Game On

[B19 Flyer]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Washington Post [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]CEOs You Don't Want in the Cockpit [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]by Harold Meyerson[/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It's a good thing that Donald J. Carty, the chairman and chief executive of American Airlines, doesn't also pilot one of its planes. If he did, and if the plane went into an uncontrolled dive and he handled it the same way he's running the company, he'd bail out as the plane fell to earth, drift dreamily down on a golden parachute, land lightly amid the carnage and give himself a nice cash bonus for coming through unscathed. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Over the past week it has become clear that Carty has engaged in the same kind of double-dealing, to conceal the same kind of double standards, that last year made his fellow Texan and CEO Ken Lay a household name. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]While Carty was convincing American's pilots, mechanics, flight attendants and baggage handlers that they had to accept major pay cuts (ranging from 15.6 percent to 23 percent, and kicking in on May 1) if the airline was to avoid bankruptcy, he was secretly crafting a "retention bonus" for American's top seven executives that would reward them for staying at their posts until 2005. The bonuses, all but one set at twice these executives' annual salaries (Carty's would total $1.6 million), weren't keyed to performance -- a prudent proviso, because American lost $5.3 billion in 2001-02 and things aren't exactly looking up yet. Instead, they seem to derive from the maxim of business guru Woody Allen, who once noted that 90 percent of life is just showing up. Carty's corollary is that if you run the company, just being there can be grounds for doubling your pay so long as nobody's on to you. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Nor was this all. Even as top American executives were telling the pilots that the company would eliminate their pension plans if it had to file for bankruptcy, Carty and his crew had secretly created a special pension trust for the company's top 45 executives that no creditor could even touch during a bankruptcy proceeding. More wondrous still, Carty and three other top honchos were to be paid extra for administering this trust. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It gets worse. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]These marvelous new provisions had to be included in American's year-end report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the company managed to get an extension from the SEC to delay the filing. Throughout April, American's workers were voting on whether to accept these pay concessions to stave off bankruptcy. Voting was to have wrapped up last Tuesday, and on Tuesday night, in the apparent belief that all three unions had accepted the cuts, the company finally released the report. In fact, the flight attendants had narrowly voted to reject the givebacks, so the polls were kept open Wednesday until a majority had voted yes. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Then the polls closed, not a moment too soon for management. As news of the secret deals spread, those American workers still grappling with the details of their Easter pageants had a casting director's epiphany: In a pinch, Donald J. Carty would make one swell Judas. On Thursday, leaders of one of the unions told Carty they might not sign the agreements that their members had, in all deliberate ignorance, ratified. Democratic members of Congress were rumbling too, and with American slated to receive $410 million from the emergency appropriation that Congress just enacted, Carty had to backtrack -- a little. He has now announced that the top seven execs won't be getting that retention bonus after all. The special pension plan for the special 45, however, will stay in place. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The real problem, of course, is that Don Carty isn't all that exceptional among his fellow corporate statesmen -- certainly not at many of the major airlines. Over at Continental, CEO Gordon Bethune pulled down a handsome $14.7 million last year -- a 172 percent increase over 2001, though the company lost $451 million. At Delta, chief executive Leo Mullin got himself paid $13.8 million -- a 104 percent increase over 2001, though Delta lost $1.27 billion. In this quadrant of American capitalism, at least, there is indeed a relation between executive pay and company performance. It's inverse. Or maybe there's a special problem with Texas CEOs. I know a former CEO of Halliburton Co., now the No. 2 in a larger concern, who keeps arguing that the public's legal right to oversee public business does not pertain to the topmost public executives when they meet to make energy policy and who knows what else. Then there's Dick Cheney's boss, who's out stumping for a budget that will force state governments to increase class sizes and cut medical care but will reward the richest 10 percent of Americans with massive tax cuts. When these guys think of shared sacrifice, the saps get the sacrifice and they get the shares. [/FONT]


Actually they wern't walking up the court house, check your normal flawed facts

It's funny that this article failed to mention that all these CEOs were responsible for record industry profits only a couple of years before which resulted in "Industry Leading Contracts" for the unions.

Why do you think that they left that part out Dimeline? Not newsworthy perhaps?

The unions did nothing but benefit from the efforts of all these CEOS and stabbed them in the back when they collected what the boards voted for them. They didn't just take the $$, the boards voted them these payroll packages.

You fail to see that though because you don't understand the dynamics of the industry.

It's unlikely that the industry will ever see the types of profits ever again that were produced by Carty, Mullins and Berthume. The unions will suffer the consequences of removing them from these positions.

Like always, the unions are short sighted in their vision.

And my facts are not flawed, the deals occured literally the day before the filing.

 

[skanza]

I'm sorry, dopey...

