Many of you know that I'm a United Airlines Pilot. I experienced first hand the chaos that occurred at United Airlines over this Holiday Season. Finally the Pilot's Union (ALPA-Air Line Pilots Association) have begun to fight back with United Management, who continually blame everyone but themselves when problems occur. This ad points out that the blame lies squarely with CEO Glenn Tilton and his mis-management. Here is an ad that was purchased by our union dues and run in Sunday's Edition of the Chicago Tribune.
An Apology
The professional pilots of United Airlines would like to apologize to the traveling public for United Airlines’ deficiencies during this 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 this week’s flight cancellations on poor weather in the Midwest, but, as most of our competitors 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 employee 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 payouts so that they may receive personal stock dividends of $2,196,165. The top five United officers received a combined salary 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 Association
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3 comments:
Amen! Having worked for this company for almost 30 years, it is very sad to see what corporate greed has done to bring it down.
What a shame.
I am a fellow United employee. While I generally respect United pilots, and agree that questions may reasonably be raised about top management's stock options, I find it rather ironic and laughable that the pilots union is questioning the top five executives' compensation (they use the erroneous term "salary"). What's the total compensation of the top five United pilots? You certainly won't endear yourselves with fellow employees with that topic. Is this the pot calling the kettle black, or what? Unions are inherently divisive and never loyal to the company for which their members are employed. The ad states that United Airlines is the pilots' "source of pride." Interesting way to show it - the last time you expressed such pride was the summer of 2000.
I find it laughable that the pilots (or other employees) nor ALPA have any leverage against such tyranny. Is one obscure public ad the full assault in your measure of resolve? I might have to side with Michael's post in thinking the end of your contract will be your real stand and greed will beget greed once again. I might point out that I spent the night of the 23rd on the floor of LGA airport after EWR flights delayed to cancellation. I overheard one UA pilot saying we were ..."fools to fly during the holiday season anyway." You all can walk away from this gig at this point...an apology isn't enough. Take a real stand and force this government subsidized catastrophe into restructure that the public sees first and foremost...you'll have our holiday sympathy then.
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