HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED

We were cleaning out desks and sweeping away cobwebs the other day and came across a piece of memorabilia. It was a memo from Richard Anderson, then Chief Operating Officer of Northwest Airlines, from January 6, 2000. The memo was entitled "Management Philosophy" and had a subheading of "Keep In Your Top Desk Drawer", an obvious reference to its importance and the need to use the memo as a key guide to behavior.

The memo goes over the need for management to be honest in dealings with employees, the need to recognize good performance, holding people accountable for reaching goals and providing candid, respectful feedback to employees and colleagues.

What we found most interesting was the following paragraph:

In addition, we must maintain a close relationship with our unions and their leadership at all levels. We must have an open and fair relationship with our unions, as they are important to our success. All parties must abide by the terms and conditions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement. We should expeditiously settle grievances, preferably at the local level and always be candid and direct in our dealings with labor union officials. Our operation will only run well if we have good relationships with our people and work together with their collective bargaining representatives.

We were startled to read this. How had things drifted so far over the last decade. Dial the clock forward 10 years. Anderson has become the point man for an assault on the very concept of unionism, collective bargaining and the right of employees to have an independent voice in the workplace. He touts the direct relationship between employees and management. No need for the middle man, he says. Of course this is really just code for - We want to have the ability to dictate terms to our employees so we can increase the use of Ready Reserve, the revolving door and the throw away worker, driving down the cost of labor.

Anderson has decided to attach himself to an ideology that is bad for this airline, bad for our customers and bad for the employees. It is the same odeology that led to the economic meltdown of the United States and is step by step taking away the dream of a secure future for working class Americans.