US Airways Asks to Cancel Union Contracts

[DemoTex]

US Airways asked a bankruptcy judge Friday to cancel labor contracts with three of its unions and impose much lower pay so it can move ahead with a plan to permanently cut costs, reposition itself as a low-cost carrier and avoid a possible liquidation.

The 120-page court filing also asks the judge to eliminate retiree health benefits and cancel its two remaining pension plans, which provide benefits to its machinists and flight attendants.

The airline is asking the judge to impose new labor contracts with pay cuts ranging from 6 percent to 27 percent for various employee groups, and work rules that unions say would result in significant job losses.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45710-2004Nov12.html

US Airways Press Release:

http://usairways.com/about/press/nw_04_1112.htm

[shaolinmonkey]

1. What about executive pay? Surely they have enough

to live on that they can take no salary for a few years. Greedy motherfuckers.

[underpants]

2. HEY! Did you hear they found Scott Peterson guilty?

Ssssssshhhhh they don't want to talk about that.

[Blue_Tires]

3. cancel those golden CEO contracts instead

[Union Thug]

4. The purge is ON!

As their wages drop 30%, watch out for ripples throughout the realms. Ask me what happened to tech support wages when our corporations started outsourcing to india? Wages drop here and wages drop there. It's THAT simple.

It's going to get ugly out there, I hope all the other workers out there are willing to get out on the streets, organize and take a few lumps for the cause...

[mike_c]

5. pig bastard kapitalists....

I hope this judge has the decency to tell them that their contracts with workers come first-- ESPECIALLY retirees who have already lived up to their end of labor agreements-- and that every company asset will be sold if necessary to guarantee the solvancy of pension accounts. Damn this frosts me!

[struggle4progress]

23. What friggin judge ever thought the workers come first? eom

[DemoTex]

6. The former CEO of US Airways earned over $10-million in 2003 (WaPo).

US Airways was in its first Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002 and 2003. CEO Dave Siegel also terminated the pilots' pension plan in 2003. The Washington Post listed Dave near the top of a recent survey of top-payed Washington D.C. executives. Three other US Airways executives appeared on that list. Meanwhile, the US Airways pilots union (ALPA) has granted the company the largest concessions in the history of the airline industry.

[Bluebear]

9. Oh but surely you know they HAVE to pay these big EXEC salaries

to "attract" the best executive talent. Pilots, flight attendants, CSA's, why those people are like ticks on a dog. :shrug:

[RyomaSakamoto]

15. let's OUTSOURCE our CEOs

we could save BILLIONS :bounce

[KDLarsen]

16. In reality..

.. some of the airline CEO's coulæd have been earning much, much, much more money elsewhere. At least, that's the news I get out of airlines such as United.

Don't forget, if these guys knew that their ship was sinking & they had no care about it, they would be the first to leave ship. To take an example: Look at a guy such as Jorgen Lindegaard who is the current President & CEO of the SAS group. When he took over in May 2001, he was hit first with a 50$ million fine from the EU, then came 9/11, then came 8/10 when a SAS aircraft crashed in Milano, then came the word that he HAD to take on the deliveries of new aircrafts from Airbus and then came the current downturn in the industry. Anybody else would have taken their high hat and left the ship to sink, but mr. Lindegaard has stayed on for the VERY rough ride.

[RyomaSakamoto]

22. TRILLIONS

is probably more like it :evilgrin:

This is the DU member formerly known as bpilgrim. peace

[DELUSIONAL]

7. I wonder when some of these airlines will become

too unsafe to fly?

Will this be the era of union busting? At one time ex-military could find jobs with the airlines -- that is the government trains the people, they leave and then are hired by the airlines.The airlines were spared job training expenses.

My guess a whole lot of people aren't flying because of the new idiot "security" rules -- which is really just class warfare. Also with the high unemployment -- many people can't afford to fly.

I think we will be seeing a whole lot more businesses failing due to the high unemployment and the fact that people who can find jobs often have to take a lower paying job.

We will probably also be seeing more calls for salary reductions from a wide range of industries.

