Great article confirming that this is really a NON ISSUE
By Mitchell SchnurmanStar-Telegram Staff WriterAt least they haven't called me a big, fat idiot. Yet.
A week later, I'm still getting e-mails and phone calls from employees at American Airlines, after I defended the company's executive bonuses and criticized its union leaders. Nearly all say that I got it wrong, and some say it in colorful language that doesn't belong in a family newspaper.
I argued that American executives earned the money that will be coming their way in April, not the catcalls they're getting. And I blamed American's union leaders for fanning the anger from the rank and file; they've known about the incentives all along and hadn't complained until the payouts topped seven figures and got some headlines.
"Frankly, sir, your highly inaccurate prose and piggish, greedy comments made me puke," wrote one international flight attendant. "Then again, you're probably some fat little bald-headed flunky twerp who has nothing else better to sensationalize."
When it comes to business, nothing stirs the passion like executive pay.
At American, the anger is white-hot, because employees took hefty pay cuts in 2003. That's the foundation of American's budding turnaround and a great run on Wall Street, and there's a popular sentiment that execs are cashing in on the sacrifices of everyday workers.
I don't see it that way, but e-mails and voice mails are running about 40-to-1 against me. Ironically, it's the one caller who praised the column who also offered real insight.
A 20-year pilot at American, he says that variable pay -- bonuses, stock options and stock awards -- is the only way for workers to make any serious gains in the future. The key is to get more variable pay, not less, and not moan about the system when it pays out big.
He doesn't share that view in the cockpit these days, because everyone is ranting about the bonuses.
Some critics, particularly pilots, track every twist in American's executive pay, and they weighed in heavily on my column. But many workers knew few details.
Several repeated an error (later corrected) that The Associated Press reported about the total value of the bonuses, and one complained about the impact on cash flow and other finances. The big number, more than $500 million, refers to the value of the stock options held by all employees, not just managers.
"Every dime that flight attendants had taken out of their pocket for the last 19 months is now flowing into 1,000 managers' pockets," wrote a flight attendant with 33 years at American.
Many don't want to hear about the philosophy behind variable pay or equity-based performance. When one worker wrote that the bonuses should be yanked, I asked whether she were willing to give up the gains on her stock options.
Her response: "Off with their heads."
I've chosen not to name names, because the themes and tenor of the correspondence are what count, not the identity of the letter-writers. The most common complaint is that execs are getting bonuses while American is still losing money.
This is not the contradiction it seems. Like at many corporations, workers at American have three types of pay: a fixed salary, a bonus based on corporate and/or individual performance, and a variable award tied to the stock price
Rest of the article here:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/column...an/13652283.htm
By Mitchell SchnurmanStar-Telegram Staff WriterAt least they haven't called me a big, fat idiot. Yet.
A week later, I'm still getting e-mails and phone calls from employees at American Airlines, after I defended the company's executive bonuses and criticized its union leaders. Nearly all say that I got it wrong, and some say it in colorful language that doesn't belong in a family newspaper.
I argued that American executives earned the money that will be coming their way in April, not the catcalls they're getting. And I blamed American's union leaders for fanning the anger from the rank and file; they've known about the incentives all along and hadn't complained until the payouts topped seven figures and got some headlines.
"Frankly, sir, your highly inaccurate prose and piggish, greedy comments made me puke," wrote one international flight attendant. "Then again, you're probably some fat little bald-headed flunky twerp who has nothing else better to sensationalize."
When it comes to business, nothing stirs the passion like executive pay.
At American, the anger is white-hot, because employees took hefty pay cuts in 2003. That's the foundation of American's budding turnaround and a great run on Wall Street, and there's a popular sentiment that execs are cashing in on the sacrifices of everyday workers.
I don't see it that way, but e-mails and voice mails are running about 40-to-1 against me. Ironically, it's the one caller who praised the column who also offered real insight.
A 20-year pilot at American, he says that variable pay -- bonuses, stock options and stock awards -- is the only way for workers to make any serious gains in the future. The key is to get more variable pay, not less, and not moan about the system when it pays out big.
He doesn't share that view in the cockpit these days, because everyone is ranting about the bonuses.
Some critics, particularly pilots, track every twist in American's executive pay, and they weighed in heavily on my column. But many workers knew few details.
Several repeated an error (later corrected) that The Associated Press reported about the total value of the bonuses, and one complained about the impact on cash flow and other finances. The big number, more than $500 million, refers to the value of the stock options held by all employees, not just managers.
"Every dime that flight attendants had taken out of their pocket for the last 19 months is now flowing into 1,000 managers' pockets," wrote a flight attendant with 33 years at American.
Many don't want to hear about the philosophy behind variable pay or equity-based performance. When one worker wrote that the bonuses should be yanked, I asked whether she were willing to give up the gains on her stock options.
Her response: "Off with their heads."
I've chosen not to name names, because the themes and tenor of the correspondence are what count, not the identity of the letter-writers. The most common complaint is that execs are getting bonuses while American is still losing money.
This is not the contradiction it seems. Like at many corporations, workers at American have three types of pay: a fixed salary, a bonus based on corporate and/or individual performance, and a variable award tied to the stock price
Rest of the article here:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/column...an/13652283.htm
) If you take the cash, you have sold your asset. It is no longer your concern what AMR does with that asset.
