AA Pilots BOD turns down Last Best Offer from AMR!

[St. Nic]

Wow, Delta guys are sellouts for not holding the line on RJs but AA guys are sellouts for trying to preserve as much of their contract as possible. Maybe it's easy for me to say because I am on the outside of this, but I think if I were at American I would fight like hell to preserve my contract, and then if that didn't work I can always go to work at JetBlue, VA, or Allegiant for no pay and no benefits if AA fails...which is not very likely.

The problem with giving in, is that no matter how much you give, the company is going to ask for and the judge is going to give them more. If you offer 10% concessions then the judge is going to look at 12 or 13% as only 2 or 3% more than you have already agreed to give.

Good luck...What will be interesting to me will be what APA will expect in an SLI with USAir, considering APA's reputation when it comes to SLI. Being stapled to the bottom of a profitable carrier is better than being on the street right? We'll see what APA's reaction to that argument is now that the shoe is shaping up to be on the other foot.

The SLI will be date of hire with fences- no problems with senile arbiTRAITORs.
You can count on it

 

[Ex737Driver]

The SLI will be date of hire with fences- no problems with senile arbiTRAITORs.
You can count on it

Cause it's been working so well for you guys for almost a decade now? Keep that plan. Your 12 year CA's will be making what DAL/CAL new hires make in a few years.

 

[jmreii]

To compete against state sponsored airlines who have oil money supporting their business model one needs a level playing field and that would mean government introduction of fees or levies on those arab airlines who have an unfair advantage. Ruining a company, ruining the job market, and greed are not a way to "compete". The likes of Emirates will still have an advantage in new aircraft (financed by their government), service, and fuel costs after our industry is destroyed. The only difference is there will be no jobs in our industry, no lift to cities, which will only make the public want to open up our markets to foreign airlines with foreign pilots to service those cities. Your precious Delta is already abandoning small markets towns, whats to say that small cities are not next? ALPA (DALPA) and every other union will have lost all its power in protecting cabotage. Unlikely? Just wait and see what happens if the lift decreases to such a degree your 3 mega carriers scenario happens.

Any government can finance any operation they want but customer service is a different animal altogether. Throwing money at problems will not necessarily fix those problems.

 

[Mamma]

The SLI will be date of hire with fences- no problems with senile arbiTRAITORs.
You can count on it

Is that what the courts have said? Until then, enjoy the $125/hr Airbus captain rates that drag all of us down. I can't believe USAPA is still around with the rates you guys are at.

 

[Citjok]

Another thread hijacked.

 

[AMRCostUnit]

AMR has a revenue problem. They lose money in LAX, DFW, ORD, LGA. Break even in MIA and make money in JFK. AA's not big enough to recapture the flying we need to in order to survive. DAL and UCAL offer better options and service for the premium passengers. All AMR wants to do is codeshare/outsource everything is can to the lowest bidder. That'll win back the premimum pax for sure! NOT!

Many moving parts here. For example, the USAir deal increases the OneWorld alliance (BA and Willie Walsh) from 15 to 25% of the alliance share. Attractive for them. ToHo and crew get large payouts for exiting BK and also a merger. He's just looking for the money. He's not an airline guy in the least. He jumped to AT&T, made a pile there, and came back to AMR in 2006 when he got a $7m PUP bonus for just 7 months work. Parker, Horton and Arpey all worked in the same AMR cube farm 1987. Parker is no saint but has done a good good with USAir on the business side of the equation.

The APA CLA with USAir is weighed heavily in Parker's favor with many references to binding arbitration which are bad words. In the end, AA has to generate revenue or die off in a few years. Neither path is a sure thing won't be fun for those of us involved.

Unit

 

[AMRCostUnit]

We got a one week extension yesterday. The BOD didn't vote it down necessarily on the merits but due to there not being any clear contractual language. I'm sure they will provide greater detail because we won't do another 2003 deal where we voted on an outline and the details turned out very different. If approved by the BOD, there will have to some time to road show it before the membership vote. There isn't much to vote for in the preliminary data.

 

[pave driver]

Has anyone else heard of Parker applying for a separate America West certificate? It appears to me he doesn't want past labor problems affecting this merger.

 

[FlyinGuy]

I hope you AA guys stand your ground. I think it was a bold move (the right move) to vote down this agreement. This really puts the pressure on AMR management to actually come up with a workable plan. If they go crying to the judge, I think the chances of the LCC/AA merger increase. I was hoping that you guys could pull this out and be a stand alone carrier, but the way the domino's are falling that probably will not be a real option. Best of luck to you all.

St Nic,
My guess is the arbitrator (because it will go to arby) will implement the Nic then figure out how to mix the AA/LCC groups.

 

[St. Nic]

I hope you AA guys stand your ground. I think it was a bold move (the right move) to vote down this agreement. This really puts the pressure on AMR management to actually come up with a workable plan. If they go crying to the judge, I think the chances of the LCC/AA merger increase. I was hoping that you guys could pull this out and be a stand alone carrier, but the way the domino's are falling that probably will not be a real option. Best of luck to you all.

St Nic,
My guess is the arbitrator (because it will go to arby) will implement the Nic then figure out how to mix the AA/LCC groups.

Nic is not binding because it was an internal (flawed) ALPA process. We we seperate opps now so the SLI will be a 3 way. Parker said so himself! The Nic is DOA