By Richard M. Barron
JOURNAL BUSINESS REPORTER

 

Winston-Salem officials and employees of Piedmont Aviation Inc. tried to put the best face on the airline's merger with USAir Group Inc. yesterday, but their voices and their eyes suggested more than a bit of worry about the future.

City officials said that they will do everything in their power to preserve Piedmont jobs in the Triad.

John W. Davis III, the vice president for economic development for the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, said: "Personally, I'm sorry to see Piedmont be bought by USAir. Piedmont has been a wonderful corporate citizen, and it's been good for the community."

Piedmont employees said that they will do all they can to see that the merger works smoothly.

Barbara Harwell, a Winston-Salem native and a veteran customer-service representative for Piedmont at the Regional Airport, said: "I think it's okay. We're a money-making airline, and they're a money-making airline. I think it's going to be good. We are the best, and that's the way we feel about it."

She said, "We hate to see the planes painted." But she said that Piedmont will be able to teach USAir a few things about customer service.

Other employees at the airport said that, no matter how smooth, the merger could endanger the aggressive, youthful spirit that they say has fueled Piedmont's growth and kept employee morale high in recent years.

One employee, who asked to be anonymous, said: "What's kept the airline going and what's made it prosper has been the enthusiasm of the employees. To take away that enthusiasm is certainly going to take away from the prospering of the airlines."

Some employees were calling yesterday "Blue Monday."

Doug Stamper, a customer-service representative at Regional Airport, said, "After seven years, I hate to see Piedmont ... change."

Near where Stamper was speaking, a banner promoting USAir's frequent-flyer program said in bold letters: "Join Now! USAir."

Stamper said that employees are glad that the wait is over. But he said that it will be tough for USAir to maintain the loyalty that he and his fellow employees feel toward Piedmont, with its big size and small-town character.

"I've never seen an airline with the same loyalty," he said. Working at Piedmont was so good, he said, that it was like a dream.
"It's like a good dream. You eventually have to wake up, and we did," Stamper said.

Not far down the concourse, a Piedmont logo shares a wall with a smaller USAir logo. Trudy Jackson, a customer-service representative, standing beside Stamper said: "This go kind of struck me when I walked into Gate 46. Today, it's a new meaning."

"I think all of us as a whole have to be optimistic," she said.

On the down side, a flight captain, who asked that his name not be used, said, "A lot of the employees are extremely unhappy with what's going on and are will to do just about anything to prevent it from happening."

Other employees said that the news came as a brief shock and that they are are now scared as they face uncertain futures.
Piedmont passengers shared concern for the airline that they have come to rely on. While waiting for a flight at the airport, Alan Cox, who travels frequently on business, said, "I just hope that it's still going to be a nice airline."

Cox, of Winston-Salem, said that he has had a lot of experience with other airlines. "It took a long time for me to become a fan of Piedmont, and I just hope they stay Piedmont."

Cox said that he is worried about the corporation's presence here. "I just kind of hope it doesn't destroy Piedmont in Winston-Salem," he said.

Mayor Wayne A. Corpening and other community officials said that they will work to see that Piedmont employees and property stay in the city.

"I think this gives us the opportunity to get the USAir part of their headquarters in Winston-Salem," Corpening said. "I hope this community will rally around what we're
trying to do and let USAir know what we think of Piedmont and what we think of them and we'd love to work with them."

Piedmont officials declined comment yesterday on the future of their expansion programs in Winston-Salem, which include the addition of 300 reservation-support workers. In January, Piedmont announced that it was building a 110,000-square-foot building on Griffith Road and planning to lease a 68,000-square-foot expansion at Madison Park, all being built by the Shelton Cos.

R. Edwin Shelton, a partner in the Shelton Cos., said yesterday that his company is proceeding with the projects until Piedmont tells it otherwise.
Charles Webb, the executive vice president of the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, said that the chamber is putting up buttons that say "We Love USAir."

"We will mount a reasonable plan for making contact with the folks at USAir and our friends at Piedmont and encourage them in their discussions of merger and consolidation and expansion to think first of Winston-Salem," Webb said.

"We won't be bashful, and in candor, we ought not feel pessimistic about doing this," Webb said.

Webb said that Piedmont's employment base in the Triad is so diverse that many sectors will be protected should USAir make cuts here and there.
If nothing else, he said, Winston-Salem could remain a strong regional center for the new airline.