Delta's EVP of HR, from Anti-Pilot Union-Busting Law Firm Ford & Harrison

[Voice Of Reason]

Delta's EVP of HR, Mike H. Campbell, from Anti-Pilot Union-Busting Law Firm Ford & Harrison
Just linked to this from an aviation news site, and noticed this...I am sure you DL & NWA guys are already well aware of what this company does... here's to hoping that a non-negotiable part of any agreement includes his resignation. Here at Flight Options they have helped our company's (mis) management drag the profession of our pilots from a great job, into a complete nightmare in a very short period of time. They are likely paid more to do so, than it would cost in acceptable pilot wages. "Human" Resources they are not, and operating under multiple screen names on the fractional boards FYI.
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http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/delta/stories/2008/02/19/dalbios_0220.html

Company leaders: Who will decide

Published on: 02/19/08
Directors of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines are meeting this week to consider the pros and cons of combining. The board members will weigh efficiencies gained by being the world's largest airline against the complexities of joining unions and other employees, fleets, routes and operational systems. If they agree to move forward, a merger could be announced as soon as Thursday. Here is a who's who of decision makers:

DELTA EXECUTIVES
Richard Anderson, 52, became CEO in September, after five months on Delta's board. A lawyer and Texas native, he started at Continental Airlines in 1987. In 1990, he went to Northwest, where he was CEO from 2001-2004. He was an executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group before taking Delta's top post. He is expected to be CEO of a combined Delta-Northwest. But if he doesn't get the job, he is entitled to a potential payout of $14.1 million in stock and cash. He has said he would waive such compensation.

Edward Bastian, 50, president since September 2007 and chief financial officer since 2005. Oversaw Delta's restructuring under bankruptcy. Joined Delta in 1998, left in early 2005 to be CFO of Atlanta-based lighting maker Acuity Brands but returned in July 2005. Previously worked at PepsiCo and in the New York audit practice of accounting firm Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Mike H. Campbell, 59, executive vice president human resources, labor and communications, joined Delta in 2006 from Atlanta-based law firm Ford & Harrison, where he was a founding partner. Oversaw human resources and labor relations for Continental in the 1990s.

Stephen E. Gorman, 52, executive vice president of operations, joined Delta in December 2007 from Greyhound Lines, where he was CEO and credited with increasing revenue per mile by more than 30 percent. He also held executive posts at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Northwest Airlines, where he worked from 1996-2001.

Glen W. Hauenstein, 45, executive vice president of network and revenue management. Has overseen Delta's global fleet efficiency push. Joined Delta in 2005 from Alitalia, where he was chief commercial officer and chief operating officer. During his two years there, Alitalia's revenues grew by almost 20 percent while the fleet was reduced by more than 10 percent. He previously was senior vice president of network for Continental, where he started in 1987 as international controller.

THE DELTA BOARD
Any decision to pursue a merger needs approval of Delta's 10-member board, newly constituted by creditors when the airline emerged from bankruptcy in spring 2007. Anderson has a board seat; here are the others:
• Daniel Carp, 59, joined board in 2007, nonexecutive board chairman. Retired Eastman Kodak chief executive, known for prodding Kodak to start its transformation to digital.
• John Brinzo, 66, joined 2007, chairman of Cleveland-Cliffs, which mines and sells iron ore pellets.
• Richard Goeltz, 65, joined 2007, retired vice chairman and chief financial officer of American Express, a major Delta vendor and financial backer during bankruptcy.
• Eugene Davis, 49, joined 2007, chairman and CEO of Pirinate Consulting Group. Previously held top posts at Emerson Radio and Sport Supply Group.
• Victor Lund, 60, joined 2007, former chairman and chief executive of American Stores, a supermarket chain.
• Walter Massey, 69, joined 2007, former Morehouse College president and the only Atlantan among the new directors.
• David Goode, 67, joined 1999, retired chairman of rail transportation company Norfolk Southern.
• Paula Rosput Reynolds, 51, joined 2004, former AGL Resources chief, now CEO of Seattle-based insurer Safeco.
• Kenneth Woodrow, 63, on board since 2004, retired vice chairman and president of retailer Target.


NORTHWEST EXECUTIVES
Douglas Steenland, 56, CEO since October 2004 and Northwest's president since April 2001. Led the airline through bankruptcy. In 2006, he was among airline executives who successfully lobbied Congress to change pension law to help them avoid defaulting pension plans. Joined Northwest in 1991 as deputy general counsel. Worked under Anderson when he was Northwest CEO. Also served in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation. His potential payout if a merger knocks him out of the top post: $7.8 million in cash and benefits (plus $4.12 million in current value pension benefits).

