Not Exactly Cooperation

“US Airways can plan on whatever they want. We plan on taking them to court.”

An interesting quote indeed. Who said it? You’d think it was a jilted partner, or maybe even a competitor who felt that they lost out to USAirways in the battle for gate space at an airport. I could maybe even see a city that felt slighted that USAirways reneged on a perceived promise to the city. No such luck though.

This quote came from Joe Tiberi, spokesman for the International Association of Machinists. What does he have to do with USAirways? Little, really. But the IAM apparently represents about 5000 mechanics with the airline, who would seem peeved about the decision to outsource some heavy maintenance to a third party.

I can understand the unease with the issue. If heavy maintenance on the newer planes is being outsourced, then as the newer planes replace old planes, and old planes are retired, jobs will be lost. But why is the first reaction to take the company to court? Shouldn’t people working for the same company share the same interests? These days, it would seem all too often that the management of the company is on one side of the fence and the employees are on the other. Probably not a good sign.


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