Word: lorenzo
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...Sept. 24, Continental Air Lines Chairman Frank Lorenzo, 43, attempted to reduce wage costs by temporarily going out of business. Lorenzo's plan was to close down the ninth largest U.S. airline and reopen a smaller carrier with lower labor costs, along the lines of the newcomers. Lorenzo claimed that Continental had been unable to win enough voluntary wage concessions from its unions...
...True to Lorenzo's aim, Continental was again flying last week. Within 54 hours of filing petitions for reorganization under bankruptcy laws in Houston, it had re-established service to 25 of the 78 cities it had served. It fired all 12,000 employees and then invited 4,000 back at barely half their former wages. Senior Continental pilots who used to average $83,000 a year could return, but at salaries of $43,000. Flight attendants who had worked their way up to $35,700 were cut back to $15,000. Senior mechanics saw their wages shrink from...
Continental employees were livid at the bankruptcy and pay offers. Said one worker, recalling the airline's past brushes with economic disaster: "A lot of people gave their hearts and souls here for years. Now there is nothing but broken hearts." Complained Senior Flight Attendant Pearl Kelly: "Lorenzo is pulling us around like puppets...
...Lorenzo defended his strategy, saying that the airline's union contracts were "vestiges of another era." He added that the bankruptcy maneuver would create for Continental the "opportunity to compete in a very challenging and potentially rewarding marketplace." Lorenzo called the airline the "New Continental" and said it aimed to be the biggest discounter in the air. One company insider said the motive was solely survival: "We didn't want it to bleed to death like Braniff," referring to that carrier's slide into bankruptcy...
...proposing Grace for beatification, a step along the road to sainthood. Committees to aid the cause are forming in Italy and reportedly in Philadelphia, her home town, and Hollywood as well. During a memorial service for the Princess in Rome, Msgr. Piero Pintus of the Church of San Lorenzo in Lucino surprised Monaco's Ambassador to Italy by announcing that he would gather signatures to begin the lengthy formal process. Said Pintus: "I am sure Princess Grace is in paradise. She may some day do a miracle." Neither the Kellys of Philadelphia nor the Grimaldis of Monaco have bothered...