Tail Gunner Joe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2005
- Posts
- 203
UAL/CAL SLI hearings -- Day Three:
At five minutes past nine a.m. the seats for the CAL side were still empty. The rest of audience sat quietly waiting for the hearing to be called to order. Then with a flourish of doors busting open, in walks MEC Chair Jay Pierce leading the continental merger committee They marched into the ballroom in single file, all of them wearing their hats.
They then stood behind their chairs at the head table and placed their hats over their hearts as Pierce turned toward the displayed American flag and led the gathering in the Pledge of Allegiance UAL MEC Chair Jay Heppner stood and faced the flag, putting, first his left hand and then his right on his chest, apparently having trouble locating were his heart is.
At the conclusion of the pledge, Pierce wheeled on his heels and faced the ALPA banner and began to say aloud to the assembly (from memory no less) the ALPA code of ethics. Jay Heppner jumped up onto the stage next to Pierce and, too, began to recite the code in unison with his counterpart (except in a slightly louder voice.)
Not to be outdone, Pierce raised his voice level to just above Heppner's. Then Heppner raised his voice louder and louder, until both chairmen were shouting together at the top of their lungs the quite lengthy Code of Ethics: "... the tenets of this Code shall apply to all members without regard," so on and so forth, etc ..."
This simultaneous shouting match took nearly five minutes. By the conclusion, both men's face turned a deep red. I hoped the ballroom was equipped with more than one external defibrillator.
After yesterday's cover to cover verbatim reading of the book, "Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback: From Worst to First" by the CAL merger committee, I was hoping for little more excitement.
Instead, we got graph after graph. Graphs of ASM, RPM, Load Factor, utilization, yield, and costs of all kinds. Have you ever heard of PDEW? I haven't. Broken down by year. Broken down by hub: the units, the costs, the hedges and the revenues graphs all began to blend to together in my mind until the graph paper-like squares were burned into my retina.
The only conclusion I can make is: anyone who invests money (or a career) in an airline is an idiot.
Tomorrow: CAL closing arguments and then UAL takes the spotlight.
At five minutes past nine a.m. the seats for the CAL side were still empty. The rest of audience sat quietly waiting for the hearing to be called to order. Then with a flourish of doors busting open, in walks MEC Chair Jay Pierce leading the continental merger committee They marched into the ballroom in single file, all of them wearing their hats.
They then stood behind their chairs at the head table and placed their hats over their hearts as Pierce turned toward the displayed American flag and led the gathering in the Pledge of Allegiance UAL MEC Chair Jay Heppner stood and faced the flag, putting, first his left hand and then his right on his chest, apparently having trouble locating were his heart is.
At the conclusion of the pledge, Pierce wheeled on his heels and faced the ALPA banner and began to say aloud to the assembly (from memory no less) the ALPA code of ethics. Jay Heppner jumped up onto the stage next to Pierce and, too, began to recite the code in unison with his counterpart (except in a slightly louder voice.)
Not to be outdone, Pierce raised his voice level to just above Heppner's. Then Heppner raised his voice louder and louder, until both chairmen were shouting together at the top of their lungs the quite lengthy Code of Ethics: "... the tenets of this Code shall apply to all members without regard," so on and so forth, etc ..."
This simultaneous shouting match took nearly five minutes. By the conclusion, both men's face turned a deep red. I hoped the ballroom was equipped with more than one external defibrillator.
After yesterday's cover to cover verbatim reading of the book, "Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback: From Worst to First" by the CAL merger committee, I was hoping for little more excitement.
Instead, we got graph after graph. Graphs of ASM, RPM, Load Factor, utilization, yield, and costs of all kinds. Have you ever heard of PDEW? I haven't. Broken down by year. Broken down by hub: the units, the costs, the hedges and the revenues graphs all began to blend to together in my mind until the graph paper-like squares were burned into my retina.
The only conclusion I can make is: anyone who invests money (or a career) in an airline is an idiot.
Tomorrow: CAL closing arguments and then UAL takes the spotlight.
