To some at U.S. Airways, those are fighting words because they feel they have already sacrificed enough under the first restructuring. Pilots, for example, gave up their defined-benefit pension plan for a less lucrative retirement package.
"This management is inept," said Mollie McCarthy, president of Council 70 of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 2,300 Philadelphia-based US Airways flight attendants. "We've become the excuse for poor management. Every time we turn around they are saying the problems are because the employees are making too much money."
US Airways pilot Steve McKee is among the employees who expect to lose their jobs.
(Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)
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Pension Agency Seeks More Power (The Washington Post, Sep 15, 2004)
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US Airways Miscalculated Financial Needs (The Washington Post, Sep 14, 2004)
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McCarthy, 55, has been a US Airways flight attendant since 1991. She said her annual income has dropped $3,500 a year since the last round of bankruptcy-related concessions in 2002, and she's working the same number of hours. She declined to disclose her annual earnings but said her base pay is $39.56 an hour.
"And now the company is coming after our pension and retiree medical benefits," McCarthy said. "At what point does this management face the fact that at some point the employee cookie jar is just empty?'
Robert Kenia, who heads the union local for US Airways flight attendants in the Washington area, said he will lose 12 of his 33 annual vacation days if the airline's restructuring plan is approved. US Airways is seeking a 15 percent pay reduction for flight attendants, and an increase in work hours, he said.
"The quality of life you have worked and worked and worked for all these years, all of a sudden they want to cut it," said Kenia, who joined US Airways in 1988.
Peter Gauthier, a 25-year US Airways pilot, seemed resigned that evolutionary forces are working against the large, older airlines. "Four years ago, life was good. You know, I bought a home and I would take my kids on vacation from time to time," he said. "But looking ahead to the pay cuts coming forward, I have very serious concerns about how to send my children to college."
Some US Airways employees recognize that more sacrifices are required of all workers if the airline is to survive. "You know the old Titanic? Well, this is the tip of the iceberg. This is the beginning of a whole economic change," said Taylor, a US Airways pilot for 21 years. "We have pooh-poohed the low-cost guys for years and you know what? The economic reality is, they have a better product. It's cheaper. The customers have voted with their dollars."
McKee conceded that life has been tough the past few years. "But I'm not pessimistic about the airline," he said. "The company needs productivity improvements. They need more work for less pay."
McKee, who earned $120,000 last year, said he fears for his job because in seniority he ranks in the bottom 200 of the airline's 3,000 pilots. "I've seen proposals from the company that mention layoffs of over 700 pilots," he said.
