It's almost over at USAIR.

[Boeingman]

I don't know which is worse: The fact the F/A's are the only ones with some balls, or the complete lack of spine USAIR ALPA had facing the invitable and capitulating every time.

Either way a sad situation as another once proud carrier goes down the drain.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041214/bs_nm/airlines_usairways_dc_2

 

[atrdriver]

I think the saddest part is that the employees have been asked over and over to cover for the ineptness of their management. I maintain that every employee at US AIR could have worked for free the past year and management would have still screwed it up.

 

[ultrarunner]

Somehow I don't think this is posturing any longer. If the judge throws out the contract, FA's walk, U shut's down.

If the contract stays, then I guess this would apply:

"...US Airways, the seventh-largest U.S. carrier, has said it must cut its union contracts to survive past January..."

So either way, it's over in two weeks. A sad day indeed, and a new-found respect for AFA!

 

[Dizel8]

I doubt they will do it! I think it is a negotiation ploy, I think the company will call it and that will be that.

I thought I read someplace that the AFA was nearing a T/A, am I mistaken?

 

[lowecur]

I don't know which is worse: The fact the F/A's are the only ones with some balls, or the complete lack of spine USAIR ALPA had facing the invitable and capitulating every time.

Either way a sad situation as another once proud carrier goes down the drain.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041214/bs_nm/airlines_usairways_dc_2

Another post by the uninformed and the misled. Sit back and observe as bold nerve will turn to jelly.

 

[Dizel8]

"Sit back and observe as bold nerve will turn to jelly".

We are talking about the AFA and not your little "friend", right

 

[ultrarunner]

Well Dizel8, I would have to agree with you. I don't think management will let the FA's bury it, since Mgt. is doing such a fine job.

Management will call it. That'll be that.

 

[lowecur]

"Sit back and observe as bold nerve will turn to jelly".

We are talking about the AFA and not your little "friend", right

Both.

 

[dlredline]

I don't know which is worse: The fact the F/A's are the only ones with some balls, or the complete lack of spine USAIR ALPA had facing the invitable and capitulating every time.

Either way a sad situation as another once proud carrier goes down the drain.

Boy, I couldn't agree more. As this article (amoung others) notes, the anouncement of the strike vote is simply the verification of a vote sent to the USAirways AFA members several weeks ago. Negotiations are ongoing, and reports are that both sides are about $10 million apart in their respective positions, albeit those positions are the most ominous (wage, rules and pension). If (a big if) an agreement is forthcoming, expect to see it just prior to the 25th. I personally believe, left to the devices of the USAirways AFA alone, an agreement will be had before the end of the year.

However, read between the lines of the news coverage on the AFA drama. The highly visible spokesperson on this whole issue is Patricia Friend, the International president of AFA. Nary a word has been heard from the airline's AFA MEC chairman. Meaning this issue is perceived within the national union as important beyond the domain of USAirways alone. And no one need kid themselves which carrier's local chapter runs the purse strings and political power of the national union, and it ain't USAirways. Some have speculated that the national AFA will allow USAirways AFA to "fall on their sword" to bolster the other AFA positions in the future. I personally don't subscribe to this concept, but I do find the loud voice of AFA's national representatives interesting.

Compare this, however, to the screaming silence from Duane Worthe and ALPA national during the total destruction of the USAirways pilot's contract. The spineless USAirways MEC rolled over on the defined benefit pension plan, and allowed management to unilaterally gut the pilot's pay and benefits. But they didn't stop there, rolling over each time the company said "boo". All this while ALPA national sat silent. Only after the mushroom cloud began to settle did ALPA national make a statement, and then only to announce the exploration of the "age 60" rule based upon "undeniable realities" facing our aging pilot groups. Unbelievable!

I think the "card-holding" entity for the immediate future of USAirways remains the IAM. They struck the airline in Oct. 1989, and negotiations between the two parties today has yielded zip. If you believe Chris Chiames, senior vice president of corporate affairs, the company's transformation plan "assumes" (I know what you're thinking . . ) a $250 million equity investment by January in order to exit Chapter 11, and current financial investors and venture capitalists (burned multiple times with their past investments in U) are balking big time absent across the board labor concessions, including AFA and IAM. IAM negotiations are historically the most drawn-out, and time seems to be running out on their current finances to sustain protracted concessionary negotiations. Bumping up against the January deadlines on lease payments and pension obligations (witness the current PBGC's "get tough" stance on UAL's required pension payments), USAirways will simply run out of available cash to fund their operation absent an immediate cash infusion, and that ain't coming unless the IAM cuts a fast deal. Again, the numbers are just not adding up.

Though I don't really know the motives of AFA national's position at USAirways, nor can I predict the outcome of the IAM negotiations, at least there's a national union somewhere voicing the ire of an employee group at USAirways.

Red

 

[Speedbird34]

You sound like a doomsday prophet who wants to push his veiws.US Airways is`undergoing a brutal transformation to a low cost carrier and its workers are going to conform to a large degree or find themselves on the cold hard streets. While the other airlines greedily move in to take over their flying. It seems to me you fly for one of this other airlines.