Philadelphia Inquirer

[US1YFARE]

Why don't you fight back against the Inquirer? They constantly take jabs at US and its workers.

Yet another article again today:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/9953923.htm?1c


In the article, the author says:

US Airways' announcement yesterday came after a weekend in which passengers complained - as they frequently do at Philadelphia airport - that checked baggage from some inbound flights took more than an hour to be delivered to baggage-claim areas.

The airline experienced some weather-related flight delays and cancellations on Saturday, but also was investigating why an unusually large number of its airport employees did not show up for work, spokesman David Castelveter said.

On Friday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Mitchell granted US Airways an emergency order allowing it to cut the pay of most of its 25,000 unionized employees by 21 percent for four months as a way to stave off liquidation. Management employees also are taking pay cuts as part of the company's effort to bring its labor costs more in line with low-fare carriers'.


Your customers don't want to hear that workers are on a slowdown.

 

[US1YFARE]

Tom Belden wrote this article.

The one on Sunday was written by Jane M. Von Bergen. The Sunday article was terrible.

 

[Pacemaker]

What's the big deal - sounds like business as usual at PHL.

 

[SKY HIGH]

Could someone copy and paste the article from the PHL enquirer?
Is that allowed on this site?
Problem being, is that both the PHL Enquirer and the Charlotte Observer sites both require registration. I'm not interested in registering to so many sites that require it now.

thanks.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Should have stayed in PIT. Oh well....

 

[USAirUnited]

This is like Eastern Airlines all over again. I don't think the 21% would have been such a hard pill to swallow if the managers and supervisors too it to.

 

[aerosmith]

Did I miss something I thought PB wasn't posting anymore.(Exile)

 

[deltawatch]

Management employees also are taking pay cuts as part of the company's effort to bring its labor costs more in line with low-fare carriers'.

[post="192546"][/post]​

Workers are now paid $7.00 an hour less than Southwest ..... mgt is paid more than Southwest mgt. What a joke.....

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Workers are now paid $7.00 an hour less than Southwest ..... mgt is paid more than Southwest mgt. What a joke.....

[post="192645"][/post]​

But the judge didn't see that. :blink: What a cluster&^%$ this place is. :angry:

 

[deltawatch]

But you know what .... if they pull this off WN can kiss their pay check good by within 5 years...... as well.

 

[sfb]

Your customers don't want to hear that workers are on a slowdown.

Quite the contrary, actually. As a customer, I prefer to know what to expect before traveling; if I know that there might be some "issues" with baggage handling, I might prefer to avoid checking bags (where possible) or adjust my schedules to allow extra time, or even book away. It would be more accurate to say that the company would prefer that the customers not hear about a possible slowdown in order to avoid possible lost revenue.

I didn't find the article to be particularly biased in either direction. The parenthetical reference to frequent complaints at PHL, while unflattering, is not baseless. Remember last spring when the customers in the baggage claim area started chanting "Southwest" after lengthy delays due to a broken baggage system? And the writer does point out that US Airways aims to become more efficient and competitive with its plans.

But you know what .... if they pull this off WN can kiss their pay check good by within 5 years...... as well.

Only if management can pull off a dramatic reduction in US's non-labor costs as well. Look at it this way: US's stage-length-adjusted, non-labor, non-fuel CASM for the first six months of 2004 was 5.8 cents/mile. WN's stage-length-adjusted, non-fuel CASM (including labor!) was 5.7 cents/mile. And they have a great fuel hedging program! Translation: even if everyone at US worked for free, Southwest still would have had lower costs. They would have made a profit last quarter even without their fuel hedges. Not to mention that they're not flying around a bunch of high-cost RJ's, they have tons of cash, and they own most of their fleet free and clear. US's big worry needs to be what's going on with Delta -- because if DL gets its costs down through negotiation ot the courts, you can bet that they are going to do their best to kill off their most direct network competitor.

 

[28yrsnojob]

management is flying in and driving in from small cities to witness whats
going on in phl clt and bos . They are having big problems.

 

[Light Years]

Are they mystified as to what's going on? People are just taking thier time, doing it by the book rather than hustling. Any last shred of pride in thier airline is gone. They don't seem to the 110% people were giving is what was keeping it all afloat. You beat the work out of your work force.

 

[Phoenix]

management is flying in and driving in from small cities to witness whats
going on in phl clt and bos . They are having big problems.

[post="192660"][/post]​

They finally realized this?!

 

[US1YFARE]

Are they mystified as to what's going on? People are just taking thier time, doing it by the book rather than hustling. Any last shred of pride in thier airline is gone. They don't seem to the 110% people were giving is what was keeping it all afloat. You beat the work out of your work force.

[post="192664"][/post]​

Doing it by the book is one thing. Letting the customers know that you are moving "21% more slowly", laughing about liquidation, not doing your job are another.

What is happening today? I'm curious. Yesterday was not as bad as I expected. Lots of whispering in front of customers, lots of laughing about liquidation, but I expected worse.