UA Management Failing Employees, Passengers, Shareholders Say Flight Attendants
 

Management Failing Employees, Passengers, Shareholders Say Flight Attendants
Call on CEO Goodwin to Step Down

United Airlines flight attendant representative Linda Farrow, president of the United Master Executive Council of the Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO, issued this statement in response to CEO Jim Goodwin's threatening letter which claims that the airline could go out of business next year:

``After furloughing over 5,200 flight attendants and almost 15,000 other United employees, United CEO Jim Goodwin now writes us a letter warning of the pending financial collapse of our company if costs are not contained. If what Goodwin says is true -- that United could be out of business in the next year -- then he is failing the employees, shareholders and passengers of United Airlines.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011018/dcth039_1.html

http://www.goodwinmustgo.com


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"Sire, it is not a revolt. It is a Revolution!"

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

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United Airlines flight attendants want Chief Executive James Goodwin to quit in the wake of his "threatening" letter that the UAL Corp. unit "will perish" next year if the cash crunch is not solved soon.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo...085F2FC01EA%7D

As far as I am concerned, the FA spokeswoman is doing a disservice to everyone (including her own rank & file) by issuing provocative statements like this. {Sure she's upset they signed a 10 yr. contract, but just once I'd like to see them pitch in and contribute rather than whining to the public. I can dream can't I?) The public posturing by the pilots, FA's, mechanics is also disgusting to me. Watching these new TV commercials (where they tell me how proud they are to work for UA) is equally disgusting. I feel that labor, more than anyone else, are flying UA on an approach well short of the runway, while they grab for all they can.

[This message has been edited by transpac (edited 10-18-2001).]

I completely agree with this statement though.... just shows how even the employees have lost faith in their management...

The FA spokeswoman is right about Goodwin, but wrong to tag him with sole responsibility for UA's decline.

Union employees who hate their jobs and their managers and take it out on their customers deserve 50% of the blame. The managers and the unions are taking the airline down together.

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Sad but true! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

...Failing a First Year Marketing Course

Now let’s switch gears and pretend we’re in a first year Marketing or Economics lecture and learning about the ‘Elasticity of Demand’. This is really simple, which is why it is covered in a first year course - if you have too much of a product that isn’t selling, you reduce its price, which means (for most products with an ‘elastic demand curve’) demand will increase.

You’ll see this on seasonal pricing for produce – peak season fruit is cheaper than early season. It applies to airlines, too - if flights are going out full, you increase the price of tickets. If they’re going out empty, you drop the price. It can’t get simpler than that. Maybe this is too simple for the high powered MBAs that staff the airline’s marketing and pricing departments because they’ve only mastered the first part – you know, the bit about increasing prices. The second bit – lowering prices when demand is weak – eludes them.

A recent article by a transportation economist, no less, takes the airlines to task for their continued exploitive pricing on non-competitive routes...

http://www.davidmrowell.com/travel/19Oct2001.htm

Where were those same unions when the pilots last year were getting "their" way. I do not recall any public announcement at that time. While Goodwin is overdue, standing up against the pilots blackmail (slow-down, strike, whatever you call it) would surely have helped UA as well.

Absolutely!

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Flight Attendants Call on United Airlines' Board To Utilize Meeting to Replace Goodwin Now

Goodwin Should Have Learned From Failed Experiments of the 1980's, Not Emulated Them

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011025/dcth067_1.html

Goodwin's departure is well overdue, but this posturing is just way too hard to swallow.

These unions, which have already done far more harm to United than Goodwin ever could, are now angling for more anticompetitive contract terms.

BTW, Doc: That first-year class should have taught the author that it is quantity demanded, not demand which increases when price falls. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif To increase demand, you'd have to do something like improve the product (say, maybe getting rid of the unions along with Goodwin!)

[This message has been edited by robb (edited 10-25-2001).]

Good point, robb!

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Members of the board didn't return phone calls yesterday and continued Wednesday's official silence about whether they are looking for a replacement for Goodwin. A company source said that the outside directors "are very gun-shy about doing anything" and anxious not to take any action until they had a complete course laid out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Oct25.html

United Flight Attendants Fight Harassment by Supervisors, Want Return of Free Speech at the Workplace

Flight Attendants Rally for Justice Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 8:30 a.m. (PDT) Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Upper Level, Outside of Terminal 7

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011127/dctu029_1.html

Oops.

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 01-03-2002).]

...Just as United's pilots and mechanics believe they had to beat their heads against a stone wall to get anything accomplished, nearly 2,000 of its flight attendants feel they have been slamming into a similar wall.

The attendants, many of whom have years of experience, have been asking the airline to allow them to volunteer for a furlough, a move that would allow for the recall of nearly all the flight attendants who were involuntarily furloughed. In other words, they're telling the airline they are willing to be laid off to let their brethren return to work.

It's the single biggest issue being talked about on the discussion board--nearly 3,000 messages have been posted--maintained by the Association of Flight Attendants. United, however, has been unwilling to open the door.

"They just won't give us a reason," said one flight attendant about United's refusal to allow the working attendants to swap places with their non-working friends.

Last fall, United laid off 2,700 flight attendants, most of whom had been flying for little more than a year, as part of an overall cost-cutting move. Another 2,400 attendants took voluntary leaves, lasting from 90 days to 18 months.

Since then, 800 of those laid off have been called back, leaving some 1,900 still off the job.

http://yahoo.marketguide.com/MGI/new...20215:046e6499