Neal Cohen, 47, joined Northwest in 2005; currently executive vice president of international strategy and CEO of regional airlines; formerly CFO and a lead architect of the airline's wage and cost cuts during bankruptcy restructuring. He was CFO of US Airways from 2002-2004.

David M. Davis, 41, rejoined Northwest in 2005 and has been CFO since June 2007; formerly senior vice president of finance and controller for Northwest; previously was CFO of US Airways and held finance positions at both Delta and Northwest.

J. Timothy Griffin, 56, executive vice president-of marketing and distribution; joined Northwest in 1993 from Continental, where he was senior vice president of schedules and pricing. Spent four
years at American.

Andrew C. Roberts, 47, executive vice president of operations since October 2004; joined the company in September 1997 as the managing director of Minneapolis/St. Paul engine operations. Previously was general manager of Pratt & Whiney's jet engine manufacturing center in Columbus, Ga.

THE NORTHWEST BOARD
Northwest has a 12-member board, five of which came on in April 2007. Steenland has a board seat. Here are the others:
• Roy Bostock, 67, chairman, joined board in 2005, newly named nonexecutive chairman of Yahoo; a principal of Sealedge Investments; former head of advertising firm MacManus Group.
• David Brandon, 55, joined 2007, CEO of Domino's Pizza and former chief executive of coupon company Valassis.
• Mike Durham, 57, joined 2007, CEO of consulting firm Cognizant Associates; formerly senior vice president and treasurer of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. and CFO of American; former CEO of travel distribution company Sabre; also on board of Atlanta-based natural gas distributor AGL Resources.
• John Engler, 59, joined 2003, former three-term Michigan governor now CEO of National Association of Manufacturers.
• Mickey Foret, 62, joined 2007, president of Aviation Consultants; was CFO of Northwest from 1998 to 2002 and former CEO of Northwest Airlines Cargo.
• Robert L. Friedman, 64, joined 2002, chief administrative and legal officer of private equity firm Blackstone Group.
• Doris Kearns Goodwin, 65, joined 1997, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian; was as an assistant to President Lyndon Johnson; taught at Harvard.
• Jeffrey G. Katz, 52, joined 2005, CEO of educational tech company LeapFrog Enterprises; held CEO posts at travel Web site Orbitz and Swissair; spent 17 years at American Airlines.
• James Postl, 61, joined 2007 as an independent director, former CEO of Pennzoil-Quaker State and executive at Nabisco and Pepsico.
• Rodney Slater, 52, joined 2007, partner at Washington law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs; was U.S Secretary of Transportation from 1997-2001; also was director of the Federal Highway Administration.
• William S. Zoller, 59, joined 2006, captain of Northwest's pilots' union and a Northwest pilot for more than 25 years; previously served as an executive vice president of the Air Line Pilots Association, which also represents Delta pilots.

— Compiled by Nisa Asokan and Scott Thurston

Sources: company Web sites, SEC documents, Who's Who in America, Standard & Poor's

 

[Voice Of Reason]

PS--

Wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this is the "leak" spreading the FUD in regard to the whole "Pilots holding the whole deal up" theme that the naive media seems all too eager to scoop up.

He started at DL just in 2006 guess that should have been the foreshadowing the whole merger was imminent. Isn't that also about the time NW's CEO came over?

Ford & Harrison are plotting their own special place in h*ll
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Looks like he went back to F&H at the beginning of 2005 (then to DL 2006) so likely as a 'founding member' still "there" too. Likely at DL for a temp assignment, just like when with CO...will he "retire" from DL too or be sent packing by ALPA first so he can't interfere in another pilot group's livelihood?

