CEO Exchange Picket
06-01-2011, 02:17 PM
#11
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2008
Position: 320 Captain
Posts: 655
There was a good turnout of both pilots and flight attendants, but NOT ENOUGH CAL PILOTS (of which I am one). For the most part, we sat grouped together inside the conference room where the exchange was held after picketing outside for 20-30 minutes. There were 2 microphones in the center aisle of the conference room, where attendees could ask questions of Smisek once he was done with his relatively short summary of where things are.
He reiterated that the merger was progressing and he was pleased with capacity discipline and aimed for the entire merger process to be completed approximately 12-18 months from now. Highlights were new airplane deliveries and other integrations, but nothing you haven't heard before. Price of fuel is still high but for the first time in the airline history, he says the airlines are learning how to still make money despite this trend.
The exchange lasted less than one hour, but if I recall correctly, 4 pilots had the opportunity to speak. (Out of the 8 or so questions - I think that's pretty good). The questions were well worded and direct, and obviously centered on the lack of progress at the negotiating table, CEO compensation, morale, etc... Jeff is an excellent speaker and did a good job of deflecting most criticisms. He repeated again what we have been told - that he has directed his negotiating teams that are dealing with ALPA, AFA, IAM, etc... to get it done. He also said that he isn't looking for concessionary contracts, but that a contract must be fair to both the company and the labor groups. The usual buzzwords such as 'industry competitive' were used a fair amount. A few flight attendants asked questions, both active and retired. The active ones were upset over the lack of contract for the UAL side of the house, and the retired ones were very upset over the changes to the pass travel policy.
So, that's my rough summary of things. Like I said, he's very well spoken, affable, and can work the crowd. As we can see in the press - new United preaches a lot of 'going forward', 'working together', and other kumbaya phrases. I don't doubt that the CEO wants those things, but it is my opinion that he needs to set the tone. I don't think any of us are feeling the love at work right now, and haven't for years. If he could get his management team and flight ops to practice what he preaches, perhaps his dreams will become a reality. In the meantime......FUPM.
He reiterated that the merger was progressing and he was pleased with capacity discipline and aimed for the entire merger process to be completed approximately 12-18 months from now. Highlights were new airplane deliveries and other integrations, but nothing you haven't heard before. Price of fuel is still high but for the first time in the airline history, he says the airlines are learning how to still make money despite this trend.
The exchange lasted less than one hour, but if I recall correctly, 4 pilots had the opportunity to speak. (Out of the 8 or so questions - I think that's pretty good). The questions were well worded and direct, and obviously centered on the lack of progress at the negotiating table, CEO compensation, morale, etc... Jeff is an excellent speaker and did a good job of deflecting most criticisms. He repeated again what we have been told - that he has directed his negotiating teams that are dealing with ALPA, AFA, IAM, etc... to get it done. He also said that he isn't looking for concessionary contracts, but that a contract must be fair to both the company and the labor groups. The usual buzzwords such as 'industry competitive' were used a fair amount. A few flight attendants asked questions, both active and retired. The active ones were upset over the lack of contract for the UAL side of the house, and the retired ones were very upset over the changes to the pass travel policy.
So, that's my rough summary of things. Like I said, he's very well spoken, affable, and can work the crowd. As we can see in the press - new United preaches a lot of 'going forward', 'working together', and other kumbaya phrases. I don't doubt that the CEO wants those things, but it is my opinion that he needs to set the tone. I don't think any of us are feeling the love at work right now, and haven't for years. If he could get his management team and flight ops to practice what he preaches, perhaps his dreams will become a reality. In the meantime......FUPM.
I did like the question about upper management getting pay raises so quick after the merger, yet we on the UAL side are still working for 1993 wages, and how does that not affect morale.
For those not there, Jeffy's answer was that his contract negotiations were a lot less complex compared to the union's, and that his pay/benefit package is based on the median of the Fortune 500 companies. His peers.
Be interesting to see if we applied the same formula to us, where we would come out. Something tells me it would be more than they want to pay us.
Thanks to you and all those that showed up today. On such short notice, it was a very good turnout. Officially it was 52 signed in.
06-01-2011, 04:21 PM
#13
Recommend Retention
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Position: Bigfoot
Posts: 1,077
The e-mail said:
You are receiving this e-mail because you live within a specified radius of Dulles Airport.
The Continental SPSC has been advised by the United SPSC of a picketing event at the Dulles Airport Marriott this Wednesday June 1st where CEO Jeff Smisek will be conducting a "CEO Exchange." The attached flyer has more specific information.
If you are available to attend this event on Wednesday we encourage you to do so. Attire will be summer uniforms with hats. RSVPs are highly recommended.
