Or until the company cycles through a management that removed pension obligations and gave themselves bonus's. For an airline with little extra cash, Tilton is paid much more than industry standard.

I don't like poorly trained personnel or surly service, and turning off channel 9 is petty.

Good labor relations is a two way street.

Um when I've flown UA from to SYD or anywhere and it wasn't on. I just asked the FA and it was on a few min later.

Pilots forgetting to turn it on is different than what is being talked about here.

Fair enough, and of course that's their reason. What I fail to see is that United is just as much (if not more!) the 60K employees than it is management. What I love about United isn't Glenn Tilton, but people like Captain Flanagan and many more (I just can't mention their names since they're not technically famous).

So what do they want to do? Do they want United to run into the ground? I think Tilton could afford to live at the InterContinental Thalasso in Bora Bora for the rest of his life, while I fear some of the 60K employees would be unemployed, having invested so much in this industry.

I really just fail to see what they're trying to accomplish. It seems like a second grade "because I can" protest.

Ch 9 from the flight deck has been enabled and operable on maybe 1 UA flight in 3 that I've taken over the few months. (Excluding UX flights obviously.)

It has been disabled by the flight crew (playing the music program) on about half the flights, and the in-seat audio has been inop on the remainder - mostly on the ex-sh*ttle 733s or 735s that have seen much better days.

For me, Ch9 could be a huge selling point - it certainly makes me overlook the lousy interior conditions of the aircraft I fly regionally compared to, say, AS. Unfortunately, it's so inconsistently available recently that I no longer factor it into my travel booking decisions.

Last time I checked, it takes a 'bottom line' to meet payroll. If that's run into the ground, where will raises come from? I don't understand the logic. Last time the pilots sandbagged the airline for higher pay with their sickout it drove so many business customers away they reduced the EQM threshold and piled on miles to try and keep customers. Because of that event I have little empathy with pilots 'I am like god' attitude and their ability to royally screw up the lives of customers in the process.

It only seems to be in hospitality and travel that customers are so frequently treated like garbage...other industries seem to treat the customer like the king. I don't get it.

I've never had Ch 9 off before this past month. It happened twice on routes to and from PDX (different round trips). Could it be a coincidence?

I've never been a big fan of unions and when I hear stories like the OP's it simply reinforces my position. With that said, I agree that what GT is pulling down is obscene when you factor in the employee's wages/cut backs, but also capitalism at work.

My two cents,
Bubba

Then why hasn't United had any for the past, say, 4 or 5 CEO's? At some point you have to start looking at a constant on that two way street. And that would be pro-entitlement labor group leaders.

Umm, I guess you aren't a cable or satellite TV customer.

It's not just employees of the travel industry that "take it out on customers". Think of the recent writers strike and the stagehands strike in NY. Or any other strike, for that matter. If it's really true that pilots are turning off Ch. 9 intentionally (which I doubt), it's not much different from any other kind of labor action - which ALWAYS inconveniences the customer. That's the point: to get customer behavior (e.g., taking their business elsewhere) to force management to change.

LOL! That is so true. They are worst CSRs ever? In our town you wait 20 minutes and then get some CSR with an attitude telling you to take it or leave it. I hope congress deregulates cable. I can't wait to tell TW to take a leap!

Bubba

I hear you, and I know you have the employees best interests at heart, Lucky. I'm not sure what they do (see: comment about utter and complete lack of labor relations experience), but responding to (what they perceive as) poor working/pay conditions by continuing to provide top-notch service with a smile isn't likely to encourage UA to make changes. So the strategy is to provide less quality service, which unfortunately punishes customers directly and management (only maybe) indirectly.

Sure, which why I acknowledged that this strategy could backfire. So what should pilots and crew do instead? That's not a rhetorical question, I genuinely don't know the answer. How can an employee in this type of job pressure their employer to do X without adversely affecting the customer experience?

Cable/Sat/utilities fall under quasi-government entities as they are given grants to monopoly powers, ergo are not companies in my view. Same can be said for insurance companies which have anti-trust immunity and no regulations forcing payment on claims.

I agreee that taking it out on the customer is not the best thing, but how else can the employees get a message to management that they aren't happy? Picket WHQ? Not very effective, and management wouldn't care.

Historically at United during the good times labor had to fight to get some of the revenue and during the bad times labor had to fight not to be the only ones asked to sacrifice.

Management seems to get off fairly well considering what they ask rank and file to give up, even with the last 4 or 5 CEO's and their teams.

not to take this too OT, but your next call should be to the city/county/etc cable TV franchising authority.