http://www.fordharrison.com/shownews.aspx?Show=1139

"Continental SVP, Michael Campbell, Rejoins Ford & Harrison LLP

10/18/2004

Atlanta — Ford & Harrison LLP today announced that Michael H. Campbell, Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Labor Relations of Continental Airlines, will rejoin the firm as Of Counsel effective January 1, 2005. He is retiring after eight years with Continental.
Before joining Continental, one of the nation’s top five air carriers, Campbell practiced at Ford & Harrison where he was one of the firm’s original founding partners.
“I'm quite pleased to have the opportunity to work with Michael as a colleague again,” said Lash Harrison, Ford & Harrison’s managing partner. “His experience at Continental will be a valuable asset to the firm and, most importantly, to our clients in the airline industry.”
Campbell will practice with the firm’s airline group representing airline clients in the areas of traditional labor and employment law. Ford & Harrison has a national reputation for its representation in the airline industry and currently represents over fifty (50) airlines, including major and regional airlines, low cost carriers, foreign flag carriers, overnight express carriers, charter/supplemental airlines, and cargo airlines.
At Continental, Campbell’s role included employee relations where he assisted in establishing a positive labor relations climate, improving productivity and achieving better wages, benefits and training for the company’s employees. In part due to his efforts, FORTUNE magazine ranks Continental one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America, an honor it has earned for six consecutive years.
“I am delighted to be rejoining Ford & Harrison and am proud of the firm’s growth and expansion over the years,” said Campbell. “Having been in the airline industry for thirty years, I know what a great reputation Ford & Harrison has for its airline practice, and I’m eager to work again with lawyers of such a caliber.”
Campbell earned a B.A. from the University of Richmond, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law."

 

[taildragger48]

Mike Campbell is bad news. Ask anyone who flew at CAL through the last three pilot contracts. Glad you guys have him now!

 

[Voice Of Reason]

Mike Campbell is bad news. Ask anyone who flew at CAL through the last three pilot contracts. Glad you guys have him now!

Hopefully this will give DL/NW guys an extra "heads up" so they don't suffer what CO has and Flt Ops is going through right now. Maybe they can let the media and Joe Public in on this info to nip this type of tactic in the bud and end their typical M.O. of putting the "pilots ruining everything" bs on infinite auto replay.

 

[CALDC9]

Mike Campbell is bad news. Ask anyone who flew at CAL through the last three pilot contracts. Glad you guys have him now!

He is worthless SOB. Made millions off the employees at CAL.

 

[Voice Of Reason]

He is worthless SOB. Made millions off the employees at CAL.

typical. Was he in an HR titled position at CO too?

 

[Superpilot92]

Thats pretty low right there. I hope all are taking notes!

 

[Voice Of Reason]

They also go by "F & H Solutions" and a number of other names. Hope the DL guys know what they're up against with that "human resources" plant.

 

[Voice Of Reason]

It is timely to remind everyone at DL who is running your company's HR and making strategic moves to scare pilots.
These people are also employed throughout the industry, so beware all!

 

[Superpilot92]

Bump!!!

 

[Voice Of Reason]

Congrats Delta, you've been UNION-BUSTED! WARNED YOU!

re: Delta's EVP of HR, Mike H. Campbell, from Anti-Pilot Union-Busting Law Firm Ford & Harrison
Just linked to this from an aviation news site, and noticed this...I am sure you DL & NWA guys are already well aware of what this company does... here's to hoping that a non-negotiable part of any agreement includes his resignation. Here at Flight Options they have helped our company's (mis) management drag the profession of our pilots from a great job, into a complete nightmare in a very short period of time. They are likely paid more to do so, than it would cost in acceptable pilot wages. "Human" Resources they are not, and operating under multiple screen names on the fractional boards FYI.
------------------------

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/delta/stories/2008/02/19/dalbios_0220.html

Company leaders: Who will decide
...
Mike H. Campbell, 59, executive vice president human resources, labor and communications, joined Delta in 2006 from Atlanta-based law firm Ford & Harrison, where he was a founding partner. Oversaw human resources and labor relations for Continental in the 1990s.

...
NORTHWEST EXECUTIVES
Douglas Steenland, 56, CEO since October 2004 and Northwest's president since April 2001. Led the airline through bankruptcy. In 2006, he was among airline executives who successfully lobbied Congress to change pension law to help them avoid defaulting pension plans. Joined Northwest in 1991 as deputy general counsel. Worked under Anderson when he was Northwest CEO. Also served in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation (ed: A/K/A "Anti-Trust Lawyer). His potential payout if a merger knocks him out of the top post: $7.8 million in cash and benefits (plus $4.12 million in current value pension benefits).
...
— Compiled by Nisa Asokan and Scott Thurston

Sources: company Web sites, SEC documents, Who's Who in America, Standard & Poor's

