Non-labor Costs

[Dea Certe]

Can anyone tell me if management has addressed the non-labor costs? If so, what were they? Other than plastic cups in FC and BOB, I haven't seen much.

Please, don't let this thread turn into a slagging match. I know the unions have given management a number of cost saving ideas. Have they been implemented? Considered? Why not?

Also, why doesn't management use what flexibility is already in the contracts rather than trying to rewrite the contracts?

Has anyone seen the "Going Forward Plan"? I might have missed it.

Thanks in advance for remaining civil!

Dea

 

[700UW]

The IAM has presented $80 to $100 Million in cost savings and the company has not acted on any of it!

 

[Phoenix]

Has anyone seen the "Going Forward Plan"? I might have missed it.

I am afraid we have all seen the going forward plan.

Do you not recall what Gangwal briefed weeks before he was fired?

1. Metro Jet eliminated.

2. Unlimited Rat Jets.

3. Mailine pay and benefits equal to Airtran.

You are living the Plan B from outer space.

 

[robbedagain]

The IAM has presented $80 to $100 Million in cost savings and the company has not acted on any of it!

why would this group of misfits running this airline into a cemetery do anything that DOES make SENSE????????????

 

[delldude]

try "workbrain" for some 4 to 5 million....
legal fees on all fronts.....
payouts for contract violations.....
airbus farmout ........
and the list goes on.....

 

[nycbusdriver]

Can anyone tell me if management has addressed the non-labor costs? If so, what were they? Other than plastic cups in FC and BOB, I haven't seen much.

Dea -

I think your question brings to light the prime reason that the unions are balking at any further cuts. USAirways has the highest non-labor CASM in the industry. There are many, many ways that the problem can be addressed by management without changing one word of any of the labor contracts in place. But instead, they choose to continue business as usual and ignore the solutions they should have implemented months ago. The only tune they can sing is "concessions from labor."

This clearly demonstrates to all of us that improving the bottom line is really not a priority for them. The priority is to squeeze every last drop of blood from organized labor, then maybe fix the infrastructure. If they succeed, they will have an airline making obscene profits (mostly on the backs of labor,) and it will be ripe for purchase by another entity. They will make exorbitant bonuses, the stockholders will rake in the dough and labor will be burdened with horrible conditions forever.

That's the plan. Fixing the airline is a secondary consideration, and the sooner all labor groups embrace that reality, the better off we will all be. Even if it means picking up the pieces of a shattered life and moving on, which is also a reality that employees must ponder.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Oh my gosh..... I know that some on this board pretend not to understand simple stuff so they can continue their ideology (paying me what I want works, charging me less for the ticket I want works), but this is too simple.

Management thinks that changing to the more efficient cost operation will FORGO revenues that they are getting now. I can't make a definitive statement, cuz, I REALLY DONT KNOW, but that judgment seems to make sense to me. It seems to me that U management has admitted that the revenue situation is changing rapidly and if the revenue picture deteriorates even more, maybe the strategy of simply changing the operation will result in more revenue. But then the airline business will be so bad anyway, that you might as well give up.

So, less cost and less revenues don't necessarily create a profit, right? U doesn't have much time tgo make another 'labor friendly' guestimate. In the end, (Pittsburgh mind-set aside) I don't understand how U employees can expect that the company that they chose to work for can make money AND pay their employees significantly more than AmWest pays their employees.

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? Please again, don't go back in time and remake decisions so that you change the situation that U is in right now.

 

[700UW]

WN will pay their rampers $24.35 an hour next year and they are the most profitable airline around! Mechanics will make $42 next year.

US has the lowest labor cost of all six major airlines larger then them!

I for one am so tired of people who don't even know what airline employees wages are telling US Airways employees it is labor costs, take the time to educate yourselves and learn the truth.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Ok, 700, snap your fingers and magically, without cost, transform U into the WN equivalent on the East Coast, defeating all the other airline's competitive responses, with your cost-free magic. Go ahead.