Didn't the smirking chimp tell us that the economy was doing better?

At the same time -- the CEOs etc and really rich will continue their money grabbing ways.

Sounds like warfare on the middle class -- the golden goose.

[Patiod]

18. They've already had major baggage snafus

I'm in Phila, and we're a hub, so I fly them 90% of the time.

I saw on TV on night that only TWO baggage guys showed up for work in one area, where they normally have about 17. The travelers did not look like happy campers.

[DELUSIONAL]

20. Minimum wage? for this job.

My dad worked for United Airlines (he's now retired) -- so I've seen a lot of the changes. Now I won't fly United Airlines -- too many wage cuts -- and my dad there to sure that the mechanics do their jobs.

We are heading for a crisis -- if we haven't already hit that point. The middle class is vital to America -- but the bush gang seems bent on the elimination of the middle class.

Eventually we might see limited flying -- only the very wealthy -- because there will be no middle class. The very wealthy served by the vast underclass -- that was once the American Middle Class.

[babylonsister]

8. Blame a lot of this on Shrubbie and

the high price of oil. CO Air is talking about pay cuts in the near future as a direct result of this.

[saigon68]

10. I feel sad for you Capt Mac

Hang in there

I still love flying. I hope someday, someone has some brains and the opportunity to straighten out this mess

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. This sucks...

I wonder whether United Airlines will also try to void its labor contracts, too? And I saw that today Delta's pilots agreed to their 32-percent pay cuts (for five years), so they won't go into Chapter 11 -- for now. Northwest's pilots just approved a 15-percent pay cut for two years. It costs an arm and a leg to get an ATP, but the return on that investment seems to be diminishing quickly.

[Eurobabe]

12. if US-Scare could outsource flight attendants, they would.

I am pissed at them, they canceled my flight a few weeks ago because they HAD NO FLIGHT crew. Oh, you'll just have to cool your heels and wait for 4 hours for the next flight.

Piece of shit.

[DemoTex]

13. They had no flight crew because management made poor decisions.

The flight crews (pilots and F/As) are staffed at some level well below 100% of the scheduled block hours for the month. Management counts on pulling up reserves, which are - too - severely understaffed.

Please channel your anger to US Airways management. I sense that you are. However, as a long-time US Airways (and former Piedmont) pilot, a member of ALPA's Central Air Safety Committee, and an ALPA accident investigator, I am offended by your use of US-Scare at this point in time.

Captain Mac

[HockeyMom]

14. Buddy Pass

My sister-in-law works for US Air (customer service). Although she and her husband can fly free, her family and friends can get a special "reduced rate" Buddy Pass on standby. Did you know it is CHEAPER to fly a regularly scheduled Jet Blue or Southwest flight than her Buddy Pass? And you wonder why these large airlines are in trouble?

[DemoTex]

17. Oh, I know it for a fact!

I have not flown since I went out on long-term-disability three years ago. But if I do, it will be with a "real" ticket. The non-rev/buddy-pass system sucks. Yet another "promise" unfulfilled. No gold watches anymore. Eh?

On edit: But that is a micro problem. If the airline does not survive, and Delta and United die, guess what happens? The Bu$h regime thumbs their red noses at the Burmuda-2 Accords, just like they did to the Kyoto Accords, and Virgin (and Air India, etc.) start flying domestic routes in the US. Your life is now in the hands of demonstrably less-safe airlines.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. Cabotage.

I hear this is getting to be a big issue for ALPA. Doesn't the FAA have to approve foreign carriers who want US landing rights, like when KAL almost got its certificate pulled some years ago? But what the hell; Bush controls the FAA, and what's wrong with hopping in an old Ilyushin operated by Air Slobbovia and held together with speed tape and safety wire if somebody in the Bush Regime can make a buck or two.

[DemoTex]

21. Bingo, Ocelot! "Cabotage" is the answer!

That is my point. Those of you that do not understand, look up (or "Google") "cabotage."

http://www.dot.gov/ost/ogc/subject/faqs/international/airlineCabotage.html