United Airlines Pilots Apology

[oldtimer]

Date: 01/01/08 18:33:29
Subject: Full Page Advertisement Sunday Dec 30th-Chicago Tribune.

An Apology


The profressional pilots of United Airlines would like to apologize to the traveling public for United Airlines' deficiencies during the Holiday Season.
The pilots of United Airlines sympathize with our travelers' plights earlier this week. Many of our pilots did not make it home to share the holidays with their loved ones either. United may blame the week's flight cancellations on poor weather in the Midwest, but, as most of our competetitors demonstrated, the real culprit was United's lack of manpower---attempting to fly more with fewer employees---all at your expense. United has been an all-weather airline for more than 80 years. We pioneered many of the safety innovations such as onboard weather radar, anti-skid brakes, better weather forecasting and improved navigation instruments that allow operation in inclement weather all over the world. Until recently, we have been able to efficiently handle weather events in the Midwest and throughout the world without major disruptions.
Over the last few years, however, United has had to endure a management team that is bent on personal profit over customer service. They have pared staffing to the bare minimum, making them unable to respond to even well-anticipated weather events. Many of our pilots work to the FAA maximum limits every month, all year long. We have repeatedly warned United's management that they do not have the crew resources to staff our airline adequately and have repeatedly asked them to discuss these shortcomings. So far they have declined to do so. Instead, they diverted $750 million of cash payoutes so that they may receive personal stock dividends of $2,196,165. The top five United officers received a combined salary of between $65,983,879 and $100,850,809 in 2006. We believe your holiday travel experiences would have been much better this week if they had used that money on the airline instead of on themselves.
United Airlines is our livelihood and our source of pride. We are here for the duration and we are here for you. We are disappointed in the way you, our valued customers, were treated by United's management. You deserve better from a world-class airline.

Signed

The Pilots of United Airlines

United Chapter, Air Line Pilots Assn.
9550 W.Higgins Road Suite 100
Rosemont, Illinois 60018
847-292-1700



(Notice the spelling mistakes in the newspaper story. Maybe the proofreaders are also at minimum staffing levels. oldtimer)

[Dust Devil]

That's actually very unprofessional of the pilot union to air dirty laundry like that.

[joe to go]

Dust Devil, you tell 'em big guy!!! I'm sure you have been through exactly what they have been through!! On your Navajo and all.

[broompusher]

Dust Devil, you tell 'em big guy!!! I'm sure you have been through exactly what they have been through!! On your Navajo and all.

So what, now people aren't allowed to voice their opinions anymore? That's Dust Devil's OPINION. Everyone is entitled to have one(Yourself included).

He happens to own/run a company so perhaps he may have some insight into this sort of situation. Deffinately not to the same scale as UAL, but possibly on a smaller scale.

I just think it's rude when someone belittles someone else for voicing their opinion just because they may not share the same opinion.

[ils09]

Well i think that is very well worded. I cant say that I thing that the pilot union is in the wrong on this one. It shows that we arent robots and still do care about the product that we deliver.

[CD]

It's been brewing at UAL for a while now...

Activism climbing at airline unions
By Julie Johnsson

Chicago Tribune

September 15, 2007

United Airlines pilots have put a new face on labor unrest - it's a giant inflatable rat holding bags of money, the pilots' latest universal description of upper management.

United's unionized pilots last month used the rodent to greet passengers at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as they were checking in, the latest in a series of stepped up public attacks on company management as union leaders face key elections Oct. 9.

...

Even so, pilots, literally and figuratively, have their hands on the throttle at major airlines and can disrupt operations just by sticking to the letter of their contract, analysts say. More than any other employee group, they determine whether flight schedules flow smoothly. They cannot be outsourced or easily replaced with new hires. And with staffing leaner than it has ever been, carriers depend on pilots to volunteer for extra duty.

Just how testy labor relations get at United will depend in large part on who its pilots choose to replace Mark Bathurst, a United director who is stepping down as chairman of the United chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association when his term expires next month.

It's not certain who is in the running to replace Bathurst, since campaigning is generally done in pilots lounges, over dinner or via phone. Only leaders from the airline's eight major domiciles, or home bases, are eligible to vote. And even they may not know who's in the running until nominating speeches begin after lunch on Oct. 9.

Insiders think there's a good chance United's pilots will turn to a more activist leader, like their peers at American Airlines.

If ALPA falters it could hand critical momentum to a dissident group, known as the United Pilots Association, that seeks to displace it as the group representing pilots at the nation's second-largest carrier. So far the upstarts have collected ballots from about 1,500 pilots, far short of the 3,700 ballots they need to be certified by labor officials to hold a run-off election to challenge the incumbent union.

'Is ALPA starting to listen at United Airlines? Yes, I think they are,' said Karl Richcreek, an Airbus A320 captain who is president of the United Pilots Association. 'The discontent among pilots is huge.'

Adding to the pressure for United Chief Executive Glenn Tilton to defuse the labor issue is that for the first time in United's history all of the company's union contracts will be open for renegotiation at the same time in 2010.

'What's important for all of our stakeholders is to have a sustainable company that can compete in a challenging and unpredictable environment, such as one that has fuel at $80 a barrel,' said United spokeswoman Jean Medina. 'We are focused on making the right decisions for United and all of our constituents. We meet with our employees regularly and will continue to discuss issues that are mutually beneficial.'

