Star-Telegram: Delta'S Vote Against Unionizing Should Make American Airlines Stop And Think

[Veritas]

Star-Telegram: Delta's vote against unionizing should make American Airlines stop and think

Highlights:

"This says a lot about unions in the airline industry," said William Swelbar, research engineer at the MIT International Center for Air Transportation. "Maybe they've lost their way."

He believes that unions have invested too much time and money in currying favor in Washington and pushing for changes through government agencies.

"Too much focus on regulate and legislate, rather than arbitrate and negotiate," Swelbar said.

At American, where contract negotiations have dragged on for years, union leaders should have concentrated on getting money into members' pockets sooner rather than holding out for a bigger payday, he said.

<snip>

A recall was recently offered to 227 flight attendants, and the union said that all but six accepted.

In August, Delta announced that it would be filling 1,000 flight attendant jobs; most will come from laid-off employees, with plans to hire several hundred new attendants. More than 85,000 people applied for those openings.

That shows how popular these jobs remain, despite the turmoil and cuts in the industry. The jobless recovery makes them more attractive, no doubt, but that's the real-world backdrop that every other worker lives with, too.

Yet union leaders at American Airlines continue to talk about snap-backs to 2003 pay, before workers made almost $2 billion in concessions to keep American out of bankruptcy.

On Thursday, officials for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants will go to New York to meet with analysts and try to debunk the notion that American has some of the highest labor costs in the industry. Management insists that's the reason that it leads in losses, too.

The union should be spending that time with the rank and file, reinforcing one message more than any other: The only one way to protect your job and earn more pay and benefits is to be part of a stronger company.

 

[inspector clausou]

Mitchell Schnurman is an ####, i cancelled my subscription at the fort worth star telegram after 25 YEARS due to that idiots article! I would urge anyone else to do the same!

 

[Hopeful]

Mitchell Schnurman is an ####, i cancelled my subscription at the fort worth star telegram after 25 YEARS due to that idiots article! I would urge anyone else to do the same!

I wonder if he ever had to give up major concessions!

 

[damajagua]

Even though I do not agree with the article 100% there are some valid points.
I have never seen the pilots at Delta put billboard signs up against their company.

 

[IORFA]

Maybe no billboards, but they did have brand new 777's sitting around doing nothing until Delta agreed to a 777 pay scale years ago.

 

[chris perry]

Mitchell Schnurman is an ####, i cancelled my subscription at the fort worth star telegram after 25 YEARS due to that idiots article! I would urge anyone else to do the same!

I cancelled my Star telegram subscription also becaause of him ,pretty much waste of paper......

 

[frontline]

Then how is it that the mechanics and FA's over at Delta are making a good living without having to pay dues money and wait for YEARS for your union representatives and company to work out a deal while you sit on the sidelines?

I don't agree with everything in the article but he definitely has a point. I am very sure I'd have a lot more money in my pocket now if it weren't for having to wait around on TWU to do their thing.

 

[Hackman]

Then how is it that the mechanics and FA's over at Delta are making a good living without having to pay dues money and wait for YEARS for your union representatives and company to work out a deal while you sit on the sidelines?

I don't agree with everything in the article but he definitely has a point. I am very sure I'd have a lot more money in my pocket now if it weren't for having to wait around on TWU to do their thing.

Well, as per usual, you fail to understand or acknowledge the fact that Delta, or non-union carriers in general, will never do for example what AMFA did at NWA in 2001. That is, push the AMT Profession (yes, your career) up with a major jump in compensation, retirement, and benefits. They will never lead the fight, just follow with enough carrot to keep a union out and it's at-will fools buffaloed. Delta used all the classic anti-union tactics recently, it worked on the F/A's, (I think it was a rejection of the AFA mostly). We will see if it works on the rest of the Deltoids. You did see the short lived result of AMFA at NWA long fight to a PEB here at AA, as the TWu tried to match that hard fought contract at NWA, but of course failed in the attempt. I'm sure you refused to accept that contract.

Management positions await (if your not there already) if you dislike being in a union or fighting for a contract. That way you can just worry about yourself and what you can negotiate on your own with your management pals.....you be rolling in the money I'm sure.

 

[eolesen]

Dunno, Hack. Everytime a union seems to make a serious jump in compensation, with few exceptions, it gets taken away within two or three years when everyone realizes it's not sustainable... It's happened to ALPA a couple times, AMFA at NWA, and at AA with the TWU, APFA and APA. Others, like WN, seem to be willing to take gradual steps in order to ensure it is sustainable. IIRC, the pilots at WN turned down one of their recent contract offers because it was simply *too* rich...

