{"id":1894,"date":"2008-09-11T16:28:57","date_gmt":"2008-09-11T21:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sequence-inc.com\/fraudfiles\/?p=1894"},"modified":"2011-08-15T23:40:38","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T04:40:38","slug":"midwest-airlines-pilots-hold-rally-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/midwest-airlines-pilots-hold-rally-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Midwest Airlines Pilots Hold Rally… Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I certainly respect the right of the Midwest Airlines pilots and their union to hold a rally. I respect their right to strike or otherwise express their displeasure with Midwest Airlines.<\/p>\n

But I have to ask… To what end is this being done?<\/p>\n

Like every other U.S. based airline, Midwest Airlines is in financial trouble. The airline is near bankruptcy, and they’re doing everything they can to cut costs and stay alive. Sadly, the changes have included cutting flights and laying off tons of employees. The cuts have been so drastic that some wonder if it even makes any sense to keep this business up and running.<\/p>\n

Included in the cuts are the elimination of large, fuel-guzzling airplanes. That means fewer pilots. Seating is being reconfigured<\/a> to offer fewer of the signature wide seats, and generate more revenue per flight.<\/p>\n

Also part of the restructuring is a deal with Republic Airways Holdings<\/a> to lease 12 jets beginning October 1. The jets will be flown and maintained by Republic employees for at least the first year, which also means fewer Midwest pilots are needed. Republic sweetened the deal by giving Midwest a loan, and the company was in dire need of cash, so the deal was attractive.<\/p>\n

By taking the large planes out of service and doing a partial replacement with the jets from Republic, 125 pilots and 120 flight attendants are losing their jobs. All told, Midwest’s employees have been trimmed by 45% since the beginning of the year. The Republic jets could eventually be staffed with Midwest employees, but no promises are being made.<\/p>\n

In addition to all of this, Midwest wants the pilots to take wage cuts of between 45% and 65%. I don’t blame the pilots and their union for fighting this wage cut and the layoffs, but what’s the alternative? If Midwest can’t create a financial situation in which they at least break even, they go out of business. I realize that pilots are being expected to go from salaries in the $100,000 range, down to $30,000 to $40,000. Who wants to do that? No one. But what’s the alternative from the standpoint of the company?<\/p>\n

So what is going to be achieved by rallying and making negative comments about the company? Nothing, as I see it. I still respect the pilots’ rights to do it. I just don’t think that it’s going to accomplish anything. The business model of U.S. airlines is no longer viable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I certainly respect the right of the Midwest Airlines pilots and their union to hold a rally. I respect their right to strike or otherwise express their displeasure with Midwest Airlines. But I have to ask… To what end is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fraud-news-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Z0e-uy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}