Tell Timmay to f@#$ off

[FlyWolf]

Hello to all my MEH friends. When I saw TH's video, I knew I had heard his little speech before. In fact, I heard "the same, exact words" from F9's ceo just a few weeks ago. Not relatively close, exactly the same words.

We need pay cuts to get financing, everyone needs to share in the pain, fair and equitable, the judge will take much more than we are asking.

Let me guess, Timmy has hired the Seabury group to assist with their restructuring?

With regard to "pay cuts for financing", ask to see the term sheets. Ask Timmy for a contract between MEH and TPG with signatures that guarantees financing in return for a pay cut. You and I know that there is no financing and pay cuts have nothing to do with financing.

Have you heard about "lengthening the runway" yet? You will, in fact people will stop saying hello and goodby when they pass in the hall, instead they will just nod and repeat like robots "lengthen the runway, lengthen the runway"...

The story you will be told is, with these new paycuts (and the financing that is sure to materialize), MEH will be the strongest airline on the planet. You just need to lengthen the runway and survive the battle of attrition that exists in our industry today.

Initially, that "story" sounds reasonable, even logical. That is until you look at the numbers. What is your cash burn every day? How much financing do you realistically expect to be thrown at you? How long will that money, that doesn't actually exist, last in today's fuel environment?

The sad fact is, and I am speaking only about my airline as I have no right to tell you about yours, is that we are done. F9 never obtained financing, and never will unless we agree to interest rates higher than 15% which in itself is suicidal. In short order, we will begin to sell assets to obtain the only liquidity available. Once those dollars are gone, so are we.

If oil drops to $100 a barrel, "we will be the strongest airline on the planet...", unless you guys lengthen the runway. Then we will be the second strongest airline on the planet, until the next airline...

Is it too early to start drinking?

Well said StaySeated.

I wish you guys all the best at F9.

 

[Wesb737fo]

From a letter to employee dated 06/24.


((((((((There are two basic but critical linchpins to the plan that I want to make
sure you understand:
First, everyone who is a stakeholder in our airline must come to the
table and make contributions to this plan. As I said on Friday, there is
no 90 percent solution.
The second is how it needs to come together, because if we cannot
resolve each piece that is part of the plan in the proper sequence of
events, it will not work.

We will be able to obtain additional financing from TPG to secure this
plan, but only if the plan -- a full and permanent solution -- comes into
place. Additionally, several of our larger business partners (Boeing,
SkyWest, Rolls-Royce) are willing to discuss serious concessions, but only
if what we are asking of our employees, including our labor unions, is
agreed to. We have begun that process by meeting over the last two weeks
with the Airline Pilots Association and the Association of Flight
Attendants, asking each for significant, but fair and equitable,
concessions. Non-represented employees will make significant, but fair and
equitable, sacrifices as well.)))))))

What does he think we are? kids?, obtain financing only if we agree to the pay cuts?

I will say it again loud and clear, SHUT IT DOWN, I hope I get to vote on this POS down before I get furloughed, which is not a bad thing right now.

That is very similar to what I once heard at a mgt road show a few years ago. " We are very close to negotiating new terms with Boeing, ILFC, GE yada yada yada... but first we have to have concessions from labor". The airline in question recently shut down.

 

[FlyWolf]

Our FA's just got the word on furloughs, first date is 08/01, then more on 09/01. Total 200, mind you we only have 410 fa's.

Pilots, we still don't have a solid company number, but, people with 4 bars will be furloughed, it will go back as far as 1998/99.

 

[eightdriver]

Actually they can furlough out of seniority. They just call it a downgrade. Then can do that for up to 90 days before the union can grieve it. It wouldn't surprise me if they did because it would cut down on some training cost whilee keeping the 17's flying. I guess the same rule applies for upgrading as well...8

 

[FlyWolf]

This just in, Midwest will park 5 717 in addition to the entire MD80

 

[FlyWolf]

WEDNESDAY, June 25, 2008, 10:25 a.m.
By Tom Daykin</B>


Midwest cuts to be deeper, pilots say


Midwest Airlines Inc.'s pending route and job cuts will likely be even deeper than initially feared, the head of Midwest's pilots union said today.

Midwest executives are planning to reduce the financially troubled airline's number of jets by nearly half, said Jay Schnedorf, chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association's Midwest chapter. As a result, layoffs at Oak Creek-based Midwest will amount to hundreds of jobs, he said.

