Originally Posted by
Timbo
Well, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. But the Hurricane Katrina's that have hit our industry were not forecast, i.e. 9-11, Gulf War 1, the market crash of 2008, etc.
However, what WAS easily predicted, ever since American Airlines brought their B scale on line, was that it would ripple through the industry. It's ALWAYS been a Monkey See, Monkey Do industry. As other carriers went bankrupt all around us, we were busy giving away 32% of our pay, signing LOA 46, to STAY OUT OF BANKRUPTCY!! When going into bankruptcy was "The Plan" all along!
You didn't need to be a genius with a crystal ball to see what was going to happen to the rest of us, when US Air and UAL went bankrupt and started flushing pensions down the toilet, yet too many of our Top Men at DALPA were in total denial.
"They would never do that! We have a Bankruptcy Protection Letter, they can't touch our pensions!"
No argument there. I flew a trip with Mark Mischker (God bless him), and he was very adamant about all of that. It was a very interesting discussion we had on the way to/from CAI about all of that. And I have no doubt that when Leo and the thieves set up the SERPS, that BK was in the works. None... whatsoever. dALPA should have raised hell that very instant, because the blueprint was laid at those other airlines for that very thing, yet seemed to go unnoticed. But by the time it got to us, it was way too late.