Either way, turnout (or lack thereof) by CAL pilots to this and other events in the Washington DC region has been unacceptable. I am tired of making excuses for my peers. This ISN'T directed at you Zoomie, but I hopefully answered your post. To everyone else. GET OFF YOUR A$$ next time and pick up a !@#$ picket sign. Thank you.
06-01-2011, 10:53 PM
#15
Banned
Joined APC: Oct 2010
Position: IAH 737 CA
Posts: 690
The CAL SPSC sent out an email to ALL pilots registered as living with 50 miles of the IAD/DCA/BWI area. Like I said earlier, embarrassing turnout.
The e-mail said:
You are receiving this e-mail because you live within a specified radius of Dulles Airport.
The Continental SPSC has been advised by the United SPSC of a picketing event at the Dulles Airport Marriott this Wednesday June 1st where CEO Jeff Smisek will be conducting a "CEO Exchange." The attached flyer has more specific information.
If you are available to attend this event on Wednesday we encourage you to do so. Attire will be summer uniforms with hats. RSVPs are highly recommended.
Either way, turnout (or lack thereof) by CAL pilots to this and other events in the Washington DC region has been unacceptable. I am tired of making excuses for my peers. This ISN'T directed at you Zoomie, but I hopefully answered your post. To everyone else. GET OFF YOUR A$$ next time and pick up a !@#$ picket sign. Thank you.
The e-mail said:
You are receiving this e-mail because you live within a specified radius of Dulles Airport.
The Continental SPSC has been advised by the United SPSC of a picketing event at the Dulles Airport Marriott this Wednesday June 1st where CEO Jeff Smisek will be conducting a "CEO Exchange." The attached flyer has more specific information.
If you are available to attend this event on Wednesday we encourage you to do so. Attire will be summer uniforms with hats. RSVPs are highly recommended.
Either way, turnout (or lack thereof) by CAL pilots to this and other events in the Washington DC region has been unacceptable. I am tired of making excuses for my peers. This ISN'T directed at you Zoomie, but I hopefully answered your post. To everyone else. GET OFF YOUR A$$ next time and pick up a !@#$ picket sign. Thank you.
If you didn't get the email, how you gonna read it? Hard to plan for a picket event when you read about it after the fact. If we can get the plan in not only the DCA area, a good turnout might be expected.
06-02-2011, 05:42 AM
#16
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2008
Position: 320 Captain
Posts: 655
And considering that this event was a given a go @ 4pm last Friday, on a holiday weekend, it is not surprising at the turnout of the CAL side. The actual hangup was getting permission from the Airport authority due to questions as to who had legal rights to the sidewalk in front of the hotel. MWAA or the Marriott. Marriott refused to give permission. MWAA later determined that the sidewalk was indeed their property and thus gave us a permit to picket there.
The reverse would be true for an IAH SPC event. The UAL turnout would be minimal as well given the short notice and the fact we don't have a domicile there. Do I wish more CAL pilots would have made it? Sure, but 2 is better than none, and it gives us something to work on for the next event.
C11
06-02-2011, 05:59 AM
#17
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2006
Position: 737 CA
Posts: 2,576
Since CAL has no hub in DC, why would anyone live there? How many CAL pilots live within 50 miles and how many of those are off that day? I didn't hear about it either, but I'm about a 4 hour drive away (besides I was on a trip out west). This kind of picketing is almost worthless anyway. The only picketing that will matter and move management with be strike picketing. I'll be there for that one.
06-02-2011, 07:55 AM
#18
Recommend Retention
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Position: Bigfoot
Posts: 1,077
Since CAL has no hub in DC, why would anyone live there? How many CAL pilots live within 50 miles and how many of those are off that day? I didn't hear about it either, but I'm about a 4 hour drive away (besides I was on a trip out west). This kind of picketing is almost worthless anyway. The only picketing that will matter and move management with be strike picketing. I'll be there for that one.
There are 81 CAL pilots within 50 miles of DCA, and the list grows a bit if the same radius is drawn around IAD. UAL ALPA has a great system of tracking their pilots for SPSC events based on regions and neighborhoods, so I'm hoping we'll apply that at CAL when the time comes.
I respectfully disagree with you that the picketing was worthless, and I'm sure the 51 other people who attended would agree. Certainly you'll agree that it provides more value than doing absolutely nothing. As far as the meeting, no one in attendance left there wondering whether or not the pilots are happy with our current direction - so I would say that immediate goal was accomplished.
See everyone in Chicago on June 8th.
06-02-2011, 10:03 AM
#19
Banned
Joined APC: Jun 2008
Position: A320 Cap
Posts: 2,282
Good synopsis.
I did like the question about upper management getting pay raises so quick after the merger, yet we on the UAL side are still working for 1993 wages, and how does that not affect morale.
