above UAL Empire's Glenn Filthton squats on Five Billion Dollars At Imperial Palace

Why We Need Employee Activists

The Fasten Seat Belt Sign Is On: United Airlines Made A Quarterly Profit. Plus, It Has $5 Billion Cash On Hand, And It Only Needs $1.5 to $2 Billion

Sounds nice. But does this somehow forewarn another bumpy flight for Workers?

First of all, don’t be fooled. “Cash on hand” doesn’t mean the same thing as “making money.” Stick with Sister McBitter on this point. United Airlines isn’t making enough money to pay Workers for bankruptcy sacrifices, --and-- to buy new airplanes, --and-- to face a cyclical downturn, --and -- to lure a merger partner.

So, choices are being made.

Naturally, we would choose some of that Five Billion Dollars for our own pocketbooks. A ceo who wasn’t a sociopath might consider a similar choice on behalf of Workers. We aren’t the choosers. Glenn Tilton is. His choice? Hoard the money. The reasons perplex even some on Wall Street, but here’s the story, and it’s telling.

Five Billion Dollars can be spent, greedily, on what’s called a “buyback.” If you are a major, major shareholder in UAL Corp, such as Glenn Filthton and The Tiltonettes, then you benefit handsomely from buybacks. Dividends and other Wall Street baubles are up your alley, no pun intended. To Sister McBitter and her readers, the payout is insignificant. Similarly, if you want to merge United Airlines with another carrier and take your $36 Million Dollar, Custom-Made-For-Glenn-Tilton golden parachute, then you know spare cash is attractive to corporate johns. But seeking a merger partner is widely considered delusional on Glenn Tilton’s part. Nonetheless, is United Airlines’ thinking about Mergers & Buybacks? Oh, my. They are. “We have discussions on it very frequently,” chief financial officer Jake Brace said during a conference call with analysts in April. “Very frequently,” echoed Mr. Tilton.

There’s the choice: United Airlines looks out for the company’s highest wage makers.

Over and over, it comes back to the same thing. Too many global businesses, including United Airlines, no longer produce goods or services, primarily. They produce numbers. Specifically, numbers that benefit major shareholders, and United Airlines does it off Worker’s backs. United Airlines’ attitude: “Are you a Worker? Isn’t that nice; screw you.” Unpleasant, Sister McBitter knows.

This is exactly why we need Employee Activists.

And the need goes way beyond UAL Corporation to the good of the working Middle Class in America, and to the country itself.

The first step is for Local 1782 to identify activist Members, and here’s the part where some tune out: Help by simply speaking up. Send an eMail to Greg Brown, put “Activist” in the Subject line, and identify yourself.

Another option is to read Sister McBitter articles indefinitely, ruefully agreeing, “Oh, doesn’t she have a point there, the bitter old bitch.”

United Airlines Hatches “Employee Experience”

UAL Corporation’s Flavor-Of-The-Month Club introduces a newly created Vice President of Employee Experience, something for which Sister McBitter had not been praying during her months of Novenas.

In a press release from The UAL Imperial Palace, United Airlines stated that company gun Todd Arkenberg, formerly overseeing United Express operations, will “improve the employee work environment.” According to United, this will be accomplished when various teams “pull resources from across the company to lead and coordinate numerous company wide initiatives.” If it sounds like bull shit, and it looks like bull shit, and it smells like ... you get the idea.

Now here’s the good news.

A Google search on Mr. Arkenberg reveals nothing derogatory, except his UAL company affiliation. Before her Sisters & Brothers begin breaking champagne glasses in frenzied excitement, Sister McBitter provides her perspective: He’s a company gun. He reports, however indirectly, to a sociopath (Glenn Tilton). He arrives on a legacy of ill-conceived failures, including United Airlines’ truly riotous Business Education Training. Kindly excuse your Sister McBitter while she lacquers her nails with a fresh coat of Jungle Red.

Engine Fan Blades Installed Backwards, That's "Airworthy," Says UAL's Outsourced Mechanics

“Cutting back on food, pillows and other in-flight amenities is a business decision that only inconveniences passengers, but cutting costs in aircraft maintenance has serious safety implications,” said Transportation GVP Robert Roach, Jr., in testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security regarding the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) oversight of overseas aircraft repair stations.