 

[Hackman]

[/quote]

Dunno, Hack. Everytime a union seems to make a serious jump in compensation, with few exceptions, it gets taken away within two or three years when everyone realizes it's not sustainable... It's happened to ALPA a couple times, AMFA at NWA, and at AA with the TWU, APFA and APA. Others, like WN, seem to be willing to take gradual steps in order to ensure it is sustainable. IIRC, the pilots at WN turned down one of their recent contract offers because it was simply *too* rich...

Well in NWA case, dougie steanland and his henchmen came after AMFA and the NWA AMT's not because of what they gained in the PEB was unsustainable, it was because of the fact they dared fight the omnipotent NWA management. It was retribution and dougies' ego, and nothing else. Dougie stealin' used his government connections to destroy the AMT's while he enriched himself and his cronies.

What is unsustainable to many, including myself, is management costs for continued failure. I know it's been hashed and rehashed, but as long as management screams labor is a $600m "brick in Aa's backpack" disregarding the 2003 rape that continues, the workers will loudly voice the fact that Arpey is paid $5.1m and unsuccessful at turning a profit. In fact lost $500m in just one quarter. Our management costs are far too high at nearly $90m a year for that kind of extremely poor performance, and continued unhappy employees. Looks like a firing of the coach and maybe the whole front office is in order and long over due.

This, while SWA CEO Kelly is paid a measly $1.6m and continues to show how an airline can have happy well paid UNION employees and show a profit year over year.

I know this falls on deaf ears of the office bound anti-worker management types like yourself, but a successful airline will never be on this continued failed business plan of; "Blame the Employees-While we Fill our Pockets".

 

[Frank Szabo]

What is unsustainable to many, including myself, is management costs for continued failure. I know it's been hashed and rehashed, but as long as management screams labor is a $600m "brick in Aa's backpack" disregarding the 2003 rape that continues, the workers will loudly voice the fact that Arpey is paid $5.1m and unsuccessful at turning a profit. In fact lost $500m in just one quarter. Our management costs are far too high at nearly $90m a year for that kind of extremely poor performance, and continued unhappy employees. Looks like a firing of the coach and maybe the whole front office is in order and long over due.

This, while SWA CEO Kelly is paid a measly $1.6m and continues to show how an airline can have happy well paid UNION employees and show a profit year over year.

I know this falls on deaf ears of the office bound anti-worker management types like yourself, but a successful airline will never be on this continued failed business plan of; "Blame the Employees-While we Fill our Pockets".

Personally, I fail to understand why the AMR BOD tolerates this poor management performance, other than they're much too busy BODing at other companies to show any concern.

Regardless of what was or was not promised and/or implied in 2003, there are many unhappy campers at American. That collective attitude does nothing to move the company forward.

 

[Hopeful]

Personally, I fail to understand why the AMR BOD tolerates this poor management performance, other than they're much too busy BODing at other companies to show any concern.

The reason is simple. They are ALL on the "LABOR IS THE PROBLEM" bandwagon. The BOD are all cut from the same cloth. They sit on each others BOD's and take care of each other.

They belong to the greediest union of all....It's called THE GOOD OL BOYS CLUB."

 

[Frank Szabo]

The reason is simple. They are ALL on the "LABOR IS THE PROBLEM" bandwagon. The BOD are all cut from the same cloth. They sit on each others BOD's and take care of each other.

They belong to the greediest union of all....It's called THE GOOD OL BOYS CLUB."

You are correct but at some point, the stink will have to hit the rotating airfoil and their rhetoric amongst themselves won't work anymore, regardless of how many times they repeat and attempt to believe their own BS - just musing as to when that might occur ... it has to eventually hit home. The only question remaining is re: the condition of what remains after their excercise in "free enterprise" runs its course.

 

[eolesen]

You are correct but at some point, the stink will have to hit the rotating airfoil and their rhetoric amongst themselves won't work anymore, regardless of how many times they repeat and attempt to believe their own BS - just musing as to when that might occur ...

Chances are it won't.

You guys are looking at it thru the lens of an AMR employee. What looks bad to you isn't always quite so bad when you're looking at it from another perspective, e.g. as an outsider watching the industry, or another CEO comparing it to their own company's operations.

For example, you guys think you got royally screwed in 2003. You got an unwanted pat on the butt when compared to the cornholing your peers elsewhere took, or the gang rape the TWA folks experienced under Icahn.

 

[Frank Szabo]

Chances are it won't.

You guys are looking at it thru the lens of an AMR employee. What looks bad to you isn't always quite so bad when you're looking at it from another perspective, e.g. as an outsider watching the industry, or another CEO comparing it to their own company's operations.

For example, you guys think you got royally screwed in 2003. You got an unwanted pat on the butt when compared to the cornholing your peers elsewhere took, or the gang rape the TWA folks experienced under Icahn.

No matter - it's all in motion. We'll have to see what's happened when it stops and stop it will, somewhere, and probably not favorably towards any group.