Occam's Razor
Risible...ALWAYS risible
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2005
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pilotyip said:Occam what is the answer? As stated in the ATW article no one wants to do the job of airline managment. Pilots don't like what is going on, but they have no answers to give to managment that will make it better. As stated in another thread. All the pilots who want the "good ole days" back should get together, buy DAL, fire all the management, hire there own team, talk them into doing their jobs for pilot wages. When the airline turns around the stockholders will be happy, the pilots will be happy, and managment will have the resume to move on to another job at higher pay.
The solution is simple, but can't be accomplished simply.
The "good ole days" featured managers who were accountable. A kid got hired at an airline and worked his/her way up from junior lackey...to CEO. The compay...YOUR COMPANY...was in your blood. Your livelihood, your pension, and to a certain extent, your professional identity, were directly connected to the success of your company.
Now, partially due to the "Jack Welchification" of corporate America, exectuives at United don't compete against Delta....they compete against each other! "Steve, your department lagged Edward's department by 40% last quarter...you're fired!"
So Steve goes to work for another airline. Only this time he's more Machivellian at work. He becomes a cannibal. His goal is to take care of himself first. CEO's encourage internal competition becase they think it makes their company "leaner". They like cannibals because they're "aggressive".
The cannibals prey on those who are either too slow, or can't defend themselves. Pilots are the latter. 10,000 control freaks who can't agree on a fixed retirement age, or who-should-fly-what-size-aircraft are brunch for cannibals who are practiced in the methods of divide and conquer. Rather than gathering the parties of interest together, the cannibals pit them against each other, then bonk them on the head.
Look at guys like Steve Wolf. Cut his teeth at American...then hopped from airline-to-airline. At each airline (Republic, Flying Tigers, United, USAir), he divided the herd, hacked at their contracts, then sold the airline. In the case of United, he pulled the ulitmate scam....he sold it to the employees.
In each case he walked away with millions of dollars.
The fix for our industry is to eliminate the rewards for cannibalism. Notice I'm not calling for a "level playing field"? That's a myth! The Serengeti is a level playing field, and the cheetahs always eat the zebras instead of vice versa.
Pilots will have to collectively adopt anti-cannibal provisions in their contract(s). It will take time, and there will be a lot of zebra carcasses on the plains before it happens.