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MERGED: Alan's still not happy......

Australia, New Zealand & the Pacific Airline and RPT Rumours & News in Australia, enZed and the Pacific

MERGED: Alan's still not happy......

Old 31st Mar 2014, 02:02
  #3721 (permalink)  
 
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United we stand, divided we fall

Perhaps Al is looking at AA's style of management when it comes to farming work out to contractors. If we don't do something soon, we will ALL end up like this - sending work to lowest bidder.

American Eagle Airlines will shrink its fleet and will lose the opportunity to fly larger regional jets that its parent American Airlines Group has ordered after its pilots rejected a concessionary contract, the subsidiary said on Friday.

The move means that other regional carriers that fly under the American Eagle brand, such as Republic Airways, could get more work from American.

The Air Line Pilots Association union, which represents more than 2,700 pilots at American Eagle, said 92 percent of eligible pilots cast ballots and that 70 percent voted against ratification. Voting on the contract ended on Friday.

The union said concessions that included pay freezes and increased healthcare costs were too much for pilots who had already made givebacks when American was in bankruptcy last year.

"Despite threats from AAG management that they would seek other express carriers to conduct our flying, today's vote demonstrates that the demands for contract concessions were not acceptable," Captain Bill Sprague, chairman of ALPA Master Executive Council at American Eagle, said in a statement. "Today's vote clearly shows that pilots can, and will, vote against any agreement that is not in their best interests."

The union's statement said American Eagle pilots had worked under a 16-year contract that ended when former parent AMR filed for bankruptcy in late 2011, and it added that pilots had not had "meaningful contractual gains" since 2004.

American Airlines, which became the world's largest carrier when it merged with US Airways in December, had agreed to put 60 new Embraer 175s it ordered last year in service with American Eagle in exchange for the pilots approving the 10 year contract that had concessions. The airline had warned that should pilots reject the accord, the new aircraft would be placed with other regional airlines.

The pilot union's leaders had declined to send a tentative agreement to the membership for a vote in mid-February, but later had a change of heart after more talks with the company.

After the vote on Friday, American Eagle President Pedro Fabregas said the carrier, which plans to change its name to Envoy, would shrink its fleet and "will need to make appropriate changes" to bring down costs.

"American has informed us it will award the flying of the Embraer 175s to another regional carrier or several other carriers in the near future," Fabregas said in a letter to staff.

American Eagle, which has more than 14,000 workers, is one of a number of carriers that operate regional flights for American. Other carriers that operate regional flights under the American Eagle and US Airways Express brands include Republic, Chautauqua, ExpressJet, SkyWest, Mesa, Air Wisconsin and Trans States.
I guess in a rather simplistic way of looking at it, the rot has already started in Australia. But as suggested by others, it's not the pilots' fault - it should be aimed squarely at management

American Eagle to shrink after pilots reject labor pact - Chicago Tribune

Fuel-Off
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 05:23
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I have seen this strategy before in the IT industry. I knew Qantas was going that way the minute I heard Margaret Jackson talk about a "Legacy" airline and then others talk about "(business transformation".

This style of talk is pedaled by consultants and dumb arse Boards and Management buy it.The approach is attractive to management and a Board because it absolves them of any blame for the current state of affairs

The line is always the same; all your business problems are caused by old thinking and old business practices that are associated with an ageing business culture. What your business needs is new thinking, new business practices and of course a new business culture - we are going to go through a "transformation" process.

The first thing that the consultant does is trot out the "legacy business" model and invite the Board and management to buy in to this concept. Various parts can be labelled as "legacy" bits as well as the people who inhabit them. What that does is gives management permission to completely ignore any input from the aforementioned "legacy" staff, no matter how truthful, constructive, valuable and innovative it is. This is because you are seen as part of the old culture, with old attitudes and old thinking. You are not part of the future of the company.

To put that another way; Once you are labelled as part of a Legacy group, you are simply dead men walking. It matters not how profitable, experienced or valuable you are TODAY, because you are not part of the new TOMORROW!

In the Qantas case, nothing the engineers. for example, can say will make the slightest difference to anythig Qantas does because every single one of them has been labelled as yeterdays man. Their minds are made up and nothing you can do will change it. I would assume that the various pilot groups are similarly labelled.

