Last week in San Francisco, following on the heels of his Dulles meeting in which he told the members there that they would never again see a defined benefit pension at the Company, CEO Jeff Smisek appeared to be trying to backtrack a bit from his prior remarks. At the San Francisco meeting, Mr. Smisek said that he was "indifferent" as to whether the membership secured a defined benefit pension, and that this was a matter of bargaining and not pissing off the PBGC. I think Mr. Smisek was genuinely trying to remove from his mouth the foot that he inserted at the Dulles meeting, and for that I was somewhat pleased. But afterwards, I got to thinking about what he said there, and now I am not so pleased.
The definition of the word indifferent is: 1 lack of interest or concern, 2 unimportance; little or no concern. This information was found on Dictionary.com. As I related in my recent posts about Mr. Smisek and the pension mess that he inherited, some might think that pensions are the only thing on my mind. They are not. The establishment of a defined benefit pension is of critical concern to me and most of you, and I am absolutely serious when I state that there will not be a contract unless and until we have a defined benefit pension. I am not sure that Mr. Smisek understands how important this issue is to us, and am very concerned when a very smart, well educated, successful and gifted speaker like Mr. Smisek claims to be "indifferent" about pensions or anything else that concerns the workforce.
Pre-Smisek UAL has been indifferent towards our needs for decades. The Company didn't care when they fired 10,000 mechanics, jettisoned our pension, destroyed our ESOP stock, or when they slashed our wages, our benefits and our work rules. Now, with the UAL-CAL merger, there is a great opportunity for all of us, labor and management alike to forge a new relationship. To do so requires a radical departure from the indifference and poison that has marred the bargaining relationships at this Company for so long. When Mr. Smisek says he is indifferent to our needs and our rights to retirement security, I am forced to conclude that he is also indifferent to our need to protect our jobs, reverse the outsourcing of our work to outsiders, and to protect and restore our other benefits. That makes me sad and frankly it pisses me off. I have worked here a long time and, like you, have taken many hard lumps from a Company whose management style is one of indifference and even callous disregard and disrespect for me, my family and my union brothers and sisters. Mr. Smisek is a very smart man, but his claim of indifference seems to me to be a very stupid and unproductive remark. I would rather have a hands-on CEO who tells us he actually understands how screwed up things have been here and who will roll his sleeves up to fix the problems.
I don't know whether Mr. Smisek golfs or not, but if he does, perhaps he should consider taking a mulligan and let us know that the days of indifference and disrespect at this carrier are over, and that he is personally committed to restoring the dignity that the Company and its Bankruptcy thieves stole from us as well as righting the wrongs that were done to us. Without that effort and commitment by Mr. Smisek, I fear we will be stuck in the same warped relationship with management here at the merged carrier that we suffered prior to the merger. And that is not good for anybody. So, I hope Mr. Smisek takes that mulligan and empowers his team to move on, making good on restoring and replacing the work, wages, benefits, dignity and respect that was ripped from us and from every person who has worked at this Company. We deserve nothing less! In fact, we DEMAND it! Tell your supervisor ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! RETURN TO THE TABLE AND FINISH THE DEAL! Anything less is entirely unacceptable!
