On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:51:09 +0100, Peter Parry
wrote:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:27:47 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:

The most sensible outcome would be for the workforce and the union to
wake up and smell the coffee and realise that there have to be some
changes. There's really no point in arguing about how the company
arrived at this point (e.g. should management have done something
else) because the clock can't be wound back and today's economic
situation has to be faced.

The first necessary step is actually to sack the incompetent managers
who allowed (or possibly arranged for) this situation to arise. The
first to go should be the Directors. With the same bunch in charge in
the future no plan is going to work.

Having got some managers in who can manage then the way the company
works can be considered. If you keep a workforce informed and have
sound leadership situations like this simply don't arise.

You start reform at the top - not the bottom. Perhaps now is the
time for some of people who have claimed inflated pay for the "risk"
they are taking as managers and directors to find out what the word
risk means.



This is making the assumption that the management is incompetent. They
have been attempting to negotiate changes in working practice for
several months in order to reduce costs by £14m in the context of
losses of £25m. They would probably need to have a sweeter deal from
BA and tip out some of the workforce to balance the books.

It is important to keep the workforce informed, and certainly the
adversarial situation created by part of the workforce and the union
does not help with that. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter
how informed the workforce is, the economics dictate that there are
going to have to be some changes. One can go on negotiating and
discussing until blue in the face, but eventually the management does
have to act to address the losses. Since a substantial part of the
cost in a service business is the payroll, it is not rocket science to
figure out where cost cutting has to be done.


--

..andy

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