When gas gets even higher this summer, and people radically cut their travel, and the DL pilots continue to be taken in by every trick from the "CONFESSIONS OF A UNION BUSTER" handbook, and when by January (the month that your alleged new union busting contract starts) the new (even worse) economy will deem it null & void...that'll be okay, because even though you'll see none of it, you consorted with greedy CEOs (who will be long gone soon) to ensure that the mass furloughs will occur via the NWA guys you did INDEED "throw under the bus."
Your pilot group will be looked on accordingly in the industry an ALL that comes with that rep, I assure you.
Ford & Harrison has made a decades old career of outwitting the naive in the pilot ranks, and you fell for it in such a textbook way. Sad.
As for ALPA NATIONAL: You should be ashamed of all that you have allowed to occur, and I'm betting the USAPA is just the beginning of your troubles if you don't IMMEDIATELY deny the actions of the DL MEC. This industry has been infected by ills that ALPA, with all their resources and access to lobbyists has ignored! THAT is why your end is near unless you ACT NOW!
I have all the respect in the world for the NWA guys who have seen this happen again and again, and KNOW what is coming. SUUUURE you're getting a raise and "equity stake" (nevermind the market dumps on this deal, or the RECESSION, or the GAS prices still skyrocketing, and people who won't be buying (the newly raised in a recession) tickets.
Hello????? NWA guys are willing to stand their ground to protect SENIORITY that we all hold dear as pilots in EVERY part of the industry!
NOW do you get why seniority is all that matters???
Oh yeah, no...you don't...because you are STEALING from a perfectly stand alone carrier's account and stealing (in the name of "merger") a pilot group that you only want to pad the bottom when they DO INDEED furlough.
Thanks, Delta MEC for helping to aid in the ills of this industry, and greatly limiting all pilot's options to join the majors for a LEGITIMATE career with legitimate seniority.
Argh...vent done...thought my company was the worst, but this takes the cake. No wonder people are leaving the industry in droves...

 

[Voice Of Reason]

Book Review

"
Confession of a union buster

Search WWW Search pww.org
Author: Tony Pecinovsky
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 10/16/03 14:37

Book review

Confessions of a Union Buster, by Martin Jay Levitt, Crown Publishers Inc., 302 pp., hardcover, $25.

Martin Jay Levitt joined the union-busting business in 1969. He was 25 years old, divorced, living with his parents, and in need of fast cash. The seduction was too much. Besides, like his first union-busting boss told him, “We do the Lord’s work.”

Even though Levitt wasn’t sure what was meant by the “Lord’s work,” he learned quickly and found out early on that the Lord’s servants were paid handsomely. After all, union busters weren’t “anti-union.” They were “pro-company and pro-employee.” So at age 25 Levitt began making $500 dollars a day and billed the client company for “every single expenditure ... for the duration” of a union-busting campaign.

Levitt’s first union-busting campaigns introduced him to the most “common strateg[ies] among management lawyers.” First, Levitt tells us, “Challenge everything ... then take every challenge to a full hearing ... then prolong each hearing” as long as possible, then “appeal every unfavorable decision.”

According to Levitt there was method to the madness. “If you [can] make the union fight drag on long enough, workers...lose faith, lose interest, lose hope.” Taking away people’s hopes, their aspirations for a better future – that was Levitt’s job.

While Levitt understood the strategies of union busting, his understanding of why union busting is such a lucrative profession jelled later on. As Levitt chatted one night with a dinner guest, John Rogers, the “top industrial relations man at Cleveland Trust Bank,” he found out what the union-busting business was all about. “Control,” Rogers told him.

“After that night,” Levitt writes, “I began to see that the business was all about control. I realized that control was both the objective and the method in union busting.” According to Levitt, corporations want to learn the “secrets of staying in control ... during an organizing drive.”

Confessions really hits home when Levitt gives the details of how a union-busting campaign is waged. In the late seventies, Levitt worked for a firm called Modern Management Methods (Three M). Three M was hired to consult management at Harper Grace hospital, where (what has since become) the Service Employees International Union 1199 was in the middle of a organizing drive.

According to Robert Muehlenkamp, an 1199 organizer, “Union busters wield great power through their program of terror and manipulation – people don’t, can’t possible know what’s going on and who’s telling the truth. You have to appreciate that most of the people [at a work site] are just ordinary people. They have no experience … with violence, with being lied to, with manipulation, with being harassed in open, gross, insulting ways. The first time this happens to regular people, they’re terrified.” And terror is the goal. The union buster hopes to control employees by employing terror.

But it isn’t just about breaking an organizing drive at one single location. Levitt quotes Muehlenkamp again to emphasize the point: “If they [hospital workers] watched all the workers at the only other hospital ... try to organize and saw what happened to them, only to lose, they weren’t going to attempt the same.”

One of the most striking things about Confessions is its brutal honesty, its brutal portrayal of the union buster and his awareness of the conditions of the would-be union members he was paid to manipulate, confuse and eventually defeat.

