Ask any United pilot when was the last time they can remember a job action, work slowdown, sickout etc etc gain the desired results, and most will reply with surety, "Contract 2000. The summer of love". This is a testament to the unfailing mega-egos we possess. We are always (ALWAYS!!) at the center of the plot. Just ask anybody. The sad truth is the summer of love succeeded only in alienating our passengers and driving us closer to the then unforseen bankruptcy. That's right guys, YOU helped us get there. WE may not be able to save an airline but we can sure as hell tank one if we try hard enough. But I digress.
Management offered us the undustry leading contract because:
IT WASN'T WORTH THE PAPER IT WAS WRITTEN ON.
The USAIR acquisition (dare I say ALPA approved?) was a money laundering scheme cooked up by Rono Duda, Stephen Wolf and Rakish Gangwald. They knew the resulting entity was bankruptcy-on-a-stick and so all contracts were out the window. If you don't believe me, perhaps a little history is in order.
In the 80s, USAir buys Piedmont. $750 million goes missing in "accounting anomalies"
Stephen Wolf (long time aircraft repainter and quick sale artist) sees this as CEO of United, and after selling the airline to the employees heads for the watering hole in Pittsburgh, along with trusty Tonto Gangwald who knows how to do some mean forensic accounting. They figure USAIR's arcane accounting system allows for access to some alternate financial universe, where, if enough money is passed through the system (like in a takeover), a substantial amount can disappear into the ether, to be collected by aircraft repainter schemologists and nefarious Indians alike.
The stage is set. The trial balloon floated in '95 (when we still had veto power) to test the waters.
Peterpaul is subsequently bought off giving management a free hand. In 1999, they get serious.
ALPA bends over and consents, receiving the shiny brand spanking new worthless contract as payment.
(sidenote: This all became apparent to me when Rono told Wall St. we were "buying USAIR to expand our route structure". I knew he was lying. How? Rono told me to my face two years before that "You absolutely do NOT buy an airline to expand route structure, but to duplicate it, thereby eliminating the competition". I thought the logic was wacky at the time but the little guy truly believed it. And these guys are one trick ponies. They refine, refine refine. They do NOT invent. They are not smart enough, just mean. So there must be another reason for the buyout, and then the old articles about the money loss with the USAIR/Piedmont deal came to mind. Then it all fell into place)
Anyway, It all goes to hell when the senator from Illinois blows the whistle and the deal's off.
2000 crash. 9/11. Bankruptcy. Enter Tilton.
Day one, first thing GT does is fire Rono. He kept boobs in rest of the upper management who wrote the playbook for our demise. Why pick on Rono? Now Rono at the time owned 300,000 shares, was COO and a board member. You don't just fire him. You engineer his departure by having the dirt on him. Tilton's no fool. He saw this. Tilton figured out the scam, probably realized it was potentially illegal, and wanted, quite rightly, to distance hiimself from it. Rono leaves unceremoniously.
Rono goes to work for The-Albama-Teacher's-Pension-Plan???? WTF?
A.h..but they are the LARGEST SHAREHOLDER IN USAIR. A h- ha. The Indian still has his fingers in the honey pot. He's still at it. (He is now in India running Air Sahara when I last heard, finally having given up the ghost)
And we had our contract. Problem is, we think we engineered it, when we had nothing to do with it, and so now we delude ourselves into thinking that we are more powerful than we are. This gives rise to the expectation that we can get management to cry "uncle" by pulling the same stunts again (Injunction notwithstanding), and that is a dangerous misconception that puts us in a precarious position, one that we need to avoid. It jeopardizes all our futures. You do not screw with the public with impunity. You pay.
The economic climate is much worse now than in 1999. It is becoming worse by the day. Obamanomics has failed. All positive effects of QE2 have been erased. Jobless rate is climbing and at the end of the year a whole slew of people lose their benefits and then it REALLY gets ugly.
So contract 2000 was nice while it lasted. Don't hold your breath waiting for its return no matter what your reps tell you.
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