What a dopey statement you management slug! And stop picking on Dime Line for his spelling - There is no 's' in organiZed.

Sure, if you use the wrong word. Kinda like "your" in place of "you're". Go back to school.

organised
adjectivebeing a member of or formed into a labor union; "organized labor"; "unionized workers"; "a unionized shop" [syn: organized]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/organised

 

[netjetwife]

This guy sounds a lot like that B-something guy. Do I need to double my ignore list?

Helms, would you invite someone into your home for a chat if all that person did was insult you and belittle the choices you had made in your life? When the phone rings do you ignore telemarketers? Do you mute commercials when you watch TV? The frac community is focused on raising the bar. It's counterproductive to waste time with a person who is trying to hold the pilots back. I have nothing in common with those posting FUD so I've decided to use the ignore function as a filter to make better use of my time.

Freedom of speech does grant village idiots the right to stand there screaming insults but none of us have to listen.

 

[B19 Flyer]

Helms, would you invite someone into your home for a chat if all that person did was insult you and belittle the choices you had made in your life? When the phone rings do you ignore telemarketers? Do you mute commercials when you watch TV? The frac community is focused on raising the bar. It's counterproductive to waste time with a person who is trying to hold the pilots back. I have nothing in common with those posting FUD so I've decided to use the ignore function as a filter to make better use of my time.

Freedom of speech does grant village idiots the right to stand there screaming insults but none of us have to listen.

I don't have to scream insults. I only need to quote you word for word and point out how disrespectful you are to those around you.

The statement below you made, you can't deny it, it is truthful and you know it. You can't deny it, and used in the entire paragraph it's even more disgusting. Each time I see you make a statement, I'll be sure to point out the arrogance in it, and your lack of experience in the industry.

You quoted "we" earlier tonight. How are you involved in the decision making? You are not, you're only a pilot's wife, thus the statement shouldn't have been made. It's false. You have a right to speak your mind, I have a right to point out your many faults, attitudes and inaccuracies that make your union attitude so dangerous.

As a reminder some of your most disrespectful and exact words were:

 

[Galaxy]

Sure, if you use the wrong word. Kinda like "your" in place of "you're". Go back to school.

organised
adjectivebeing a member of or formed into a labor union; "organized labor"; "unionized workers"; "a unionized shop" [syn: organized]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/organised

British English, organised
American English, organized

Now I know where you went to school CHAP!

Welcome to AMERICA!!! Now get your self ORGANIZED!!!

Your Signature says it all:
"Life is more difficult when you're stupid."

 

[Fozzy]

NJW,
Is someone considered to be crazy if they talk to someone who can not hear them? :laugh:

Now here is something, how do you think F&H trolls are paid? By the post? Do they punch a clock? Seriously, how do they justify their paycheck? From what I saw, the idiot just cut and pasted, shuffled a few words in each post. Same FUD from the playbook, just no new content. *yawn*
Now that is a job that should be outsourced.........

 

[skanza]

NJW,
Is someone considered to be crazy if they talk to someone who can not hear them? :laugh:

Now here is something, how do you think F&H trolls are paid? By the post? Do they punch a clock? Seriously, how do they justify their paycheck? From what I saw, the idiot just cut and pasted, shuffled a few words in each post. Same FUD from the playbook, just no new content. *yawn*
Now that is a job that should be outsourced.........

Sound like what you guys do.

 

[TheBigMan]

Quote:
Originally Posted by B19 Flyer
This is classic union rhetoric, they all think they are doing something new. Once the company begins to trend it for evidence, the judge will grant an injunction against the union, the union will claim they didn't sanction it and the union will be told to cease and desist anyway along with putting 25 grand as a bond.

They aren't as bright as they think they are.

JUST LIKE EMAY INCIDENT! SUCK AN ENGINE PLUG, HOT START, COVER UP, FLY PLANE ALL WEEKEND, GET PHONE CALL FROM FAA, TAKE PLANE FOR BOROSCOPE. COVER UP, COVER UP, COVER UP! THROW PILOT BEHIND ASAP TO PROTECT HIM.

PRICELESS

 

[netjetwife]

Foz, those are interesting questions. Crazy as a village idiot! All that reality-warping gives them a skewed perception of life. They're also rude as a pushy salesman! As for how they're paid, not by the post, otherwise a fudspinner could submit a lot of small posts just to run up the bill. Whether hourly or on a salary, there's definitely a lot of money spent on FUD campaigns. To quote the introduction to Confessions of a Union Buster by Martin Levitt, "...manipulation is just one of the dirty tricks that have transformed the war on organized labor into a billion-dollar industry, and Levitt has decided to clear his conscience and expose them all."

 

[Galaxy]

Sound like what you guys do.

Confessions????

"Life is more difficult when you're stupid."

You crack me up!