Originally Posted by
halls120
Publicly insulting half of your workforce is never a good idea, especially when your company is still trying to unify separate work groups under single contracts.
I notice he didn't have much to say about negotiations with the flight attendants.
United executives say some inefficiencies won't disappear until it reaches a joint labor agreement with its 24,000 flight attendants. Currently, former Continental cabin-crew members are scheduled only on former Continental planes and United attendants on United planes, making it harder to put flight attendants where they are needed. "You are deadheading people to locations, which takes a seat out of [service,]" said Mr. Smisek. "You've got hotel costs, per diem costs." While he says he is disappointed United hasn't reached a deal with the flight attendants, but "it isn't for want of trying."
http://online.wsj.com/articles/unite...302961552.html
Just how hard is he trying? Any timetable to wrap things up? How many more years can these negotiations go on? Are the flight attendants holding things up thinking a new CEO might give them a better deal?
Meanwhile, over at AA, the flight attendants and management have agreed to a 150 day timetable for negotiations, followed by binding arbitration to resolve unsolved issues. They make the whole process sound so easy over there.