At the same time as the legacy groups are being marginalised they are "harvested" nd every drop of cash that can be squeezed out of the legacy groups is reinvested in the "New transformed" entity, in this case Jetstar. Special groups of employees will be identified, usually young, bright but gullible and a lot of money wil be spent training them way beyond their demonstrated abilities because they are going to operate the new transformed business when the legacy groups are taken out back and quietly disposed of. the transformed business groupies also get the latest toys.

Of course the consultants usually leave just before the final step in the "transformation" is attempted - the cut over from the legacy groups who have been carrying the load for decades to the newly transformed groups. Of course you can guess what happens....The newy transformed golden children can't carry the load and the business collapses in a heap. This is usually because the consultants and management stopped listening to the legacy folk when they tried to tell them what would and wouldn't work.


If the Board and Management are smart enough not to have irrevocably destroyed the legacy part of the business, as the consultants will have exhorted them to do, there may be enough talent and greybeards left to pull the chetnuts out of the fire, shoulder some of the load and send the consultants and their idiot management sponsors packing.


The IT company? Well they labelled all their middle aged COBOL programmers "legacy" employees and the mainframes that ran the COBOL systems as "legacy technology". They identified and hired some bright young good looking people and trained them up in a new conscept called object oriented programming - running on DIgital Equipemnt Corporation mini computers. The COBOL programmers were marginalised and told they had no future, they were simply too old and with the wrong attitudes.

WHat happened ? The DEC machines with their Obect oriented software were switched on and couldn't handle the massive transaction load that the industrial strength mainframes and COBOL programs were handling. Neither could the young staff.

The COBOL programmers? They had a happy ending. There was huge demand for COBOL programmers due to Y2K the year 2000 problem. They al worked as consultants for a few years, made a killing and retired. COBOL still rules the business computing world today. The company? It was sold at bargain rates to its biggest competitor.
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 05:25
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Civil disobedience to come?

Love it, there is only one way to oust Joyce now;

Qantas job cuts: Transport Workers Union threatens campaign of 'civil disobedience' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

This is the way to go. It is now very obvious that it is a fight to the death. Joyce is hell bent on putting his loyal staff on the dole, outsourcing all and sundry to third world countries. Thousands of jobs have already gone with thousands more to go. Joyce has the support of Abbott and Co who are anti union as well, so the outcome isn't looking good. Better to die on your feet than on your knees so I reckon civil disobedience is the way to go. Joyce doesn't follow the rule book so neither should staff, think outside the box and hurt him hard. Time to hit him low and hard, if he wants blood spilled then make sure some of it is his.

It is time that our country stood up to the political/socio/business powers who are hell bent on burning the little folk as they pursue their personal quest for greed and power. It is time for an uprising. Start with QF, the Government, then the insurance companies, oil companies and food giants. Enough is enough, it is time to 'take back the streets'.
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 06:09
  #3724 (permalink)  
 
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This style of talk is pedaled by consultants and dumb arse Boards and Management buy it.
Exactly, because they don't have a clue how to fix it themselves, the strategy has been directionless, never anything positive, just lurching from one crisis to the next.. I can't name one positive result for the Qantas brand since Joyce took the helm and announced his five year plan which is so far taking about seven. It's wearing a bit thin.. and pretty clear to all that the consultants have failed with their expensive advice along the way (always the same gang of experts..) They are all clearly past the use by date in my view. The current board/management setup in simply not working, because they won't own up and admit they have got it wrong, at the end of the day, it's their strategy, no one else's!



.
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 07:05
  #3725 (permalink)  
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What is clear...is that they have no idea what to do, or what it is they are meant to be doing. They create one crisis from the last, hoping that that will spur someone (read, the government) to help them out. I am really starting to worry now that all is lost.
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 07:14
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I believe the quote last week from one (demoted) manager was "they are lurching from iceberg to iceberg"

BTW TIMA9X, you owe me new keyboard
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 07:26
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Perhaps the Consultants were never focussed on a long term solution for QF but rather the long term trail of fees for themselves. Whatever it takes.....and they had this management and Board sussed a long time ago.

Even better when you have like minded consultants embedded within because when their gig is up (as it will inevitably be) their next career stage is already planned and in place.
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 08:03
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: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein

Ring any bells aj and co.?
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 09:24
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Qantas was good consultant fodder. They had legacy systems that already worked that could easily be changed, they had a well defined organisation structure that could easily be chopped up and reassembled, they had a staff culture of commitment and hard work that could easily be exploited to take up or smooth out any anomalies with the new Qantas procedures and processes.

