With US Airways cutting back in Pittsburgh and threatening a second bankruptcy if it can't obtain more concessions from its unions, the nation's seventh-largest airline has the "gall" to plan more than a tripling of flights at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood operations in Florida to boost business in the Caribbean and Latin America.
To a union leader, killing one hub only to build another is duplicitous.
"You're either in trouble and trying to survive or not. There's no in-between," said Teddy Xidas, president of Local 40 of the Association of Flight Attendants.
That's the Western Pennsylvania spirit. Yes, past US Airways management made plenty of mistakes, but the union movement that helped bring down the steel industry now is working on the area's chief airline.
US Airways is struggling to survive. The new southern strategy is bootstrapped onto the success US Airways already has enjoyed in that region. The money it will take to shift some operations to Florida is a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of billions of dollars it needs in labor concessions over the years.
Will the southern strategy work out⢠It's a risk, but a calculated one, and that's what businesses do.
Oh, and about that bankruptcy thing. Another Chapter 11 reorganization is not the only route the airline could take. Chairman David Bronner -- who also has Alabama's pension fund to worry about -- has been talking about liquidation under Chapter 7.
Be our guest. Call his bluff.
