It never fails to happen. I’m in the last throes of putting together an issue of PlaneBusiness Banter and a piece of news comes into the email box, or comes over the telephone that is so totally distracting that it then makes it very difficult to finish the issue at hand.
Today was one of those days.
The piece of news? That United Airlines has received the okay from some of its debt holders to essentially “give away” $250 million to shareholders in the form of a “special dividend.” But wait, it gets better.
This is just the first giveaway. The airline has authorization to “give away” another $250 million.
I really don’t have the words to describe how absolutely horrific I think this news is.
With United Airlines, you have an airline management team that enriched itself after an extended stay in bankruptcy at a level that far exceeded anything else ever seen before in this industry. Essentially the same management team that took the airline into bankruptcy in the first place.
Now that same management team — the same one that also convinced a tottering bankruptcy judge and the PBGC that it was incapable of paying its pension obligations — that same management team is going to give away $250 million to its shareholders.
And not a dime to its employees.
Oh, it is not that I am not aware of “why” the airline has chosen to do this. But I guess I just never thought they would actually do it.
All I can say tonight to the management team at United is this — good luck.
Good luck getting your employees to do anything — anything — above and beyond what is minimally required of them.
Good luck in expecting those same employees to provide the level of service that you keep saying is going to be part of your “premium product offering.”
Good luck in attracting any of the best and the brightest in this industry who might be considering a position with your company.
Good luck in your misguided efforts to “maximize shareholder value.”
Last time I looked, the airline industry is still, no matter what CEO Glenn Tilton or CFO Jake Brace, or the Board of Directors at United Airlines seem to believe — a service industry.
But if these people think that providing the best passenger service can ever be a possibility after this latest slap in the face to every United Airlines’ employee — they are solely mistaken.
United management — you’ve made your decision.
United shareholders — I hope you enjoy your $2 and change dividend.
United employees — good luck.
Ticker: (Nasdaq:UAUA)
Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airline stocks, airline unions, airlines, United Airlines, wall street
You forget that some 9 million+/- of those shares are owned by United Employees..$20 million will go to United employees accounts. But then, with your anti-UA bias, you wouldn’t care to check that out.
What is really pathetic, is how Tilton DESTROYED THE LIVES of DEDICATED EMPLOYEES! My sister, Rebecca, Chief Purser with UAL,
employeed with them for 32 years, was FORCED to retire 2 years ago.
It absolutely destroyed her, and her livestyle. She loved her
job…… On Oct. 26, 2007 (2 years later) She attempted suicide.
The 5 years of taking cuts to help save UAL, then to be forced out, led to 2 years of torture, and without her love with UAL, pushed the final
straw to break her. As a family member watching on the outside, and
trying to help Bec, I am sickened with the greed of Tilton, and the
upper management of UAL. Our only comfort is knowing Tilton, and
his puppets, will one day face our maker at the Pearly Gates…………. As for the remaining Flight Attendants, still in a holding pattern with UAL, as a family member watching the big picture from the outside, get down on your knees & pray you’re not the next to be forced out… As you’re probably thinking, AS BEC DID, “THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO ME!”
By the numbers:
1.2 Billion dollars/year in savings from wages for pilots alone, extracted in bankruptcy;
5.9 Billion dollars invested in the employee stock ownership program (ESOP), (pilot work rules and stock) wiped out during the bankruptcy process;
200 Million dollars/year, forever, “saved” from the elimination of pilots’ pensions;
These numbers don’t even include the savings extracted from other employee groups (mechanics, flight attendants, customer service reps, ramp workers, etc.);
So perhaps we can understand that 20 million dollars doesn’t quite address the above figures, and that Holly’s title is quite accurate.
Baseball,
Do you really think that UAL employees care about a two dollars and change dividend after losing their pensions and everything else? They already lost 5.9 billion in a failed ESOP. As a Flight Officer for this company, I also lost half of my pay. With our work rules, I must always fight fatigue, delicately balancing the safety of my passengers with having anything left for my family.
My share of the $20 million is a joke compared to what I have lost. I don’t even WANT it! Give me a management that can truly run an airline instead! Give me a management that even slightly cares for it’s employees.
I am truly ashamed to work here, but proud of what most of my fellow employees have gracefully endured.
Are you UAL management? Only they would make such a comment… I think you would fit right in.