Midwest announced last week it will phase out a dozen MD-80 jets used for charter service as well as regular passenger service to leisure destinations and West Coast cities. That would leave Midwest with 25 Boeing 717 jets, which are much more fuel-efficient than the MD-80 jets.

Schnedorf said today that he's received accounts from flight attendants that Midwest executives, in employee meetings, say the company also plans to phase out five of the 25 Boeing 717s. That would reduce the airline's fleet by 46%.

Meanwhile, individual pilots have been told by some managers that the airline's restructuring will likely leave it with around 200 pilots, Schnedorf said. Midwest now has 400 pilots, although that number will be down to around 365 by July, due to a previously announced work force reduction.

That plan to reduce the fleet size by nearly half will bring job cuts for other employees, Schnedorf said, including flight attendants, ground crews and mechanics.

Meanwhile, Midwest management, through an initial presentation to the pilots union, is seeking pay cuts ranging from 45% to 65%, Schnedorf said. Those cuts are not acceptable, he said, and the pilots union continues to seek additional financial data from management in order to respond to that presentation.

An official from the Association of Flight Attendants, the other union at Midwest, couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

Midwest spokesman Michael Brophy said the company continues to have discussions with the union leaders, but will not comment publicly on those talks.

"We have been transparent in communicating to our employees that there are sure to be reductions in work force and benefits through most parts of the organization, but that they will be fair and equitable," Brophy said, in a statement.

"Obviously, Chapter 11 is not our most desirable destination," Brophy said. "That's why we're working on this restructuring plan, so we can avoid that scenario."

Midwest Chairman and CEO Timothy Hoeksema says Midwest's financial troubles are largely caused by soaring oil prices, with the airline is paying nearly double for jet fuel compared with a year ago. Midwest is owned by investment group TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines Corp.

 

[fam62c]

Has anybody asked how much potential revenue they are losing on a daily basis because there are only 88 seats in the 717's? The bottom line is that there's a gun to your head and the trigger is going to be pulled. You just don't have any way of knowing if the gun is loaded or not; only TPG knows that. They know damn well what the job market looks like for pilots and are hoping you would rather take a 50% pay cut than be unemployed. I also noticed that Tim's letter uses the word "pemanent solution." That means that if you do this and the company survives you will not be able to get anything back if fuel comes down and the industry recovers. Other people will make money from your sacrifices while you fly 717's at 50-seat RJ rates. I don't want to rehash the past and I'm not saying that things would be better if there had been a merger with AAI because they are hurting as well, however I will say this; TPG portrayed themselves as a "white knight" but this is what Joe Leonard was trying to say when he warned everybody how private equity companies do business.

This is right out of the post-9/11 playbook. Everyone played along last time and look where things ended up. Everybody gave back and Timmy clung to the worn out, high cost "Best Care in the Air" model; nothing was learned except how to extort money from employees, vendors, lessors and the government. The more you give the more they will want next time. I think it's time to drop the final curtain on the Timmy H. show. Keep your money as long as you can and accept the inevitable fact that it's over no matter what you do. Would you rather have a job for 3 more months at 100% pay or a job for 6 more months at 50% pay? In the end it's the same. You might as well get it over with and leave with a little pride. A longer runway won't get this pig off the ground.

 

[CaptSeth]

Airline managers are like heroin addicts when it comes to concessions from labor. Give them a little, and they will always want more.

Many of us have and will pay the ultimate career price during this unprecedented downturn. Many will be forced out of the industry, and it's a damn shame. But we would all be better off if there was a line in the sand somewhere.

 

[labbats]

I hope this is just a scare tactic, but it seems that Midwest is going from growing to dying in no time.

 

[Colonel Savage]

This is an experiment by TPG to see where the floor really is with union represented mainline carriers in distress. Tiger, Carlyle, Bayside etc are ALL watching to see what the outcome will be at MEH. If the pilots fold and take the cuts, these draconian measures will be the norm industry-wide for years to come. Pilot group after pilot group will get hammered in a style that will make the post-9/11 concessions look like a warm-up.

This will be a precedent setting event industry wide, just like the pension bust at USAirways was for ALPA carriers.

This is the line in the sand, guys. There is more at stake here than any of us can possibly imagine.