fieldinsight
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Posts
- 102
This weeks PlaneBusiness has some interesting comments about Mesaba and their "negotiations". Mesaba hardly ever gets any mention, so it's interesting to see her comments....
So what does the future hold here? Last week the airline's CFO, Robert Weil, told those on the airline's call that the airline continues to "discuss" additional flying with Northwest. The airline has formally submitted a new bid to Northwest. In the meantime, Mesaba has to assume that Northwest will go forward with its plan to remove all of its 69-seat Avro jets from Mesaba.
As we have reported here previously, Mesaba has told its employees that it needs a 19.6% cut in wages across the board. As one person wrote to us last week, "How can you take 20% of nothing?"
Good point.
There is no question that these negotiations at Mesaba are an embarrasment for the industry. If for no other reason than the starting pay and benefits were so poor to begin with.
Meanwhile, this is that time of year -- proxy time that is. As a result, compensation details for MAIR Holdings Inc.'s President and CEO Paul Foley were disclosed in a recent SEC filing.
For 2005, Foley took home about $1.3 million in direct compensation. He received a salary of $350,000, along with a bonus of $350,000. Foley also received a $500,000 long-term incentive plan payout. This was apparently structured as a one-time retention bonus. If Foley leaves the company before September 30, 2008, he will be forced to pay the money back.
The company also gave Foley $79,713 in "other" compensation in 2005. This compared to $76,754 a year earlier.
Foley also received 150,000 stock options in 2005, which would be worth $781,087 assuming annual appreciation rates of 5%. He did not receive any options in 2004 after getting 150,000 in 2003.
It's never a good time from management's viewpoint for these proxy statements to be filed, but last week probably couldn't have been much worse, in the eyes of employees.
Here's something to chew on. Remember last week when we talked about the recent and rather sudden uptick in shares of MAIR ?
More than one person this week offered a reason for this uptick, and the reason given was the same. Apparently, toward the middle of January, rumors began to make the rounds that Northwest was considering using MAIR as the base holding company for its new NEWco low-cost creation.
This would certainly answer the question as to why shares were up so suddenly, as the bump up was sure not based on any fundamental reasons.
PlaneBusiness is usually written more for investors than for employees. But by posting her comments about Mesaba's negotiations, it can't help Mesaba with the investment community, and that's some of who they'll need to impress in order to emerge. Looks like word of MAIR's generosity to the SLT is getting out....
So what does the future hold here? Last week the airline's CFO, Robert Weil, told those on the airline's call that the airline continues to "discuss" additional flying with Northwest. The airline has formally submitted a new bid to Northwest. In the meantime, Mesaba has to assume that Northwest will go forward with its plan to remove all of its 69-seat Avro jets from Mesaba.
As we have reported here previously, Mesaba has told its employees that it needs a 19.6% cut in wages across the board. As one person wrote to us last week, "How can you take 20% of nothing?"
Good point.
There is no question that these negotiations at Mesaba are an embarrasment for the industry. If for no other reason than the starting pay and benefits were so poor to begin with.
Meanwhile, this is that time of year -- proxy time that is. As a result, compensation details for MAIR Holdings Inc.'s President and CEO Paul Foley were disclosed in a recent SEC filing.
For 2005, Foley took home about $1.3 million in direct compensation. He received a salary of $350,000, along with a bonus of $350,000. Foley also received a $500,000 long-term incentive plan payout. This was apparently structured as a one-time retention bonus. If Foley leaves the company before September 30, 2008, he will be forced to pay the money back.
The company also gave Foley $79,713 in "other" compensation in 2005. This compared to $76,754 a year earlier.
Foley also received 150,000 stock options in 2005, which would be worth $781,087 assuming annual appreciation rates of 5%. He did not receive any options in 2004 after getting 150,000 in 2003.
It's never a good time from management's viewpoint for these proxy statements to be filed, but last week probably couldn't have been much worse, in the eyes of employees.
Here's something to chew on. Remember last week when we talked about the recent and rather sudden uptick in shares of MAIR ?
More than one person this week offered a reason for this uptick, and the reason given was the same. Apparently, toward the middle of January, rumors began to make the rounds that Northwest was considering using MAIR as the base holding company for its new NEWco low-cost creation.
This would certainly answer the question as to why shares were up so suddenly, as the bump up was sure not based on any fundamental reasons.
PlaneBusiness is usually written more for investors than for employees. But by posting her comments about Mesaba's negotiations, it can't help Mesaba with the investment community, and that's some of who they'll need to impress in order to emerge. Looks like word of MAIR's generosity to the SLT is getting out....
