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ByronMFox(at)aol.com
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 Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:36 am Post subject: Aloha, Aloha |
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Just got this from Hawaii RPA member Ace Ellinwood. The personal side of the story. ...Blitz Fox
"Well, I just got back from an historic event - the arrival of the last
Aloha passenger flight. I've never seen so many employees together in
one place. The flight was greeted by a copilot's hawaiian music group
and flight attendant hula dancers, followed by an hour and a half of
hugging and kissing, renewing old friendships and acquaintances and
saying good-bye and good luck. 38 hours earlier we all had jobs and no
warning that on April Fool's day we'd be out of work.
First of all, our family's OK. I planned to retire March first, and
hung around until April first instead, so we're just back to the
original plan, except that we lost our free dental plan (we already
lost our medical) and, worst of all when you live in the middle of the
ocean, will have no free or cheap travel.
Between the interisland fare war with Mesa and high fuel costs, Aloha
has been losing money every quarter since coming out of bankruptcy.
Management and the investors let it be known they were working on a big
deal or two to merge or sell the airline, but gave no hint what they
would do if a deal didn't go through. We found out 11 days ago when
they suddenly declared bankruptcy. We thought it would be like last
time; operate under Chapter 11 in order to keep the company going while
being protected from creditors. Not so. Unfortunately, one of the two
biggest creditors is the owner (Yucaipa Investments). They haven't been
investing in their own airline, they've been loaning money to
themselves, and now they're calling in their own loans. They plan to
sell the Cargo operation, the only part of the company that has an
interested buyer, and liquidate the rest. The employees are just so
much trash to be discarded. Sad to say, but it's true. The Governor
appealed to the bankruptcy court to make Aloha fly passengers for one
more month, to help intrastate transportation (no roads, of course, and
the Super Ferry is in dry dock), help stranded passengers and help
employees start looking for work. State law requires a 60-day notice to
employees before a company shuts down. The other creditors were willing
to wait, but Yucaipa directed the shutdown and employee terminations.
The judge said he couldn't stop them, and federal bankruptcy law will
probably trump state law, so no notice or severance pay for the
employees. The head of Yucaipa, Ron Burkel, has a personal wealth of
$1.3 billion. It's unfathomable to me how he can throw his employees
out with no notice and not provide some sort of transition support for
them. Not even a loan program. Absolutely zero conscience or compassion
for fellow human beings.
Aloha has sued Mesa for unfair business practices. Hawaiian won an $80
million judgment in a similar suit, so, if Yucaipa gets the same, they
could end up making a profit on their investment. All it would cost is
a 61-year-old airline and 3500 jobs, so, to them, it costs nothing.
Although they're still operating the cargo and contract services
departments, they're shutting down the Aloha Airlines name (the name is
for sale) and terminating employees rather than retiring them. That
way, they can stop paying the medical premiums for the old retirees who
still got that, and they won't have to pay an employee or two to staff
a pass bureau to provide reduced fare travel to retirees.
Personally, I feel really fortunate to be able to clean out my locker,
walk away and go back to my original plan of collecting military
retirement, a little airline retirement and doing some part-time
flying. What choked me up tonight was looking around at all of the
married couples who both worked for Aloha. Never work where your spouse
works is a good rule, but hard to follow when you both have established
careers in a company, fall in love and get married. I saw several
couples tonight who were once DINKs (double income, no kids), and are
now zero income, two kids in private school and a big mortgage. Next
week the kids start public school, the house goes on the market and the
airline captains/check airmen head for the mainland to find work at
half pay as a copilot, or to Asia to work as a highly-paid captain 5000
miles from home and family. (Not for me, I've already had a full-time
flying job in Asia, thanks anyway.)
The one heartening thing I've seen is an abundance of positive spirit.
Unlike bigger organizations, Aloha employees have always been friendly
to each other, help each other out when needed, look at the big picture
and keep their sense of humor. An example I overheard today, "How are
you?" "I don't have cancer." (I also heard, "How are you?"
"Unemployed!" and, "What have you been up too?" "Still 5' 11", haven't
grown a bit." But those are just corny.)"
Aloha - Ace
**************
Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home.
(http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15&ncid=aolhom00030000000001) [quote][b]
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UFO
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Salt Lake City , Utah
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| Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:46 am Post subject: Aloha, Aloha |
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Blitz,
Having lost our pilot pensions at Delta and now having both our union and Delta attempting to raid our disabled pilot's widows and orphans fund, I can relate. As far as I'm concerned, the airline is the people who worked it. If you know of a couple of flight crew who could use my "Friends & Family" passes to look for work anywhere in the world, I have two I could make available. I still have those left with Delta last time I looked.
Fraternally,
Val
[quote][b]
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