dean Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 I got an e-mail on Thursday from NWA concerning the progress of negociations with one of their unions. There is an emposed "30 day cooling off period", which ends on August 20. I leave for Bangkok on August 17 (and arrive late on the 18th), so if there are any problems, it will affect my return flight. I'm not overlly concerned about it but was just curious if anyone has any further information or would hazzard a guess on what will happen on August 20? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Most likely nothing will happen, though GWB/admistration has said they will not step in and block a strike this time. Even if no strike, expect delays based on pissed off workers. Also expect people to quit as salaries driop, and replacement workers not having a clue. In short, expect airline service to keep going down hill, as workers get pissed at shitty management refusing to charge enough for tickets, and blaming "High fuel and high labor costs" for everything... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean Posted July 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 OH, I was listining to "Pacifica" radio yesterday and they had a segment on United flight attendants pension concerns. The head of United has a pension worth millions but want to strip the F.A. of their retirement security? It can't be just the difference in pay between the low cost carriers and the traditional ones (Southwest airline employees can't say enough good things about the airline). I think that you are bucking a tidal wave that will engulf the major airlines. However, the pain should be felt by ALL employees, all the way to the CEO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitney Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 Just have your handy dandy credit cards on standby. I personally don't care to fly on airlines whose workers are not in the happiest of moods. If NWA employees go on strike, I just wouldn't want to be 8500 miles away from home trying to find available space on some other airline. Even if they go on strike, if you've got the spare cash and time to buy another ticket to get home, no problem Now how about them NWA flight attendants, I just love'em Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 I am sure NW will do everything it can to keep its highly profitable Asian flights flying. If your flight does get cancelled, NW will put you on another airline to get you home. One time NW put me on SQ to get to BKK when a mechanical in NRT caused the NW flight to get cancelled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 "...I am sure NW will do everything it can to keep its highly profitable Asian flights flying. If your flight does get cancelled, NW will put you on another airline to get you home..." Not reallytrue here. Basically, the airline could be shut down during a strike, thus you go to a different carrier and hope they have space to get you where you want to go, and hope they honor your ticket. In theory, they are suposed to honor it, but can do so on a lower priority basis...also, you may be delayed, or not get exactly whereyou want to go, when you want to get there, and NWA would owe you no compensation for the inconvience... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 dean said:OH, I was listining to "Pacifica" radio yesterday and they had a segment on United flight attendants pension concerns. The head of United has a pension worth millions but want to strip the F.A. of their retirement security? It can't be just the difference in pay between the low cost carriers and the traditional ones (Southwest airline employees can't say enough good things about the airline). I think that you are bucking a tidal wave that will engulf the major airlines. However, the pain should be felt by ALL employees, all the way to the CEO. Basically, all UAL employees, except the guys at the very top, lost their pensions, myself included. What will happen is, the government will take over, and decide what I get... Currently, UAL owes me $1479/month at age 60, $1279/mo at age 55, when I planned to go. This is based on current multipliers, and my current years of service...inother words, if I retired today. However, the government says I will see somewhere $600-800 a month Max, 12-20 years from now! Adjust for inflation, and I/we are fucked. Not sure yet, waiting for the letter...so hence, retirement is less of an option, and early retirement is most likely gone. This on top of a pay cut of about %30 and changes to work rules, costing us more... Think I give 100% on my job now? Think any of us do? We are all to busy looking for other jobs...Keep in mind, all this is on top of 6 years of pay concessions in order to "buy"the company and prevent this crap from happeneing. the $70,000+ I gave in previous pay concessions was lost in bankruptcy, we got .40/for one dollor worth of stock. Our retirement stock accounts went from over $100,000 down to $1000on average. The problems at UAL/major or "Legacy carriers" can't be compared to Southwest and Jet Blue, different product. We all do most (or did until recently) most of our own maintaince. SW and JB go with the cheapest bidder, usually out of the country. UAL and the majors pay to much in management compensation compared to SW and JB. Pilots at UA make more than at SW and JB, as do baggage handelers, cleaners and I think flight attendants and ticket agents...Mechanics (me) make way less, no excuse for this...You determine the prevailing wage for the various job classifications, and go from there, not the same 30+% across the board cuts. This is NWA mechanic's position. UA went from having over 7billion in cash and being the most profitable airline, down to Bankruptcy in about 2-3 years time, due to very poor management. When you see how the pension money was invested, it is sickning. I also blame the government and the Unions for not demanding changes to the laws which allow this. Keep in mind, the guys already retired will take a serious hit as well as losing a lot of their medical coverage...Also keep in mind, in order to compeate, all the other airlines will have to consider dumping their pensions plans on the government/taxpayers as well... NWA, Delta and maybe American might all be next in line to file for Bankruptcy protection as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 [color:"green"]... thus you go to a different carrier and hope they have space to get you where you want to go, and hope they honor your ticket. [/color] No, you call reservations or go to the NW city office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 NO, you missed the point, if the company shuts down, as they did during the pilot's strike a few years ago, (pilots went on strike, everyone else got laid off) or honors the strike and walks out with the mechanics in a show of solidarity, then the ticket office is closed, as is reservations, and you have nowhere to go and no one to help you. Trust me dude, worked in the industry a long time. Basically, in the afore mentioned senario, which IS very likely, then YOU do the leg work of finding the flight and the carrier that has room, and honors your ticket. If you purchased it through a ticket/travel agent, you may have that as an option if home. If out of the country, then you are fucked! They are supposedly obligated to honor your ticket, but they will do so after their customers are accomodated first. Best to use a different carrier if you anticipate problems, which frankly, I would given NWA and their history of forcing strikes. Keep in mind, a strike will give the company leverage to file Chapter 11 and get out of the contracts all together, which is what this is really about, breaking unions and organized labor...it also gets them out of ALL their other contracts, such as rent, landing fees, aircraft leases, fuel payments etc etc etc...all would have to be renegotiated, with the company having the upper hand... All this, makes them more competetive with United, who did the same, and the other carriers who won concessions. Thus, it is in the companies interests to drag this out to the wire, and maybe force a strike. If NWA strikes, the company can file all sorts of actions to be released from the contracts, even if temporary, and it forces the union to really give in worse than originally asked, in order to save jobs and Dues money... This is serious bhusiness/political crap happening now, with the full blessing of the administration, so all bets are off...in general, we are getting tired of subsidizing airtravel and bad management decisions with our pay cuts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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