FROM THE CHAIRMAN
One aspect of my job is that when I write or say something stupid on rare occasion, the pilot group lets me know about it pretty quickly. This is a good thing. What I find interesting is that when our management, in this case Mr. Smisek, says something stupid, I also hear about it pretty quickly. Just so the 100 or so pilots who e-mailed or called me after reading his interview in Fortune know, I don’t control what he says to the press. After reading the interview, I am not sure anyone does. In the article, our CEO has a couple of comments that I want to address today.

When talking about the importance of being “honest” with employees, he had this to say about how he deals with the following question:
When are you going to snap me back to the wages I had in the year 2000?

“Never. That was a different time, and you will never be paid like you were in 2000.”

Well, I do respect honesty, but I am not a real fan of hypocrisy. If he were being honest, he would have added “unless of course, you are in upper management.” The fact is when you compare the top five UAL executives’ earnings for the year 2000 to the top five UAL executives’ earnings for 2010, you will see that indeed they do not make what they made in 2000—they made over 30 percent more. In 2010, the top five combined made a little over $10.9 million; in 2010, the top five made over $14.4 million. These numbers do not include or reflect the $27.8 million paid in severance to four UAL upper management folks to not do their previous jobs.

I also have to ask, “Does Smisek really think we will NEVER get back to 2000 wages?” Please, you have got to be kidding me. Since he wants to negotiate this in public, let me go on record as saying that not only will we get back to our 2000 wages, we will get that amount, plus more. A lot more. It does not take much research to see where the CAL pilot group was in terms of wages in 2000. The 12-year captain rates were $172.70 for LNB and $152.51 for SNB. That is about $3 less than today’s rates. Does he really think we will NEVER get back to that? Or maybe he was talking about UAL’s rates and simply forgot about the CAL pilots and our concessionary contract. This is a good example of why negotiations are best left to the professionals at the table and not done by CEOs through the press.

When talking about executive compensation, I would be remiss if I did not say, “Shame on you, UAL Board of Directors” for approving this kind of lunacy. I firmly believe that everyone should earn a fair wage, but it is unconscionable that these types of compensation packages that not only reward the executive, but also his children and grandchildren, are approved. The shareholders of UAL should be as upset about this as we stakeholders are. A recent study of the top 300 companies in the United States, UAL included, showed that on average, CEO pay packages were 331 times higher than the average worker’s pay package. That is insane and the BOD should be ashamed of themselves for perpetuating this generational wealth accrual.

Getting back to the interview in Fortune, there was another quote that bears comment. When asked to list the important issues facing the airline, Smisek failed to mention safety, labor relations, operations or any of the things we think about as front line employees. Instead, he mentioned technology, specifically saying, “Technology is a huge issue because we are functionally technology companies with wings.” Bob Six is rolling over in his grave. Greg Brenneman is shaking his head in dismay and Gordon Bethune is probably wondering how fast we will return to being operationally worst again.

A technology company with wings, indeed. To me, that statement is indicative of a management philosophy that would prefer to not have to deal with operations issues at all. It says they would rather make money in ways other than through solid, honest production of a service. Maybe it would be better said like this: they just can’t be bothered to get operational grease under their fingernails to earn a buck. This goes to the whole outsourcing debate. It is my belief that our passengers, when purchasing a ticket on the CAL/UAL brand, have a right to one level of safety, security, and customer service on every leg of their journey that is operated under our brand. We are responsible for the quality of the product we sell. To do that, we have to maintain control of the operation of every leg sold under our brand. In the long run, if an airline does not control its product, it is doomed to a future of mediocrity. And mediocrity does not stand the test of time in our industry.

We are an Airline. We should make our money flying passengers and hauling cargo from point A to point B safely and on schedule. We should make money because we do it better than the other guy. We use technology to better serve our passengers and to support our flight operations, but it is not our core business. Flying airplanes is our core business. It is really that simple. We are an airline, not a ticket agency and not an IT company, with or without wings.

I hope you have a good weekend and as always, fly safe.

One Union, One Voice

 

Nice blast mail.....

Lee

 

I'm glad he finally said something worthwhile! I have no doubt that Smisek honestly thinks that we're actually a tech company. Maybe that's his plan - convince the board of directors that he should have as much money as Bill Gates. Microsoft and Continental are practically the same.

 

Except their employees aren't paid like part time illegal immigrants with crappy benefits. Is this finally enough to make the pilot group stand up and see the light for a change? Nope. Still flying it like you stole it. On time and damn proud of it.

FUPM

 

For a bunch of supposedly "smart guys", I'm amazed at how many pilots can't connect the dots. Pi$$ off of a French farmer, trash man or bus driver once and the streets are full of tomatoes and crap the next day with not a bus in sight. Pi$$ ON an airline pilot day after day, year after year and he still hand out cards, makes touchy feely PA's at the podium, carries defective equip to write it up at the domicile, flies junk, leaves the APU off on a 90 degree day, blabbers about CH9, taxis like Emmerson Fittapaldi to make up time, cuts corners on TRWs to make up time, tip toes around the SOPs to make up time, flies while sick, *****s himself out when sched calls, etc etc etc.

No doubt these heroes will be at home with a cold one on May 3rd, beeotching about ALPA while leaving the heavy lifting to others. Gee, I wonder why contract negotiations are going so slowly? WE"RE THE ON TIME MACHINE, and I have the $66.00 "reward" check to prove it. 45 percent pay cut, but a nice fat check for $66!!! yippeee!

 

Unfortunately, the labor laws in France are a lot different than they are here in the US, but I do like that it doesn't take much for them to shut down the country over there.

 

I'd say the last couple of blastmails have ratcheted up the rhetoric towards management as we approach 1 year since the merger was announced.

 

Rhetoric and $4.50 will get you a cup of $tarbux. It's time to replace ALPA's attorneys with ones that that will work to get our leadership out of trouble, rather than advise them how not to get in trouble. Moak needs to call a UAL wildcat strike and find himself in a federal prison. Then we'll have our Nelson Mandela!

Our leadership is hamstrung by the R.L.A. and the advice of ALPA's legal staff. As for the farmers and trash-men of France? I'm rather glad I don't have to put up with the frequent inconveniences, but it sure would make the airlines the squeaky wheel that gets greased if we could pull it off.

 

It was nice. But it was just preaching to the choir. I would have rather read a nice retort in the Useless Today, or some other rag that Smisek's lawyer buddies would read.

 

Fuel is very expensive these days. It would be a shame to waste it just to get his attention.