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A somewhat apocalyptic but plausible scenario. If things continue to melt down and DHL gets stopped it may well come down to the opentime banOriginally Posted by Biggs
The real division will come if this Finicial mess spreads, bussiness falls world wide (trends heading that way) and UPS finds itself in way excess of pilots and furloghs begin. Now you have a an over 60 guy who made poor life decisions and has to stay while some smart younger fellas with just bad luck get put on the street so the over 60 crowd can fund thier third wife, third house, third new car to carry around thier new baby from wife number 3 that is 30 years his junior. The fact is the greatest generation lost their youth fighting the war when they were in there late teens, and because of that they gave everything they didn't have (depression era kids also) to their kids and just plain and simple screwed them all up. I want more, more, more. It's not greed, it was how they were raised, in the 50's with everything you want and life was great, the US was king, the dollar strong, plenty of good paying old fashion blue collar jobs for the vets, pensions, gold watches after 30 years at the SAME job, a goverment that did what was right for the people and actually cared. Well now fellas its every man for themselves so they get lucky agian and fall into the new era of the US of me me me. Don't expect the Union (run by old guys) or the over 60 crowd to even follow the do not pick up open time deal if, god forbid the F word was announced they have liven high on the hog and gotten addicted to the crack of money and lots of it and lets work alittle more and get some more crack. unity will stop that day, just wait and see. the union has no teeth when and if an open time ban is called, it will be at that point when we will see real leadership. Real leadership is only demostrated in hard times and we have not seen any at UPS, ever and not in the USA for a very long time.
line in the sand. If everyone stands tall it could well work, but there are so many under 60 types (nevermind the geezers) who rely on opentime to pay their interest only lines that under the pressure of their overpriced spouses will continue to feed and along with the airline within an airline they will find a way to furlough a couple hundred. It will be a knee-jerk by Atlanta who doesn't care that unless it's a long furlough it will ultimately cost them money...it's not so much about money with them as their departmental and often arbitrary "goals" which are most often exclusive of logic.
In a perverse way, if it has to happen it would be better for the majority if they simply park the DC-8 fleet outright. Then many of the geezers would be left waiting for training dates until they hit 65 and guys just starting out could stand a chance to keep their jobs.