"I was livid," Dietrich said.
In the baggage -claims office, a clerk offered an explanation of sorts.
"He basically told us they had a problem with Philadelphia getting bags on the plane," Dietrich recalled. "He said this isn't the first time. "
The next morning, Dietrich hurriedly bought a dress for the afternoon wedding. She flew home Sunday and began a round of calls to learn the whereabouts of her bag. No one knew.
Finally, on Thursday, a FedEx driver delivered the suitcase to her home. She was relieved - until she opened it.
"Everything inside was soaking wet," she said.
Apparently, the bag had been left exposed to rain.
Afflicted by a litany
of problems
In recent weeks, The Inquirer has talked with current and former baggage handlers and an array of airline managers and executives, past and present. Some asked not to be identified, worried about antagonizing managers or colleagues on the job.
There was remarkable agreement among them about the problems bedeviling US Airways in Philadelphia.
A bitter and weary workforce
Working "on the ramp," hefting bags for US Airways , was once a solid, middle-class job, one that someone with a high school education could count on to buy a house, put kids through college, and allow a comfortable retirement. Workers with decades on the job were commonplace.
Now that's a remote dream for newly hired US Airways ramp workers - a casualty of the industry's deregulation, which brought consumers lower fares, but ended fat labor contracts whose costs airlines once could pass on to customers.
For US Airways , this decade has been a time of reckoning, one that brought pay scales down into line with the rest of the industry - leaving its workforce in turmoil. Since 2002, the airline has filed for bankruptcy protection twice, each time squeezing more concessions from the unions.
The payroll shrunk. A third of what had been a 40,000-plus workforce were laid off when air travel plummeted after 9/11. Thousands of other employees retired early or quit because of the wage cuts.
In all, employees gave up almost $2 billion in annual wages and benefits during the bankruptcies.
The cuts cleared the way for America West, based in Tempe, Ariz., to buy US Airways last year.
What galls many workers is that US Airways (America West kept the name in use) is now making large profits when they have given up so much. It made $305 million in the second quarter, a profit margin of 10 percent.
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