Bankruptcy/Lorenzo/Contracts

[Cathay747400]

I have been thinking a lot about what I have been reading lately about the state of the industry here in the USA, man what a mess. It takes me back to 1985 when Frank Lorenzo, remember him, destroyed Eastern and almost Continental. That mess went on for years. The Pilot's and Machinists at EAL were trying, in vain, to stop him. We all know what happened. So after all this, laws were put into place to stop those type of tactics anymore. So I'll ask the dumb question, WTFO? How was USAir managment aloud to do what they have done, then UAL etc etc etc. It is like the majors have been giving carte blanche. Threats, intimidation, then CH.11. I can tell you this, Frank Lorenzo now seems a visionary.

UAL/DAL/NWA/USAir management now are no better then Franky and the fact that ALPO is letting this happen is really, mindblowing. I never thought I'd see the day. Is there anyone out there who can explain this to me? And why isn't anyone putting a stop to it. Oh, I think I just answered my own question. I just remembered who was in office over the course of Frankys reign, Reagan, V.P. Bush, Then Pres Bush. Bush was friends and a supporter of Franky and now who is in office, **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** another Bush, son of Franky supporter. It is all clear to me now.

I think things will get worse before they get better and someone is finally going to have to take a stand. I thought it was going to be USAir, then UAL then DAL. They have all fallen under the threats of managment. Most of this was caused by management and they continue to screw things up. SOMEONE, PLEASE GET SUSAN POWDER AND STOP THE INSANITY!!!

Good luck to all of you. I hope there are better times ahead. Maybe the Oil family of Bush and Bush will settle down after they make there millions and you can all have your jos back. Of course at half pay.

Who voted this idiot into office, it certainly wasn't me.

 

[PCL_128]

After the Lorenzo fiascos there were several changes to the bankruptcy laws. The big change was the requirement that the bankruptcy judge approve any changes to labor contracts. Lorenzo was able to just void the union contracts instantly after the bankruptcy filing. That is no longer legal, but the contracts can still be changed by the judge if he thinks it is necessary.

 

[Double Shot]

I voted for Bush...

 

[Publishers]

Well simply put, in any other business in the country where you lose millions per quarter, you go out of business and send the people home. Then you do not have to worry about any of this.

 

[Groucho]

You are absolutly correct that the industry is a mess.

There are plenty of groups to share the blame. Management and labor all are responsible for the current situaition.

Management because they follow the herd and very few have ever had an orgional thought and they no longer grow up with the industry. They graduate with an MBA from Havard and think they can rule the world by the numbers.

18 years ago when I joined this industry they were building up hubs, all the while knowing that a hub is a labor productivity destroyer. They created a "B" scale to fix their cost problems, and they overexpanded and tried to be everything to everyone. Now they are tearing down their hubs, they wouldn't take a larger pay cut from my pilot group but wanted productivity changes to make up for sloppy hub planning and they can't figure out what type of customer they are chasing.

All the majors thought there were not going to be any strong upstarts in the industry because the captive reservation systems would keep the yield control situaition under their control. They could dump capacity on a competitor and drive him out of the market. Along came the WWW. and all that changed. People can now buy tickets online from any airline and they don't go through Sabre.

The pilot groups have led the industry in adapting to the changes and in my opnion the dirty seceret for the majors is that the ground folks are the weak spot. The IAM will strike at the drop of a hat and they feel that airplane cleaners and baggage loaders making $60K a year is just fine. These are essentially min-wage jobs and they can be done by anyone. The labor productivity of hubs is terrible and the ground crews stand around for almost half a shift with nothing to do. Incresing hub bank density only increases the staffing problems. More people to work the flights means more people standing around when the bank is done.

As the software and applications for ticketing get better the gate agent and ticket counter agent jobs will become more simple. It takes an 8 week course to learn the ticket agents job under the ATA uniform interline ticketing system. This system was designed in the 50's and needs to be dropped. Some easy to use standardized system can and is being developed so that it is easier for the customer and easier for the company to use. The automatic ticketing kiosk should become the standard for a one-stop flight for almost all airlines.

Pilots are just the most visible commodity available to talk about the problems of the industry. The job of a United, US Airways, or Southwest 737 front end crew are identical. They are performed in an almost identical fashion. The operation of their respective companies are vastly different and therein lies the problem and the solution to the industrys' woes.