US Airways Management Lines Pockets at Workers' Expense

Official Statement of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa
US Airways' decision to pay huge
management bonuses to executives while freezing or cutting pay and benefits
for company mechanics is a stunning example of the corporate greed that is
killing the American Dream.
Last Friday, March 10, 2006, US Airways CEO Douglas Parker sent an
internal memo to employees revealing that the US Airways Board of Directors
had approved payouts of hundreds of thousands of dollars for managers under a
2005 annual "incentive program."
CEO Parker is to be commended for refusing to take his bonus, which is
only right. But perhaps a wiser choice would have been to distribute the
$770,000 to non-management employees who are being asked to shoulder the
burden of this merger.
Our hardworking mechanics have weathered the storm, keeping US Airways
flying through terrible times. And now the company is lavishly rewarding the
executives who drove US Airways and America West into three bankruptcies
between them, while telling mechanics they should sacrifice.
Sadly, management is dividing up the spoils of the recent merger while
mechanics and their families are being told to struggle on. We condemn these
outrageous management bonuses and the statement they make about this company's
value system.
And, US Airways is not alone, as our striking workers at Sikorsky in
Connecticut can attest. The drive to put profits before people is the biggest
threat facing our nation's working families.
It is up to working people to take on corporate America and fight greed
together to reshape our America.