Will Delta Be Ready When You Are???
Years ago, Delta had an ad campaign with the tagline "Delta is ready when you are". With the spectre of a pilot's strike looming, will Delta be around? Good question.
I confess to being a recovering Delta-holic. I was loyal to the good ol' boys from ATL, believing they had the best airline in the world. And for years, it was true. Delta customer service was renowned - if you needed help, a Delta red-coat was there with one objective - to help out their customer.
Then came the era of Ron Allen's Initiative 7.5 (to reduce seat costs to 7.5 cents per mile) where finance took center stage. Allen already had the issue of merging Western and PanAm into the DL fold (including their vastly different systems and cultures) and added to it the impetus of cost reductions. The downward trend had started.
After Allen, the DL board hired Leo Mullin as CEO. Mullin had never been with an airline, but was a finance guy. In fact, Mullin had one of the deepest non-customer friendly histories you could find. He worked for Commonwealth Edison (the electric utility in Chicago), First Chicago Bank (a huge international firm with a disdain for retail banking), Conrail (need we say more) and McKinsey (a consulting firm known for it's system-oriented approach to management). Leo instituted "Simply Good Business" which made it policy to do no favors for the customer (even if it also helped DL) without payment of a fee. Employees were fired for violating "no waivers, no favors". Customer service went down the tubes even faster.
Now, DL is in bankruptcy and is trying to get its labor structure in order. Its pilots, among the highest paid in the industry, say they'll strike if DL is granted, by the bankruptcy court, the right to cancel the pilot's contract. Most analysts (and myself) believe that DL will have to close its doors if the pilots strike.
So, to the original question.....the DL pilots are sabre-rattling, just as management is. The union says they mean it. But there are too many mortgages on second homes in Park City (a major DL pilot lair), too many alimony payments to make, and too many cars yet to buy for the pilots to cut their own throat. If they can remember how the unions at Eastern killed that airline they might save their own skin. Sure, Frank Lorenzo helped out, but the hari-kiri sword was brandished by the unions who demanded "Full pay to the last day". Then they found the last day was here.
April 17th the first day for which a strike is authorized. The bankruptcy court will rule on April 15th (interesting choice of days). Stay tuned.
I confess to being a recovering Delta-holic. I was loyal to the good ol' boys from ATL, believing they had the best airline in the world. And for years, it was true. Delta customer service was renowned - if you needed help, a Delta red-coat was there with one objective - to help out their customer.
Then came the era of Ron Allen's Initiative 7.5 (to reduce seat costs to 7.5 cents per mile) where finance took center stage. Allen already had the issue of merging Western and PanAm into the DL fold (including their vastly different systems and cultures) and added to it the impetus of cost reductions. The downward trend had started.
After Allen, the DL board hired Leo Mullin as CEO. Mullin had never been with an airline, but was a finance guy. In fact, Mullin had one of the deepest non-customer friendly histories you could find. He worked for Commonwealth Edison (the electric utility in Chicago), First Chicago Bank (a huge international firm with a disdain for retail banking), Conrail (need we say more) and McKinsey (a consulting firm known for it's system-oriented approach to management). Leo instituted "Simply Good Business" which made it policy to do no favors for the customer (even if it also helped DL) without payment of a fee. Employees were fired for violating "no waivers, no favors". Customer service went down the tubes even faster.
Now, DL is in bankruptcy and is trying to get its labor structure in order. Its pilots, among the highest paid in the industry, say they'll strike if DL is granted, by the bankruptcy court, the right to cancel the pilot's contract. Most analysts (and myself) believe that DL will have to close its doors if the pilots strike.
So, to the original question.....the DL pilots are sabre-rattling, just as management is. The union says they mean it. But there are too many mortgages on second homes in Park City (a major DL pilot lair), too many alimony payments to make, and too many cars yet to buy for the pilots to cut their own throat. If they can remember how the unions at Eastern killed that airline they might save their own skin. Sure, Frank Lorenzo helped out, but the hari-kiri sword was brandished by the unions who demanded "Full pay to the last day". Then they found the last day was here.
April 17th the first day for which a strike is authorized. The bankruptcy court will rule on April 15th (interesting choice of days). Stay tuned.
posted by Cruising Don at
4/11/2006 02:19:00 PM
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