 

[Bear96]

700UW,

It is incredible to me that you are still unable / unwilling to comprehend the distinction between "labor costs" (as a whole) and "hourly pay rate" (one part of the whole).

But if ignoring reality makes it possible for you to cope with what is going on, then by all means carry on as long as you can...

 

[700UW]

Bear96,

It is incredible to me that people like you don't realize the employees of this company have given back in two rounds of concessions over $1.2 Billion a year for almost two years, 20,000 less jobs, termination of the pilots DB plan and work rules given back to the company and dave still has no plan and no vision.

It is incredible to me that the company has not implemented all the productivity changes it got in concessions to save money.

It is incredible to me that when you prove to the company we can do it in-house cheaper, more efficient and better they fail to act on it.

It is incredible to me that you outsiders have no idea and/or no clue what is transpiring here and you have the audacity to blame labor cost. It is a proven fact US has the lowest labor cost of the six major airlines larger then itself.

It is incredible to me that the IAM has provided $80-$100 Million in cost savings, only to fall on dear executives ears at US.

Keep on spewing your anti-worker garbage if it makes you feel better.

Oh by the way if our labor costs are so high why did dave make $3.8 million in 2002 and going to get a new contract making him worth $11 million when WN does not even pay their executives that much?

And to this date no airline has been saved from going out of business from employee concessions alone.

 

[geo1004]

700UW, It is incredible to me that you are still unable / unwilling to comprehend the distinction between "labor costs" (as a whole) and "hourly pay rate" (one part of the whole).

Agreed.

Actually, the FIGURES I REALLY want to see:

Take the total amount WN spends on non-management labor (wages, benefits, insurance, travel expenses, EVERYTHING) and divide it by the number of employees.

Do the same for US.

It is NOT just hourly wages folks. And it's NOT some hypothetical comparison like the same flight on a 737 from PHL to TPA. It IS what the airline shells out of its coffers.

 

[linemech]

It is incredible to me that you are still unable / unwilling to comprehend the distinction between "labor costs" (as a whole) and "hourly pay rate" (one part of the whole).

When you infer that 700uw cannot or will not comprehend the distinction between labor costs and non labor costs you appear to have read more into his post than was there.

Everyone should know that labor cost are not hourly wages alone, but a comparison of the hourly wage of a profitable airline vs U also shows that lowering labor costs through pick pocket tactics while all labor groups are working under C.O.B.'s that Dave and his team negotiated and begged for shows that Labor costs alone at any hourly wage will not save U.

Even if Dave and his team had everything they wanted (which is what he got the last two times he asked) he couldn't run a airline.

Linemech.

 

[Beef or Chicken]

Quote by Dea Certe:

Can anyone tell me if management has addressed the non-labor costs? If so, what were they?

Well, that sounds like a pretty straightforward question to me. I have been curious to know this myself.

Please, don't let this thread turn into a slagging match.

Aw c'mon Dea. Then RowUnderDCA apparently would have nothing else to do. The only other flame baiter missing here is I-Trade.

But I'll be a nice guy and try to get the thread back on track. If anyone here does know of efforts by management to cut the ultra high cost of this company's way of doing business, other than labor concessions, I think alot of us would like to know.

And if you don't know or can't seem to stick to the original thread subject, kindly take your toys and move on.

 

[700UW]

Amen Beef,

I know on the maintenance side the only thing they have done to cut costs is to violate a CBA they agreed to, farm out as much work as possible and layoff more workers.

The IAM has given them over $80-$100 Million in cost savings that the company has not acted upon.

I know the CLT Avionics Shop has come up with several dozen business plans to bring work in-house, the mechanics in the shop have proven with facts, figures and documentation that the work can be done more efficient and cost effective in-house only to be shot down EVERY single time.

Makes me wonder if someone is getting a kickback from these farmouts?

Also a former VP of Maintenance has been hired by Nordam and he was recently in CLT trying to get more business for his new employer.

The man has only been gone four months and is all ready soliciting work from US.