Throughout Confessions we are also introduced to Levitt’s wife and children. We are told of Levitt’s on-again, off-again, romances and affairs, the thirst for more and more material wealth – luxury cars and huge houses – and the unquenchable drinking. Levitt repeatedly tells us that drinking became the only way he could accept the reality of what he did.

In the mid-eighties he decided to seek alcoholic treatment and change his profession. He called the AFL-CIO and told the leadership of his decision. While skeptical at first, the AFL-CIO realized that insider knowledge of the union-busting business was valuable and that Martin Jay Levitt wanted to try to make amends.

At the beginning of Confessions, Levitt tells of a speech he gave at the 1988 Western Conference of the Brotherhood of Carpenters. At the end of the speech many in the audience had tears in their eyes, Levitt writes. He then adds, “It was not joy, but an overwhelming feeling of relief that filled the men who heard me that day: relief to know that the war they had suspected was being waged on them had been a real one all along and not just a creation of a unions paranoid imagination, as so many corporate bosses had told them.”

The war Levitt speaks of has intensified since Bush took office. Confessions should be read widely."

 

[njcapt]

The war Levitt speaks of has intensified since Bush took office. Confessions should be read widely."

One of the best books I ever read. Allows you to see right through management negotiating tactics, especially the ones orchestrated by ford and harrison, who have done not one original thing in 25 years.

Well worth the purchase. Buy Hard Landing at the same time.

 

[AA717driver]

For Immediate Distribution

Press Release:

General Lee, Delta Crew Room, JFK--I would like to put all rumors to rest that the presence of Mike Campbell, founding partner at Ford & Harrison in the HR department at Delta Airlines (the LARGEST AIRLINE IN THE WORLD) portends ANY sort of effort by Delta (the LARGEST AIRLINE IN THE WORLD) to water down the compensation and benefits of my fellow employees (except for those coming from Northwest Airlines, a rather minor player for the past couple of decades in the airline business).

I believe Delta Airlines (the LARGEST AIRLINE IN THE WORLD) has the employee's best interests at heart and will prove that to be the case once the cretins from Northwest are firmly put in their place and punished for not accepting the overly generous offer from the extremely magnanimous Capt. Lee Moak and the Delta (the LARGEST AIRLINE IN THE WORLD) MEC.

I look forward to flying you in the future (in the 744 we got from those Winged Monkeys from the North...).

Sincerely,

General Lee

 

[XJohXJ]

Of course, with Delta being a primarily un-unionized airline, who's employees outnumber NWA's in every segment of the organization, it would be simply paranoid to see this whole merger as one big union-busting effort against NWA's employees.

 

[Axel]

He is worthless SOB. Made millions off the employees at CAL.

Worthless to whom?

 

[aircowboy]

I hope everyone is paying attention to this.

 

[Voice Of Reason]

I hope everyone is paying attention to this.

Hopefully they are NOW...
The DL MEC i being played like a fiddle.
This is not a random comment... these Ford & Harrison people are brought on for a SPECIFIC PURPOSE under the guise of "human resources," long before a merger (or other planned exec chaos event) is a blip on the general population's radar. This has happened at Flight Options, Continental, and many MANY other airlines and flying organizations...yet many people STILL fail to acknowledge the Ford & Harrison (aka F&H Solutions, etc etc) presence and all that means. There is ONLY one reason to bring on board someone from Ford & Harrison, and that is to do the ONLY thing they have specialized in....busting pilot union organization, and also when they are organized dividing & conquering to create mass disunity to achieve their goals.
They SPECIALIZE in working "invisibly" behind the scenes, coaching mgt & execs in the art of promising the world (raises that never materialize regardless of being "in writing," etc) KNOWING that they are creating a situation where that CAN NOT or WILL NOT occur.
The next step in the textbook is to blame pilots (in this case 1 specific group of them) for being the reason that the imaginary "riches" will not be coming.
The difference here, as opposed to historical pilot behavior, is that you actually have one group in the same national union that is actually an ACCOMPLICE to the union busting.
ALPA National seems to be embarrassingly silent regarding this practice.

 

[AA717driver]

these Ford & Harrison people are brought on for a SPECIFIC PURPOSE under the guise of "human resources,"

And, the Delta MEC is only too willing to throw the NWA group under the bus because they had the audacity to turn down their proposal and oppose the merger.

I'm sure the union-busters are wetting their panties with delight. TC

 

[JoeMerchant]

Union busting assumes you have a union....we don't...there is no union busting going on.....

ALPA busts itself up on a regular basis....this is just yet another example....