employee relations, he sure as hell didn't project that to the rank and file. Horton had a very small window to sell himself and his product. IMO, he failed miserably at this.

There can only be so much blame given to minions. Many say, "it wasn't Tom Horton at the negotiating table" or "it wasn't Tom Horton's decision to change or pursue this policy." Could all be true, but ultimately, the buck has to stop somewhere, and Tom Horton is responsible for this he delegates responsibility to and what they ultimately do.

If Tom Horton would have come out with a bold plan and not unleashed some of the re-treads like Jeff Brundage to gang rape the employees, the employees would be out right now digging a moat around Centreport trying to fend off Doug Parker.

 

[KILOFINAL]

Ahhh yes, Centreport. I remember a spring day in 1993 when we were all summoned into a room on the ground floor for an important conference call. The doors opened and the fine ladies from the cafeteria rolled in cart after cart of food. I mean it was crazy. I hadn't seen so much food being catered for an early morning meeting. Then the AA management team got on the call and talked about "cost containment" and how sacrifices would have to be made. 10,000 folks lost their jobs that day. Here we were talking about cutting costs from the leaders 5 floors up and the sheep were being slaughtered on the ground floor.

 

[freedom]

Parker has indeed taken US from a very difficult position and created a lot of stability.
The chances are fairly high that he can do the same thing at AA - perhaps getting AA back in the game even at some level.

But if you look at what US is today compared to what it was years ago and compared to its competitors, there has been a high price paid in order to turn US around.

No one should have any illusions that there won't be an equally high price that will have to be paid to turn AA around and to create a single airline out of two airlines that have lost a whole lot in the past decade.

If it works, then perhaps all AA-US stakeholders will be better off than what they could have been independently.

But if the merger is unable to deliver, then the pain will be much higher than what it is today and competitors will have even more opening to gain at AA-US' expense, only adding to the gap between those two and the rest of the industry.

Actually I don't think it will be as hard as you think ....... in my eyes we've just gone through a merger ... so really , what's one more merger ? I and all my US Airways co-workers are already familiar with everything that happens in a merger so the US Air side of the operation will be able to adapt very quickly , and as we are taking the AA name , and I imagine some of their procedures , it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for the AA workers either ..

I'm really excited for This merger because it's what i'm used too , I know what to expect and I have a pretty good idea of how we need to navigate it ( speaking of course for my particular work group )

 

[swamt]

Ahhh yes, Centreport. I remember a spring day in 1993 when we were all summoned into a room on the ground floor for an important conference call. The doors opened and the fine ladies from the cafeteria rolled in cart after cart of food. I mean it was crazy. I hadn't seen so much food being catered for an early morning meeting. Then the AA management team got on the call and talked about "cost containment" and how sacrifices would have to be made. 10,000 folks lost their jobs that day. Here we were talking about cutting costs from the leaders 5 floors up and the sheep were being slaughtered on the ground floor.

And once again and since then the wonderfull TWU (company union) "agreed" with the company for concessions, that's well over 20 years, now what happend in 1983?--which brings us to over 3 decades.

 

[eolesen]

While I respect your opinion is most cases, I'm sort of surprised that you don't have your facts in order about the seniority integration pilot issues. I thought that you were aware as to how that went down, and that the company has no way to settle this dispute. It started out as a battle within the rank and file union people, then evolved into one court case after another. To the best of my knowledge, the company can't step in and overturn any legal or union related decisions.

Oh, I know the history and the constraints. My point is that sitting on the sidelines and letting the pilots continue to fight it out over the past six years doesn't exactly show cutting edge leadership.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Actually I don't think it will be as hard as you think ....... in my eyes we've just gone through a merger ... so really , what's one more merger ? I and all my US Airways co-workers are already familiar with everything that happens in a merger so the US Air side of the operation will be able to adapt very quickly , and as we are taking the AA name , and I imagine some of their procedures , it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for the AA workers either ..

did you poll them to come to the conclusion that they are as accustomed to jumping into mergers and they will be happy about giving up ANY of their procedures, systems, etc?

Reading this forum for the past year leaves me pretty certain that a lot of AA employees, customers, and mgmt. - who will have to make the merger work at least in the near term - are not thrilled about the prospects.

Perhaps in time the US culture will prevail, AA mgmt. will be rolled out the door, etc... but there is a lot that is dependent on AA's current people to make this merger work.