Story here...

New union leaders vow tough approach at United

By Julie Johnsson | Tribune staff reporter
October 10, 2007

United Airlines appears headed for more labor turbulence after unionized pilots on Tuesday elected new leaders who vow to get tough with management.

Chicago-based United follows in the footsteps of American Airlines, whose pilots this summer also installed an activist slate.

Although the United pilots' five-year agreement is not due for negotiations before 2010, many pilots want United's management to open talks earlier, a move that the carrier's other unions also advocate.

Full story here...

United cancels flights for third day, pilots blame staffing
Associated Press
2:31 PM CST, December 26, 2007

CHICAGO - United Airlines canceled flights for a third consecutive day Wednesday as it struggled to recover from a weekend winter storm during one of the more crucial travel periods of the year.

The Chicago-based carrier canceled fewer than 5 percent of its 3,300 flights worldwide on Wednesday, spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said. Those resulted from moving pilots and crews to locations where travelers wanted to get home after the Christmas holiday.

"We're working very hard to get our operations back to a normal schedule," McCarthy said. "Our team has been focused on getting crew and aircraft in the right locations to fly our customers."

United's chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association criticized the carrier for not having enough pilots to fill the gaps. Capt. Mark Bathurst said United's cancelations dwarfed those by rivals American Airlines and Southwest, which operated under similar weather conditions.

"It is unconscionable that United would allow this gaping hole in the schedule during the most critical time of year for holiday travelers and then try to shift the blame to acts of God," Bathurst said in a statement. "This is nothing but further evidence of a leadership team that is simply incapable of managing a world-class airline."

Full story here...

United pilots blame staffing for flight woes
Airline says weather cause of cancellations

By Julie Johnsson | Tribune staff reporter
10:07 PM CST, December 26, 2007

For three days, United Airlines has operated like a carrier under siege from the weather, canceling more than 600 flights and scrambling to rebook thousands of passengers during a peak travel period.

The skies have been clear since Monday, but the turbulence has continued.

United said Wednesday that it is still recovering from the ice and wind that lashed Chicago's O'Hare International Airport last weekend, leaving pilots and planes out of position when operations resumed on Monday.

According to its pilots union and other sources close to the airline, United has run low on crews to fly its planes. That's a result of lean staffing, scheduling practices and freakishly bad weather that have caused large numbers of pilots to hit the maximum number of monthly duty hours allowed by federal regulators well before December's end.

"The weather wouldn't have mattered if they had enough people," said Herb Hunter, a Boeing 747 captain at United who is a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, which has been harshly critical of some of United's management practices.

Full story here...

No holiday for passengers

January 3, 2008

United Airlines declared Christmas for its shareholders with a one-time $250 million distribution in early December, then proceeded to mess up the Christmases of many of its passengers. A series of storms at United's major hubs in Chicago and Denver in December prompted the airline to cancel hundreds of flights over the holidays -- many more than its competitors.

United's pilots argued in a full-page ad in this newspaper Sunday that United's poor performance in December wasn't due to the bad weather. "The real culprit was United's lack of manpower -- attempting to fly more with fewer employees," insisted the United chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. "United has been an all-weather airline for more than 80 years. ... Until recently, we have been able to efficiently handle weather events in the Midwest and throughout the world without major disruptions."

The difference, according to the pilots, is that United's managers "have pared employee staffing to the bare minimum, making them unable to respond to even well-anticipated weather events."

United shot back: That argument doesn't hold water. The carrier has 115 more pilots and fewer domestic flights than it had a year ago.

"This was the most challenging December in United's history," chief operating officer Pete McDonald wrote in today's Voice of the People. "United was uniquely impacted by the weather as our two largest airports, O'Hare and Denver International -- where two out of every three domestic United flights begin or end -- dramatically reduced the number of arrivals they could accept because of the weather."

True, United is running a lean operation, but it's also true it has more pilots than it did a year ago. Did it have enough staff to handle all weather and staffing contingencies in December? Clearly not. But the pilots may have contributed to the problems by not volunteering for extra end-of-the-month shifts. Such shifts are a widespread industry practice.

This tussle brings back bad memories of the summer of 2000, when United had massive delay problems. A big reason then: Some pilots called in sick and refused to work overtime, in a union bid to put the squeeze on the airline. It was a self-defeating tactic.

The pilots are furious now about the $250 million distribution to shareholders. Though employee shareholders collected $20 million of that, the pilots want more of the cash that United is now generating to be aimed at employees. The years of sacrifice and givebacks during United's protracted bankruptcy proceeding wiped out their equity in the airline as well as a portion of their pensions.

Their anger is understandable, but their tactics over the years have been mystifying. The message going to consumers is that United pilots are still at war with United management -- and passengers are paying the price. That could be disastrous for the future of the airline.

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

Full editorial here...

[kitin]

i agree with ils09...its is well worded...it is their own opinion though on the other side there are other reasons...lets just take it as what it should be....apologizing is a good way to do to someone you think you make uncomfortable with or you do wrong...

[2R]

65 to 100 millions ,boy did i miss out on career day