Enron Airlines
By J.S. Blonsick
AMR CEO Don Carty finally ripped the veil off of the airline management's
dirtiest little secret. After all the years of blaming workers for the ills of
the airline industry, the real culprit has been exposed. Greedy, arrogant and
out of touch executives. After all, who decides to configure airplane seating
along the lines of canned sardines, or overschedule take-off and landing slots
that overtax the air traffic control system, or gouge business travelers on
fares, or skimp on security costs at the expense of 3,000 lives lost on
September 11th? It certainly wasn't airline pilots, flight attendants, ramp
workers or mechanics who made such decisions.
While airline executives have long blamed labor as the cause of the airlines
industry's problems - usually during federally proscribed contract negotiations
- the truth is that employees face the same greedy, arrogant and out of touch
attitudes from management at the bargaining table while trying to engage in
good faith bargaining. Is it any wonder that employee frustration with their
airline management's lies, deceit and manipulations leads to labor unrest? Look
to AMR's long history of dysfunctional labor-management relations to see the
real story behind Carty's final faux pas. Carty merely carried on the
long-practiced employee hostile traditions of former CEO Robert Crandall.
The decisions made by airline executives like Carty have bankrupted their
companies more so than the costs of labor. Questionable stock buy back
programs, mergers and acquisitions, as well as specific operational practices
all have squandered billions upon billions of now sorely needed dollars. A
recent airline management lobby effort to force binding arbitration upon
airline employees assumes that both parties will act responsibly and bring
their "last best" offer to the process. Don Carty's actions reveal why
employees distrust that such a system could ever deliver a proposal that would
fairly balance the interests and needs of employees with greedy executives
looking to feather their own financial nests at the expense of their workers.
How do they know what the true "last best" offer really is if they cannot trust
their CEO to tell the truth?
Perhaps newly fired yet still flush with "golden parachute" cash Mr. Carty
should form a start-up carrier - maybe Enron Airlines would be an appropriate
name.
By J.S. Blonsick
AMR CEO Don Carty finally ripped the veil off of the airline management's
dirtiest little secret. After all the years of blaming workers for the ills of
the airline industry, the real culprit has been exposed. Greedy, arrogant and
out of touch executives. After all, who decides to configure airplane seating
along the lines of canned sardines, or overschedule take-off and landing slots
that overtax the air traffic control system, or gouge business travelers on
fares, or skimp on security costs at the expense of 3,000 lives lost on
September 11th? It certainly wasn't airline pilots, flight attendants, ramp
workers or mechanics who made such decisions.
While airline executives have long blamed labor as the cause of the airlines
industry's problems - usually during federally proscribed contract negotiations
- the truth is that employees face the same greedy, arrogant and out of touch
attitudes from management at the bargaining table while trying to engage in
good faith bargaining. Is it any wonder that employee frustration with their
airline management's lies, deceit and manipulations leads to labor unrest? Look
to AMR's long history of dysfunctional labor-management relations to see the
real story behind Carty's final faux pas. Carty merely carried on the
long-practiced employee hostile traditions of former CEO Robert Crandall.
The decisions made by airline executives like Carty have bankrupted their
companies more so than the costs of labor. Questionable stock buy back
programs, mergers and acquisitions, as well as specific operational practices
all have squandered billions upon billions of now sorely needed dollars. A
recent airline management lobby effort to force binding arbitration upon
airline employees assumes that both parties will act responsibly and bring
their "last best" offer to the process. Don Carty's actions reveal why
employees distrust that such a system could ever deliver a proposal that would
fairly balance the interests and needs of employees with greedy executives
looking to feather their own financial nests at the expense of their workers.
How do they know what the true "last best" offer really is if they cannot trust
their CEO to tell the truth?
Perhaps newly fired yet still flush with "golden parachute" cash Mr. Carty
should form a start-up carrier - maybe Enron Airlines would be an appropriate
name.