The IAM, which was the only airline employee union testifying at the Senate hearing, focused on the lack of FAA oversight of independent repair stations, the shortage of FAA inspectors and the disparity in regulations for workers in domestic and foreign aircraft repair stations.
“Our members have seen aircraft return from independent repair facilities with the flaps rigged improperly, engine fan blades installed backwards, improperly connected ducting that resulted in pressurization problems, airspeed indicator lines disconnected, inoperable thrust reversers and over-wing exit emergency slides deactivated,” said Roach. “These aircraft had all been deemed airworthy by the repair stations.

Major Organizing Win

Office and Technical Workers from the City of Long Beach, CA, voted by a more than two-to-one margin to join the IAM. The 1,800 new members join four other groups in the city: Professional; Protection; Refuse and Skilled and General units to bring the total number of IAM-represented city workers in Local 1930 to nearly 4,000.

Now This Is Activism

Long Beach, CA Local 1930 Member and Assemblywoman Laura Richardson finished atop an 18-candidate field in a special election to fill a congressional seat. Congratulations to our Southern California Sister. 

Boeing 787 Makes Bittersweet Debut

IAM i-Mail -- Unlike past Boeing aircraft that were manufactured in the U.S., the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a mosaic of composite parts, including wings from Japan, fuselage sections from Italy, doors from France, landing gear and engines from England and a tail cone from South Korea. Final assembly of the aircraft takes three days and is completed by IAM members of District 751 at the company’s Everett, WA facility.

“It is our members who stepped up to ensure the success of this plane, as well as every model before it,” said District 751 President Tom Wroblewski, who reminded Boeing that it was IAM members who ensured a successful debut when vendors fell behind schedule.

IAM to Make Historic Dual Endorsement

IAM i-MAIL -- On August 27 and 28, Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will appear before nearly 600 IAM leaders from across the country. Invitations to participate in the IAM’s “Conversation with the Candidates” were extended to five candidates from each party. Moderated by Erin Moriarty of CBS News, these ninety-minute conversations will occur at the IAM National Staff Conference in Orlando, FL.

Presidential candidates will have a chance to explain their policies and their impact on working families. IAM leaders will have an opportunity to evaluate the candidates before voting to endorse a primary candidate from each party. The dual endorsement will be a first in the IAM’s 119-year history.   

“Our goal is to give candidates from both parties an opportunity to make their case on issues that matter most to our members,” said IP Tom Buffenbarger. “We want to know where they stand on jobs, schools, health care, trade, manufacturing and energy.”Upon conclusion of the primaries, the IAM will make its customary recommendation for U.S. President and Vice President following input from elected delegates at the IAM Convention in September 2008.

Collecting Those $50 Overweight Charges for Glenn Tilton?

You'll want to keep this in mind. An ABC news affiliate in Arizona found in an investigation that 90% of the scales were calibrated wrong. And when they accompanied an Arizona Department of Weights and Measures inspection of United Airlines scales, they found all but one to have errors.

Steve Meissner of the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures told KNVX, "baggage scales are often inaccurate. They take a 24-hour beating ... we don't believe the airlines are deliberately ripping people off ... But we almost never fail to find scales that are out of tolerance."

Can You Say, “ 新建飞行 ?”

United Airlines is proposing new flights between San Francisco and Guangzhou starting in 2008, and between Los Angeles and Shanghai in 2009.

Protest At Imperial Palace Over Exec Pay

The AP reports more than 100 uniformed United Airlines pilots demonstrated outside Glenn Tilton’s swank downtown palace in Chicago, renewing their protest over excessive pay for UAL Corp’s wealthy executives.

The Imperial Palace says it has no intention of reopening labor contracts, and that poor employee morale just the imagination of a “Vocal Minority.”

United Airlines Gets A Leg Up In Business Class

Here’s the new look. United business class seats will recline to a 180-degree, 6-foot, 4-inch "lie-flat" bed on international routes. The new seating and entertainment enhancements in business and first class, below, will be available as early as this fall. That timetable makes United Airlines the first domestic airline to provide next generation premium cabins.