United Airlines CEOs Put Their People Before Themselves

Since Charles Dickens wrote about Ebenezer Scrooge, big company CEOs have always struggled with the image of being greedy one-percenters, but this story may just change your view.

Last night, President Trump suspended all travel from European nations as an attempt to try to slow the flow of the coronavirus from overseas. Clearly, while the move was made to try to keep Americans healthy and safe during a growing crisis, the European travel ban is going to deal a crushing blow to an already struggling airline industry. At best, it will cause airline workers to lose hours and get furloughed. At worst, the airline workers could get laid off and lose their jobs.

United Airlines made a statement regarding the issue.

"As a result of the coronavirus, we continue to take decisive, quick, and aggressive action to protect our employees, our customers and the company."

Prior to last night's travel ban, United had already made some adjustments to try to compensate for the obvious dip in travel, such as a decreased number of domestic travel flights and a hiring freeze.

Yesterday, they also signed in a Form 8-K to the Securities and Exchange Commission that outlines additional steps they're taking. The form was created to help save money while no money is coming in.

The real news, however, comes from the announcement that outgoing CEO Oscar Munoz and incoming CEO Scott Kirby are both foregoing their salaries during the crisis. Both men make millions in salary (not counting multi-million dollar bonuses) but have decided to not take any money in the hopes of maintaining more jobs at United during this difficult time.

It's not often that you see CEOs put their people in front of their personal profits, and I believe they should be recognized.