Employees Respond That He Should Know
For a three-month period
in late-2006 and early 2007, the name Doug Parker was synonymous
with "airline merger" -- as the CEO of US Airways Group pursued a
hostile takeover bid of Delta Air Lines. That bid failed in January
2007.
Somewhat ironically, Parker had harsh words recently for how
Delta and Northwest Airlines appear to be handling a potential
merger of their own... saying both airlines are putting too much
pressure on their pilots to hash out an agreement
on seniority.
"I don't think it's fair to put the pilots in that position,"
Parker told Reuters. "In some sense, I feel for the pilots at Delta
and Northwest."
As ANN reported, talks
between the two carriers have reportedly broken down, due to
continuing concerns over how a merged airline would integrate Delta
and Northwest pilots' seniority lists. Each airline's chapter of
the Air Line Pilots Association has differing ideas on how best to
do that... and, insure their respective interests come out
ahead.
Executives at the two airlines had hoped for at least a
tentative agreement on the issue before formally announcing a
merger, in hopes of avoiding the kind of post-merger turmoil that
now -- ironically, again -- plagues the very airline Parker
oversees.
Pilots from the former US Air and America West still haven't
agreed on a joint contract, nearly three years after that merger
was first announced. On Thursday, a number of labor groups from
throughout US Airways picketed outside the airline's Phoenix, AZ
headquarters, saying the carrier has failed to address their
issues, as well.
US Air pilots recently won approval from the National Mediation
Board to hold a vote to replace their ALPA
chapter with the newly-created US Airlines Pilots
Association, in hopes the new union would strike a better deal for
their side than ALPA managed with a seniority formula presented by
a federal arbitrator in June 2007.
Parker touched on that issue only lightly in the Reuters
interview. "Getting pilots to agree on seniority is a very
difficult task," he said. "You have to recognize that going
in."
Pilot Tania Bziukiewicz, spokeswoman for the America West
chapter of ALPA, says the US Airways CEO appears blessed with
superb hindsight. "Doug Parker has failed to complete this merger,"
she said. "It's still chaos."
Parker had other thoughts, as well, on the current state of the
domestic airline industry as it grapples with record fuel prices
and a slumping economy.
"Our industry is in a mess, if you haven't noticed," Parker said
succinctly. "We're about to head into what looks like another
downturn."