For those not there, Jeffy's answer was that his contract negotiations were a lot less complex compared to the union's, and that his pay/benefit package is based on the median of the Fortune 500 companies. His peers.
Be interesting to see if we applied the same formula to us, where we would come out. Something tells me it would be more than they want to pay us.
Thanks to you and all those that showed up today. On such short notice, it was a very good turnout. Officially it was 52 signed in.
I did like the question about upper management getting pay raises so quick after the merger, yet we on the UAL side are still working for 1993 wages, and how does that not affect morale.
For those not there, Jeffy's answer was that his contract negotiations were a lot less complex compared to the union's, and that his pay/benefit package is based on the median of the Fortune 500 companies. His peers.
Be interesting to see if we applied the same formula to us, where we would come out. Something tells me it would be more than they want to pay us.
Thanks to you and all those that showed up today. On such short notice, it was a very good turnout. Officially it was 52 signed in.
06-02-2011, 01:03 PM
#20
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jul 2008
Position: 777 Cap
Posts: 90
From Ual Cal Forum
It looks like the visit to DC was a surprise for J-LO (Jeff Lorenzo) today. Below is a synopsis of the meeting.
PLEASE FORWARD
Everyone should be holding their heads high today and will be extremely proud of our solidarity in presence and message to J-Lo. We had about 40 pilots and 10 flight attendants present for the CEO goat rope. The entourage of people this guys travels with is impressive: senior managers, sound technicians, photographers and a bunch of other ass-kissers. Not to include all the local management teams that showed up to tell Jeff how great they think he is.
There were seats for about 400 and about half that many people present. We were picketing out front until it started and then everyone moved indoors and sat together taking up three rows in the second section back. We had four of us positioned at two mics in the center aisle (Steve did a great job at having a game plan and scoping all this out). When Smilton was done with his “we’re making good progress with the merger” crap it was then opened up for questions. All four of us took up positions at both mics – two at the forward mic and two of us at the aft mic.
We started with asking him that if employees are so important to this company like he says we are, then why have you not held to the agreement that you made with the pilots regarding the TPA and negotiating a deal by last October? He said he was unaware of this 8 week agreement ending last Oct. in the TPA (that’s funny). Once that a pilot had the floor, every pilot present stood in unison and in uniform until that pilot no longer had the floor (very impressive and Jeff didn’t like it one bit). Every time this happened he commented about how it seemed we had a standing ovation and invited anybody wearing pink shirts to stand up next. He expanded on his so called efforts to combine work forces and use the Flight Attendant group as an example. He said that they are voting for representation at this time, but he has been committed to getting them a JCBA and is doing everything he can to make that happen (an outright lie). The local AFA president shot out of his chair and right to the mic to get in line. He set the record straight with Jeff and said that not once has the company met with them outside the required Section 6 rules and never for a JCBA. So Smilton asked Mike (some labor relations executive) if this is true and this guy said, and let me quote here, “I don’t know if we have or not.” Another bold faced lie; this guy gets paid millions to know exactly what’s going on with negotiations.
One of us told him that every time he makes a comment in these popular financial news prints about how important the employees are to the success of this airline, and that he is losing more and more credibility by keeping us on the back burner. So given that you think the employees are so important; can you please tell us what’s more important and the biggest priority at this point, obtaining your Single Operating Certificate or negotiating a contract for the pilots and you can’t say both? His response was “both” and he went on to gloss right over the question. I then had a chance to ask Jeff:
My father worked for United for 38 years on the ramp and in CS at a time when this was a decent place to come to work. Mr. Smisek, I speak on behalf of all the CAL & UAL pilots when I say were ****ed off and we’re not working together anymore. I have been here for 14 years and have seen 5 of you come and go only to pad your bank accounts on the backs of the employees of United. “Well, I’ve only seen one of you.” I think there’s a lot more of me standing here today. You need to stop lying to us about getting us a contract. How can you say that you don’t know about the agreement you made with the United Pilots? I’m holding the TPA in my hand at it says that you will do your best to negotiate a deal with us and have it in place by last October? We will not be strung along in some mediation process by you for 5 years just like the American Pilots find themselves today: “nobody’s stringing anyone along.” That’s exactly what you’re doing: showing up at the negotiating table just so we can see what color sport coat your wearing today is not negotiating in good faith. When this company wanted a deal back in 2000 we had a contract in two weeks. When are you going to stop lying to the United Pilots and when are you going to get our contract settled?
He really didn’t have a whole lot to say regarding these points. There were a couple of questions from two retirees and one CS employee and that was it. It will be interesting to see what these morons write in Jeff’s Journal and United Today. We then all went outside and walked a picket line along the street in front of the hotel: a lot of horns of support.
