Originally Posted by
themotleyfool
Does the greed of the pilots of an airline, wanting to milk every penny from management just increase these aviation downturns and ultimately hinder that specific airline allowing for another airline to take top seed? Cheers
Sir,
I'm not a Harvard MBA and I doubt very few people that post here are. With your name of Motleyfool you probably consider yourself smarter than the average financial bear.
It's my opinion that "greed" of pilots has nothing to do with the cycles of aviaton. I'm certain that someone in the home construction market was once told by an old home builder that he too could set his watch by the home construction business.
Mismanagement, instability of oil production, and futures traders (among others) are factors more to blame. Are Southwest, UPS, and FedEx pilots greedy or have their Unions done their homework and know that even though they are the best paid in the industry the companies they work for can afford to pay them, reinvest in the company, and most importantly keep the share holders happy.
Don Carty and Leo Mullins gave themselves and their management teams huge bonuses. I think it was someting like twenty-four million for Mullins, Reed, and Smith and fourty-eight million for the over all team. I have no problem with Executive compensation. However, when the company is losing a billion dollars a year and you take a bankrupt proof retirement all the while asking your employees to take a pay cut is criminal. What was really sick about Mullions and Carty doing this is they were so secrective about it. Their dealings were disclosed through a S.E.C. filing. Rule #1 in Leadership 101 states that you should never ask your troops to do anything you wouldn't, so how could these management teams in good faith ask their groups to take cuts when they wouldn't?
Southwest has had 64 consecutive profitable quarters, which is unheard of in this business, yet their pilots are now the highest paid in the narrow body. Heck, their narrow body pay is better than a lot of companies' wide-body pay. Can you say the SWAPA is greedy just because they want to make a decent wage? I don't think pilot
salaries are the problem. I think the problem is unethical, incompetent leadership. Downturns are a part of life in every industry. How you prepare for the inevitable downturn is a sign of maturity and good leadership.
I think back to the Northwest strike of 98. They lost half a billion dollars while those planes were moth-balled. That's pretty sad, but that is how militant and greedy management can be. I think also that NW took full advantage of the post 9/11 environment to drive salaries down even more. I don't think pilots are greedy, rather they just want a fair share of the pie. Like I said, I'm not a Harvard MBA ... I'm just a simple man, but these are my views.
J