I've been refraining from commenting on this until now. It's one of those stories that seems too outrageous to be true--unless, of course, you fly regularly. In that case, you will believe anything outrageous about air travel. It started with the alleged "sick-out" at U.S. Airways on the Christmas weekend. Lots of missing baggage handlers then resulted in a sea of luggage in Philly that has to this day not been dealt with. Next time I fly and the agent asks if I'll be checking my bags, my response will be, "You've got to be kidding." Oh wait, that's what I've always been thinking even if I haven't said it.
The alleged "sick-out" in itself would be a story, but there's more...
The company took the unusual step Tuesday of asking employees around the country whether they would be willing to travel to Philadelphia International Airport between now and Jan. 3 to work as unpaid volunteers supplementing the airport's regular staff.
The company stressed that employees already scheduled to work this weekend would be paid their regular rate, but said it hoped to find volunteers willing to donate time greeting passengers, answering questions, serving coffee, directing foot traffic through the terminals and lending a hand in baggage claim. [article here]
Ever seen the U.S. Airways check-in line at Philly? The only questions they'll get will be "How many hours before I get to the front?" But I digress.
The whole idea is wishful thinking. U.S. Airways has about 2 weeks left before someone starts painting "for sale" signs on their airplanes. (Got a few million dollars in spare change?) These employees are about to be ex-employees. And yet, management wants them to volunteer their New Year's holiday helping travelers. Since a lot of travelers are in a disagreeable mood at the airport to begin with, and since anyone with U.S. Airways on their ticket is going to be a little edgy right now anyway, this isn't something I'd volunteer for. (Besides, Iowa is playing football.) If management is that optimistic as to hope that any workers are going to volunteer for this duty, they might even believe that their planes will be flying on January 16th. (Only if they can work out a last minute deal.)
Basically, what you have here is a finite repeated game being played between workers and the company. The game will terminate when U.S. Airways flies off into the sunset. As that date approaches and becomes more certain, the employees would be expected to expend less effort, not more. Hence, the "sick-out." As an economist, I'm not really surprised by the fact that it happened. To those who say the workers shot themselves in the foot, I say only if you believe U.S. Airways was going to come out of bankrupcy. (That doesn't make it right--just understandable.)
Bottom line: I think you'll have to get your own coffee if you're flying in and out of Philly this weekend.
Leave a comment