My take is that these things are usually a get together for all the management teams at the local area and some employees to come and kiss Jeff’s ass and tell him how great he is. I think we had the first one that Jeff looked a little bit like the snake that he really is. This was a really good day for the United Pilots, United Flight Attendants and any other employee that feels their getting the shaft. We need to make this a first step and not the last. He must face the United Pilots at every possible opportunity. We must get our local officers to step it up and start picketing at our corporate accounts: we can do this without Morse and her people, it just takes a little leadership.
Thanks for all the support,
xxxx xxxxxxxx
Get in the fight!
PLEASE FORWARD
Everyone should be holding their heads high today and will be extremely proud of our solidarity in presence and message to J-Lo. We had about 40 pilots and 10 flight attendants present for the CEO goat rope. The entourage of people this guys travels with is impressive: senior managers, sound technicians, photographers and a bunch of other ass-kissers. Not to include all the local management teams that showed up to tell Jeff how great they think he is.
There were seats for about 400 and about half that many people present. We were picketing out front until it started and then everyone moved indoors and sat together taking up three rows in the second section back. We had four of us positioned at two mics in the center aisle (Steve did a great job at having a game plan and scoping all this out). When Smilton was done with his “we’re making good progress with the merger” crap it was then opened up for questions. All four of us took up positions at both mics – two at the forward mic and two of us at the aft mic.
We started with asking him that if employees are so important to this company like he says we are, then why have you not held to the agreement that you made with the pilots regarding the TPA and negotiating a deal by last October? He said he was unaware of this 8 week agreement ending last Oct. in the TPA (that’s funny). Once that a pilot had the floor, every pilot present stood in unison and in uniform until that pilot no longer had the floor (very impressive and Jeff didn’t like it one bit). Every time this happened he commented about how it seemed we had a standing ovation and invited anybody wearing pink shirts to stand up next. He expanded on his so called efforts to combine work forces and use the Flight Attendant group as an example. He said that they are voting for representation at this time, but he has been committed to getting them a JCBA and is doing everything he can to make that happen (an outright lie). The local AFA president shot out of his chair and right to the mic to get in line. He set the record straight with Jeff and said that not once has the company met with them outside the required Section 6 rules and never for a JCBA. So Smilton asked Mike (some labor relations executive) if this is true and this guy said, and let me quote here, “I don’t know if we have or not.” Another bold faced lie; this guy gets paid millions to know exactly what’s going on with negotiations.
One of us told him that every time he makes a comment in these popular financial news prints about how important the employees are to the success of this airline, and that he is losing more and more credibility by keeping us on the back burner. So given that you think the employees are so important; can you please tell us what’s more important and the biggest priority at this point, obtaining your Single Operating Certificate or negotiating a contract for the pilots and you can’t say both? His response was “both” and he went on to gloss right over the question. I then had a chance to ask Jeff:
My father worked for United for 38 years on the ramp and in CS at a time when this was a decent place to come to work. Mr. Smisek, I speak on behalf of all the CAL & UAL pilots when I say were ****ed off and we’re not working together anymore. I have been here for 14 years and have seen 5 of you come and go only to pad your bank accounts on the backs of the employees of United. “Well, I’ve only seen one of you.” I think there’s a lot more of me standing here today. You need to stop lying to us about getting us a contract. How can you say that you don’t know about the agreement you made with the United Pilots? I’m holding the TPA in my hand at it says that you will do your best to negotiate a deal with us and have it in place by last October? We will not be strung along in some mediation process by you for 5 years just like the American Pilots find themselves today: “nobody’s stringing anyone along.” That’s exactly what you’re doing: showing up at the negotiating table just so we can see what color sport coat your wearing today is not negotiating in good faith. When this company wanted a deal back in 2000 we had a contract in two weeks. When are you going to stop lying to the United Pilots and when are you going to get our contract settled?
He really didn’t have a whole lot to say regarding these points. There were a couple of questions from two retirees and one CS employee and that was it. It will be interesting to see what these morons write in Jeff’s Journal and United Today. We then all went outside and walked a picket line along the street in front of the hotel: a lot of horns of support.
My take is that these things are usually a get together for all the management teams at the local area and some employees to come and kiss Jeff’s ass and tell him how great he is. I think we had the first one that Jeff looked a little bit like the snake that he really is. This was a really good day for the United Pilots, United Flight Attendants and any other employee that feels their getting the shaft. We need to make this a first step and not the last. He must face the United Pilots at every possible opportunity. We must get our local officers to step it up and start picketing at our corporate accounts: we can do this without Morse and her people, it just takes a little leadership.
Thanks for all the support,
xxxx xxxxxxxx
Get in the fight!
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