Darn Shame

It's being reported that the UA pilots have come to a tentative agreement with UA management on their union contract.

That is a shame. Too bad the mechanics are so easy.

elaine

Those mechanics might have just saved their company and the US Economy.
Why is that a shame?

callie

I wonder where UA is supposed to cough up the 37 percent pay increase myself. Every airlines, except SW and Jetblue, are losing millions of dollars a day. Fare increase in the future!

???

I, for one, do not see the big deal. Pay the damn mechanics! They keep the planes in the air after all. I would much rather pay double the price for a flight so the fat cat ceo's of United can pay a decent living to the men and women who inspect and repair the plane I am flying on then to get cheap air fares on an airline that doesn't want to treat it's employees right. Why shouldn't they make $37 an hour when the big guys calling all the shots, but do nothing behind their desks, make $14 million a year?

xxx

Spoken like a true minimum-wage idiot. Go back to the Greyhound board.

Toomuch

UA mechanics deserve everthing they get if they settle with their employer.

You watch, the big fat cats will say "Oh please what ever it takes", the mechanics will say, "Oh shucks Earl, let's let em' off the hook, I gotta go to Dollywood with my wife and 12 kids this summer, can't afford strike pay, then the union will lock them into a contract and the ever backstabbing, sneaky snake airlines will file bankruptcy where NO ONE can touch them, and probably force them to continue to work.

Only in America.

Observer

You all might be interested in the feature article in Sunday's NYTimes Magazine outlining just how United got into the financial mess it's in. Very interesting. Does seem to lay the blame at the feet of the pilots, more than the machinists or -- heaven forfend -- the fat cats. My own take is that it is more complext than that -- do note their comments on the hub system, which I abominate.

By the way, the reservation agents, gate agents, etc. have not had a raise for just as long as the machinists but somehow they seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle. Just keep that in mind the next time you talk to an actual person at UA.

darn shame

In a nut shell. If those employee's hadn't gotten a raise in that long then it is their fault for not going out and finding new jobs that would appreciate them and their talents.

UA bought all those new regional jets from France, the very day of receiving all the taxpayers monies in the infamous bailout of 2001.

Rather than utilizing this taxpayer monies to bolster their business they decide on a plan of granduer.....
to time share with big wig corporate CEO's and the likes with these new fancy planes, without use of any Flight attendents, and told their UA pilots, they MIGHT BE CONSIDERED for positions to fly them.......give me a break would you please. They have taken the knife they used on the travel agent industry out of the backs of those folks (left them for dead) and have now turned it on their own employee's. Pilots, mechanics, flight attendents, gate agents, ticket counter agents, baggage handlers, you name it, they are stabbing them as fast as they can, hoping they will bleed to death before they realize what is being done. Guess I would liken UA management to Enron.

United Airlines should be made to pay for all the poor management decisions it has shown. And they should not be afforded the easy out of bankruptcy unless it is Chapter 7 whereby they have to sell off all their assests, and all those upper management buffons have to hit the bread lines like the employee's they have failed so badly.

But like someone else here has said, only in America. And isn't that a darn shame.

Former Airline Employee

As a former Eastern Reservations Agent, I feel your pain. We were non-union and lost our jobs because of poor management and mechanics and the pilots who supported them.
My father was Pilot, he got out of ALPA because he thought it was no longer representing his interests.
The $35 Million CEO's are the ones to blame for the state of United.
Now I am just one of those Bleeding Travel Agents, who will survive, but only because I do not sell Airline Tickets.

sister

Do you really thing the fat cats will share their wealth?! Not a chance. AIrline CEO's get greedier and greedier.

fatcat

United will get what it deserves. I hope the machinist/machnics clean their plows. And I hope the bleeding heart politicians and liberals of this world will keep their big noses out of it. Time for my tax dollars to go to something important.

Let United roll around and squeal like a stuck pig, and let the chips fall where they may.

x

But what about the key issue? UAL gave them 37%. So? Next step, it has already been reported that UAL will now come back to all its employees and ask them to take a big pay cut, in the interest of keeping UAL afloat. Of course the mechanics haven't voted yet, although their committee is recommending passage. Think that occurs about March 6. Then, anybody want to bet that pay cut isn't requested (read: threatened and demanded) by March 13? How long will those skies stay freindly then, do you suppose!