Originally Posted by
Dr. HFH
Here's where I see the union tie-in, JD: FAs know that short of assaulting a passenger or committing a felony, union rules will protect them; and seniority structures guarantee them raises. Lack of onboard management also contributes to this. IMO peformance-based systems are usually much more effective at motivating employees to do a good job.
Give me Bob Crandall any day. Tough, sometimes irascible guy who understood that it was his job to run a business. Understood that there are lots of stakeholders in a business, including both customers and employees, not to mention shareholders, all of whom have to be considered. I know that lots of people don't like him, and didn't when he was running things, either, particularly employees. But the fact remains that he more or less singlehandedly built American into an airline powerhouse. IMO while he wasn't perfect, he got it.
I said I felt unions were a fractional part of the problem; I still believe that. Southwest is highly unionized, but the workforce is more flexible and the service, such as the informal and coach only LLC version is, is much more consistent. I don't know if things have changed a lot since the Kelleher years, as retirement means I rarely fly WN these days.
Bob Crandall, AKA "Fang" (and other sobriquets) struck me as a tough but fair-minded man who was aware of
all of the stakeholders; today's (and recent) leadership, not so much, IMO. Some FAs I know spoke loudly against him, but others not - and I hear Bob spoken about a bit less angrily and more reminiscently these days, it seems to me. He was also staunchly against deregulation. He said, retrospectively in 2008:
The consequences of deregulation have been very adverse. Our airlines, once world leaders, are now laggards in every category, including fleet age, service quality and international reputation. Fewer and fewer flights are on time. Airport congestion has become a staple of late-night comedy shows. An even higher percentage of bags are lost or misplaced. Last-minute seats are harder and harder to find. Passenger complaints have skyrocketed. Airline service, by any standard, has become unacceptable.[
link]
Maybe that's another part of the puzzle, but IMO deregulation had its strong pros and cons.