010236 New Burger King Chief Unloved by Unions

New York - From flying to frying: Northwest Airlines Chief Executive Officer John Dasburg is parachuting out as head of America's No. 4 airline and into the heat of the fast-food industry kitchen to head Burger King Corp.

And as far as many pilots, mechanics and other Northwest employees are concerned, there is not a plane that can fly him out of Minneapolis quickly enough.

If ever words could come back to haunt someone, they did for Dasburg who a year ago essentially told workers that if they didn't like their jobs, they could always quit.

The comment sparked outrage from local union members -- a crucial segment for airlines' ability to keep flying -- and prompted Dasburg, dubbed a “cold, callous man,” to apologize.

On Tuesday, wags were commenting that at Burger King, whose franchisees often hire kitchen staff at minimum wages, at least Dasburg would not have unhappy pilots earning six-figure salaries to contend with. They noted also the irony of a man who in effect told workers he would run Northwest his way, moving to a company whose slogan is “Have It Your Way.”

Dasburg, 58, whose resignation from Northwest was announced on Tuesday, takes over no later than April 1 as chairman, CEO and president of Burger King Co., which is a business of British food and drinks giant Diageo Plc. Burger King, which sells 1.6 billion “Whoppers” a year, might eventually be spun off.

In an interview with CNBC, Dasburg, who previously worked in the hotel industry with Marriott Corp, turned his attention to his new job. “I like French fries, I like Burger King French fries and we're going to have to continue to improve on our product.”

“In accepting the challenge to lead Burger King I will fulfill a lifelong ambition to run a restaurant business,” he said in an earlier statement.

NAMED AS 'MAN OF THE YEAR' IN 1994

Praised for his stewardship of Northwest at a difficult time for airlines during the free-for-all of deregulation, Dasburg was named airline industry “Man of the Year” in 1994 by Travel Agent magazine and he was appointed by President Bush the Elder to the White House Fellows Committee.

Announcing the appointment on Tuesday Paul Walsh, Diageo's Group Chief Executive called Dasburg "one of North America's most respected and successful executives.

“John Dasburg's record at Northwest Airlines is one of the textbook business success stories of recent years. He is one of the most admired business leaders in the U.S. today.”

But in his nearly 11 years at Northwest, the sartorially elegant Floridian with the perpetual suntan -- even in the deep of the mid-West winter -- has been an enigma to employees.

After initial good relations, his honeymoon ended in 1998 when the pilots' union went on strike, causing canceled flights that grounded the carrier for two weeks and siphoned $1 billion in revenue, turning a robust year into a money loser.

It cost Dasburg a bonus that year, but in 1999 he received a $1 million bonus on top of his $500,000 base salary, which has not changed since he took over at the airline in 1989.

Even now, Northwest is in a 30-day cooling off period with its mechanics union and President Bush the Younger has said he will appoint a presidential emergency board to intervene and help reach a settlement if the union votes to strike.

The image of success in the Dasburg years was also battered in January 1999, when hundreds of passengers were stranded on a Northwest plane on a snowy Detroit runway for eight hours. Congress held hearings on airline customer service as a result.

OUTLASTED HIS WELCOME

“Among the workers, he has probably outlasted his welcome,” said Doug Iverson, a journalist at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. It was in an interview last April in the local newspaper that Dasburg upset many of Northwest's 55,000 employees.

“Our turnover here is extremely low,” he said. "We have the interesting phenomena of people who say they're unhappy but who must love their job, or they'd leave it, right?

“If you don't like what you're doing, you just quit, right? I mean, the fact is we're in full employment. You can get a job anywhere, OK?”

The snit hit the flight plan and Dasburg was forced to publicly apologize. Steve MacFarlane, president of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association Local 33, called Dasburg a “cold, callous man” interested only in taking credit for the company's success. “Many of us have been here long before you showed up,” MacFarlane wrote to Minneapolis area media, “and it's certain that many of us will still be here long after you're gone.”

There is clearly no love lost for Dasburg. “I don't think anybody's ever accused Dasburg of being overly personable,” said Terry Trippler, a travel expert for OneTravel.com, in Minnesota.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com