Originally Posted by
boxer6
Yes, UAL has 1400+ on furlough. Keep in mind that DAL has scope clauses as, or more, liberal than UA. They didn't park 100 jets. Why? The major impetus is UAL mgmt/BOD had decided more than 10 years ago that a merger would be their goal and their size, larger than UAL/CAL combined now, would be prohibitive to pass DOJ/DOT anti trust hurdles.
You would have thought that those expensive 737's would have been ditched while in the throws of Chp11. Why was it only after the initial dance with CAL in 2008 that UA mgmt decided that the 737 had to go? Because the deal was near and it was time to clear the path. No matter what fudged numbers mgmt gives to the profitability of the express operation, those RJ CASM's are higher than the -300's and -500's. I think no one needs convincing on that point.
I know you feel magnanimous at the fact that UA pilots are at your airline but what was really the choice? Hire off the street? I think all your sides, mgmt included, felt hiring off the street in lieu of pulling in UA furloughees would not only be immoral but create an overly complicated and untenable situation that would be bound for the courts.
It's called $150.00 a barrel fuel and UA had no hedge or new fuel efficient aircraft to offset, and lots of debt, drying up credit and a SCOPE clause, that gave the company the perfect storm. You were just removed from BK a few yrs prior and had not reinvested in your airline in a decade. I think you lost billions in the first half of 2008 . Thats not a slam against you guys, just about how poorly your mgt team ran UA for years with no vision for your growth. The only vision they had was for padding their accounts, and they certainly did..at your and other UA exoense. That said, CAL parked all our 300s and most the 500s, and furloughed. Would have parked more, had it not been for lease cost on the 500 s and our SCOPE clause and new aircraft.
Wrt hiring UA furloughs, morality of mgt had absolutely NOTHING to do with it...It was the CAL and UA MECs going to the company and pushing for job offers to UA furloughs. Of course it was the right thing to do...