It is change for change sake, unfortunately the lack of talent at the top that is driving the change doesn't know much about running an airline and has got everyone jumping through more hoops than is necessary with no end in sight.

But that means diddly squat to AJ and his board because the end game to them is to sell off the best bits of the Qantas carcass to their mates at a bargain basement price. And so far this appears to be the only progress AJ and his board have made by letting their consultants run amok creating more dysfunction, confusion and uncertainty in the Qantas business to achieve this goal.
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 09:41
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In terms of benevolent civil disobedience, it would also be nice to see Qantas staff protest by wearing a badge that reads:

100% Australian, 100% safe, 100% happy
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 11:11
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Alan's still not happy!

FFS, will this prick ever cheer up? Fair chance we've all had a gutful of this charade! (Spewing icon)

Last edited by ozaggie; 31st Mar 2014 at 11:13. Reason: Fat fingers,
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 11:15
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Who's a happy boy then.....

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Old 31st Mar 2014, 11:25
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Qantas was good consultant fodder.
Sure is! And once embedded, you can bet you would want to 'make work' for as long as possible, if you were a consultant.
I mean, as well as the fees, just look at the Staff Travel perks. Always on the "legacy" side of the Group, you will note. Far more comfortable! No Jetstarisation in that area, you can bet your sweet bippy.

Last edited by Captain Gidday; 2nd Apr 2014 at 07:13. Reason: clarification
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 12:05
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THE QANTAS "MANAGEMENT" MANTRA.....

QUOTE OF THE MILLENIUM !!
" We trained hard but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams.....We would be reorganised.
I was to learn later in life, that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation."

Petronius..210 B.C.
Role on............
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 19:10
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The consulting model I had inflicted on me - "Business transformation" is a carte blanche for a consulting company to look at and tamper with every aspect of the business from HR to operations and make a very great deal of money in the process.

A competent consulting company will bring in so called "experts" from all over their global network: "honey cart operations? Why our Mr Snodgrass from Alabama did a major report on airline waste disposal Two years ago, we will have him on the next flight out!" You get the drift?

The let out clause the consultants use is also always the same: To make the new lean mean transformed machine they have created work as advertised, your business must totally abandon the "old thinking" and "Old culture" this is code for disposing of ALL legacy people and practices completely.

The justification for this is that if it isn't done this way; "the old culture will infect the new culture with bad thinking and kill it". By way of trivial example, this means that if you have designed a paperless office system, you must prevent the possession of paper and pencils in order to prevent people from returning to their previous practice of scrawling notes to each other.

Naturally a halfway prudent Board and Management will reject the idea of complete reliance on untested people on practices and retain a modicum of "old thinkers" - thereby giving the consultants an escape clause when things go bad: "You didn't completely embrace the new systems, which is why they failed".

In the case of Qantas, it seems to me that the management has been deliberately chosen to make it fail, or at least make it totally unattractive to all but a handful of shareholders. so that it can be snapped up by private operators.

To put that another way, a very, very successful investor told me his method of investing: he did his own due diligence - looking for undervalued and very badly managed companies. He would then invest in them. What happened invariably was that the rest of the market finally caught on that the only problem was that company was very badly managed, they bought in, turfed out the management and voila! A nice little return on investment! It would seem that a variant of this strategy is being employed today.

To put that another way, you cannot tell me that 65% of the Australian domestic air travel market is a losing proposition.
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Old 31st Mar 2014, 22:36
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Love the quote Alien Role. Evolution 101, keep moving the goal posts.
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Old 2nd Apr 2014, 01:30
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Just to prove that its not all 'take' from little brother.

From HKG.

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Old 2nd Apr 2014, 01:58
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You say "to prove that its not all 'take'", I say "I see a silver radome on a red tailed aircraft". Your statement makes all sorts of implicit assumptions, mine does not. Yours is a statement of opinion, not fact, it cannot be tested on the evidence you have presented.
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Old 2nd Apr 2014, 02:02
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Who paid for that radome in the first place? Pretty sure there would be white paint underneath the silver.
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Old 2nd Apr 2014, 02:15
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Maybe they are repainting it silver in stages - very stealthy, passengers won't even notice when the last lick of paint goes over the red tail.
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