ALPA Chief Blasts Airline Executive Perqs as Thousands Lose
Jobs
The following statement was issued Thursday by Capt. Duane
Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association,
International, the nation's largest pilots' union, regarding recent
airline executive bonuses, compensation and stock grants in light
of the industry's current financial situation:
"Thousands of airline workers have lost their jobs
or given significant wage, benefit and work rule concessions since
September 11 to help save their companies. The economic downturn
and loss of high-yield business travelers have dramatically
impacted airline revenues, and both business and leisure travel are
being negatively impacted by the Gulf War. Although airline workers
have not caused these problems, they have stepped forward, as
always, to be part of the solution.
"Therefore, it is disconcerting, if not outrageous, that
airline executives are lining their pockets while employees are
subsidizing these bonuses and bankruptcy-protected retirement
plans. These same managers are attempting to abrogate
workers' contracts in bankruptcy court.
Top Management Lives in a World of Its Own, Insulated from us
Peasants
"The recent revelations at Delta Air Lines are a case in point.
Last year management awarded itself $17 million in executive
bonuses, plus $25.5 million in pension funding, at a time when the
carrier was losing $1.3 billion and ordering layoffs, which now
stand at 16,000 lost jobs. Since September 11, a total of 100,000
airline jobs have been lost. Thousands of workers at US Airways
have lost the bulk of their pensions, and other pension plans are
in jeopardy.
"Yet
just this week the CEO of Delta told a meeting of economists that
Delta must 'continue a program of cost reductions that outsizes any
undertaken in its history.' A $42.5 million perq package for top
executives hardly qualifies as cost reduction of any sort.
"We also have just learned that last year,
Continental's CEO got $11.9 million in compensation. This was after
Continental went from $95 million loss in 2001 to a $451 million
net loss in 2002.
"And
at Northwest, the CEO's compensation rose 126 percent over 2001,
even as the airline's bottom line went from a $423 million loss in
2001 to a loss of $798 million in 2002.
"In spite of these ill-timed management bonuses coupled to
record corporate losses, airline workers continue to partner with
their companies through massive give-backs and by supporting
efforts on Capitol Hill to relieve the excessive taxation and
increased security costs that are crippling our industry.
"Make no mistake: airline workers are the reason their companies
are the great national assets they are, not management teams who
come and go with multi-million-dollar severance packages in their
pockets. We will be here when most executives are long gone, trying
to carry on the proud legacy of this nation's air travel
industry."
[Perhaps the Boards will realize this some day
--ed.]