Other than using "junk bonds" to buy and merge airlines, just what airline did Lorenzo ever build? Some in the press or Wall Street called him the airline builder. Continental floundered until its rescue under Gordon Bethune many years after Lorenzo's despicable reign of terror (did Southwest become successful by wielding the steel fist and sword?). Lorenzo's theory of rock-bottom priced labor (with the FAA Western Region's collaboration to allow Lorenzo's companies to cut corners on safety) as the altar in which to wor$hip never built anything except his own wealth and that of his few henchmen.
How does one build an airline by despising even those who cross picket lines to work there and then pretend to build an airline by milking millions of vital cash flow quickly into holding companies, i.e. Jet Capital and/or Texas air Corporation?
Just wait-his defenders, often consisting of ex-military pilots (too naive to realize they were suckers and chumps, duped by their former "mission-oriented" military mindset, to be achieved at the expense of a total loss of any civilian dignity) even civilian pilots, who can't admit that airline pilots are considered "blue collar workers" by their own mgmt (despite uniform white shirts, imitation Navy gold or white stripes and black silk ties), will come out of the woodwork to praise him.
Many crossed striking pilots' picket lines because the lure of the airline pilot image was simply much too strong for their egos and greed to resist (having already failed the dreaded flight physical with another Texas airline, or others).
It is doubtful that many told proud family members or attractive ladies in the bar that "I fly airline jets, but I chose to get hired by a company which pays only about half the present market rate, so I became a scab (my name is on a permanent list)". Many of these scabs march around Newark (KEWR)or Houston (KIAH) etc like little Napoleons, and often stand out because of such self-important body language. Bethune's leadership seems to have demoted the superscab status down to just your ordinary shameful lowest scab rank.
[This message has been edited by Ignition Override (edited 13 April 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Ignition Override (edited 13 April 2001).]