Corporate Suicide
The British Airways cabin staff ... or more correctly, their union bosses ... are a load of wankers. The union in question, "unite" (lower case, note ... they are modest) announced a ballot on November 4. They took the ballot over the weekend at a horse racing track -- where ostensibly 80% of the members voted to go out on strike. Now, you can bet that this was an open "show of hands": if you are seen to vote the wrong way, you can expect someone to defecate in your lunch bag, and key your car -- you scab!
However the vote was rigged, they voted to walk out during the period of December 22 to January 2, 2010. The Holiday travel period. That will teach those management Fat Cats! The trouble with class warfare is that it very often overlooks economic reality: BA loses about Stg. 1.6 million each day the sun rises. This strike will cost it an additional Stg. 500 million, on top of loses of about Stg. 400 million racked up this year to date. BA is already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy -- my guess is that the unions are betting that their Thief-in-Chief Gordon Brown will arrange a "bail-out" of BA, just like for the other corrupt and hopeless products of a Labour-led England.
However, this time the effects will be more far-reaching: rather than obediently book BA again for their next holidays, I would bet that people will finally say, "next time I am flying Virigin." Or American. Or Air France. Or Air India. Anything but BA. You see, BA has no more loyalty capital left. None. I, for one, won't fly it unless there is literally no option, and I have been in that camp for over a decade (since I was doing the London-Cairo route on a weekly basis: Air Egypt or BA ... not really much of a choice).
Len McClusky, unite's leader insists that the cabin crew are "not mindless militants but decent working people who don't want to bring the company down." Rubbish. One million people are going to get royally screwed by their actions in a direct way -- no holiday with loved ones, stock holders will see their investment plunge, pensioners dependent on BA's continued existence will get socked, and UK tax payers will have to foot the bill. A national airline is more closely akin to a postal service: it is not a game of corporate/class warfare, it is a vital service.
Of course, we can gloat a bit that this once-proud peacock of an airline will get hammered again, and the lying cheating system of landing rights at Heathrow might be broken as BA falls. But make no mistake, this is a move that is extremely ill-considered. Here's an idea to contemplate: you are a BA cabin crew member. You lose you job as people refuse to fly BA or it simply goes bankrupt. Do you honestly think that any other airline would hire you with BA on your resume ... knowing that in all likelihood that you are stupid enough to vote for this strike? Who would want that liability on their payrolls? "Oh wait, let me hire this budding corporate saboteur!!" Not likely.
The other airlines are, of course, acting like vultures and offering their spare seats at triple the going prices. But who can blame them? Yes, it is gouging, but when your own corporate existence is threatened, it is not a time to suddenly get that "giving feeling." Richard Branson must be dancing around like Fagin in Asprey's.
And if you don't understand what this means to America, you are not paying attention. Mr. Obama would no doubt see it unite's way. BTW, did you hear about the new rules on the conversion of political appointees to regular government staff? Under Obama, EVERY single one of these heretofore routine conversions will be looked at by his staff -- to check for their political trustworthiness. Bush (either) didn't. Clinton didn't. Reagan didn't. Can you imagine if Bush had done this? The NYT would have put this on the front page. But, being the O-bot propaganda sheet, they see nothing wrong with vetting someone's political orthodoxy: doesn't this sound Orwellian? Something from Pol-Pot's playbook? A Stalin-esque fantasy? OR ... even more aptly ... something one might have seen in Germany, circa 1936?
However the vote was rigged, they voted to walk out during the period of December 22 to January 2, 2010. The Holiday travel period. That will teach those management Fat Cats! The trouble with class warfare is that it very often overlooks economic reality: BA loses about Stg. 1.6 million each day the sun rises. This strike will cost it an additional Stg. 500 million, on top of loses of about Stg. 400 million racked up this year to date. BA is already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy -- my guess is that the unions are betting that their Thief-in-Chief Gordon Brown will arrange a "bail-out" of BA, just like for the other corrupt and hopeless products of a Labour-led England.
However, this time the effects will be more far-reaching: rather than obediently book BA again for their next holidays, I would bet that people will finally say, "next time I am flying Virigin." Or American. Or Air France. Or Air India. Anything but BA. You see, BA has no more loyalty capital left. None. I, for one, won't fly it unless there is literally no option, and I have been in that camp for over a decade (since I was doing the London-Cairo route on a weekly basis: Air Egypt or BA ... not really much of a choice).
Len McClusky, unite's leader insists that the cabin crew are "not mindless militants but decent working people who don't want to bring the company down." Rubbish. One million people are going to get royally screwed by their actions in a direct way -- no holiday with loved ones, stock holders will see their investment plunge, pensioners dependent on BA's continued existence will get socked, and UK tax payers will have to foot the bill. A national airline is more closely akin to a postal service: it is not a game of corporate/class warfare, it is a vital service.
Of course, we can gloat a bit that this once-proud peacock of an airline will get hammered again, and the lying cheating system of landing rights at Heathrow might be broken as BA falls. But make no mistake, this is a move that is extremely ill-considered. Here's an idea to contemplate: you are a BA cabin crew member. You lose you job as people refuse to fly BA or it simply goes bankrupt. Do you honestly think that any other airline would hire you with BA on your resume ... knowing that in all likelihood that you are stupid enough to vote for this strike? Who would want that liability on their payrolls? "Oh wait, let me hire this budding corporate saboteur!!" Not likely.
The other airlines are, of course, acting like vultures and offering their spare seats at triple the going prices. But who can blame them? Yes, it is gouging, but when your own corporate existence is threatened, it is not a time to suddenly get that "giving feeling." Richard Branson must be dancing around like Fagin in Asprey's.
And if you don't understand what this means to America, you are not paying attention. Mr. Obama would no doubt see it unite's way. BTW, did you hear about the new rules on the conversion of political appointees to regular government staff? Under Obama, EVERY single one of these heretofore routine conversions will be looked at by his staff -- to check for their political trustworthiness. Bush (either) didn't. Clinton didn't. Reagan didn't. Can you imagine if Bush had done this? The NYT would have put this on the front page. But, being the O-bot propaganda sheet, they see nothing wrong with vetting someone's political orthodoxy: doesn't this sound Orwellian? Something from Pol-Pot's playbook? A Stalin-esque fantasy? OR ... even more aptly ... something one might have seen in Germany, circa 1936?
posted by Zaphod at Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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