longing4piedmont

A Charlotte Observer Article

US Airways is asking a bankruptcy court to allow it to pay as much as $55 million to executives and other white-collar workers to encourage them to stay with the company, the airline said in a court filing late Monday.


All I can say is this management team has to go, and with out the money. For the first time ever I'm hoping the employees take some kind of job action over this and just shut the place down.

How many times do we as customers want to keep funding bonuses for this inept team. They have already been paid bonues to stick around. This time let em walk. We will not be any worse off than we are now.

If they get this, I'm done

haveric

Maybe US just wants these people to stay until any merger is closed and they are out of bankruptcy? If people see the writing on the wall they may leave ASAP, which would cause a bit of chaos @ CCY.

It might also mean that the merger is a no-go, and US needs current employees to stay on board for awhile...

US AIRWAYS FAN

It's hard to say what is going on at Crystal City anymore. One person I hope they keep is Deborah Thompson. She is one of the good people

jcooke

Somethin sounds fishy. Unless there's no merger or they're going to keep split ops it makes NO sense for them to throw the money away.

-JC

JAXPax

As has happened at other companies/airlines.... a revolving door in the executive suite (sometimes no matter how inept the occupants) startles investors and creditors.

whlinder

The executives need to go.

But US can't afford to lose any good middle level white-collar folks who still work at CCY. Especially since they have lost most of the good ones already.

hscottm

merger or not, plan or not, split ops would have to be the plan starting the day its announced until sometime in the future when they could really strategically change things.

even successful airline mergers take a while to shake out.

unfortunately, most of us on here only know of failed mergers (eg PSA and to some extent Piedmont given the union negotiations).

jcooke

Correct, it just doesn't make sense to throw money at the employees unless they forsee a whole mass exodus of people. And as you said, split ops happen until they get all the details nailed down and typically its a period even after that, with employees typically receiving some type of severance or parachute if their job gets eliminated or such.

Or, something else stinks in the bowels and people are talking aboutjumping ship due to that and US is trying to get money to keep them around. AGAIN.

I would think that most people would stick around and collect a parting gift if they were in jeopardy of getting cut.

AtlanticBeach

Very true.

Judge Mitchell has run two relatively smooth bankruptcy cases involving US. Although his decisions have angered many employees, he has stuck with both the letter and intent of the law. The unions had ample opportunity to provide alternate management strategies for the Judge to consider. Few were presented and none were worthy.

This request is an area where he can make a ruling that demonstrates his knowledge of the company, employee performance at all levels, and the current marketplace in the airline and related industries. A decision to take the bonus request under advisement would be appropriate. It would provide time for the merger/ POR/ "multiple potential investors" to demonstrate that the retention bonuses are necessary for maximum return to the existing creditors.

One thing that bother me about all of this, was the quote earlier in the week indicating that there is more than one potential investor in the merger. The risk-reward ratio is too steep for me. Unless UA tanks in the near future (which has been my prediction for a while), I don't see an investment into the merged airline as being profitable for the foreseeable future.