A Call For Action!

[WingNaPrayer]

You have to keep in mind that Arpey & Horton, inc., are looking for a way to dump the old timers so they can't go feeding at the pension trough. They'd just as soon tell the FAs to go ahead and walk!

 

[767 mechanic]

I agree, and I blame the three union leaders for wasting energy crying and whining about the relatively small dollars management tried to hide in the SERPs (wasn't it less than $40 million?) instead of focussing on the BIG PICTURE, and that was "how do we guarantee that we share in the largesse if this forced concession scheme actually results in a never bankrupt AA?"

Management should have been forthright with the unions about the SERP funding, to be suce. At the time, I posted that in my opinion, the 10-K filing delay request filed by AA was tantamount to fraud. But once the 10-K was filed, all we heard about was anger over those relatively small dollars. When you're distracted by what doesn't matter, you might forget to focus on what does matter.

Well, here we are, five years later and AA didn't file for Ch 11. It's funded the huge pilot pension (and everyone else's rather modest pensions). And it's paying out the money (in stock) expected by the greedy execs.

And it's happening all over again. Instead of looking at how to get a variable comp scheme enacted for the benefit of the FAs, the new APFA President is wasting time on the current program of demanding that management (and now the Board of Directors) resign becuase she and others can't see past their paycheck envy.

FAs (and other unionized employees) are doomed to suffer low pay as long as their leaders focus almost exclusively on the pay of management instead of actually negotiating to get more for their own members. Management is still laughing at their "Career Decision Day" letter. It's easy to oppress when your competiton is comprised of ameteurs.

The bottom line for the twu represented employees is that we were lied to from the start. The twu hired ECLAT to review the books which happens to be the same company that AA hired. You don't need a business degree to know that this is stupid to say the least and the membership suffered for it. I believe that the twu and all of its Int'l officials had all of the info that they needed and chose to overlook the info such as serps and bonuses. If ECLAT did not do their job and the membership suffered due to the fact that they did not do their job then why has the twu not sued the pants off of ECLAT. On the other hand if ECLAT did there job for both parties and can proove it,why is'nt the twu in court sueing AA for obviously having two sets of books. My opinion is that their are no law suits because they were all in colusion together and everybody got paid except for the membership. If you follow the money trail you will find that Capt Randy Babbit and Jeff Brundage new each other from American Eagle & ALPA. Randy Babbit is conected to ECLAT. His actual postion I do not know,maybe somebody can give his actual title. They negotiated a contract for AE pilots and the next thing you know Brundage is a big wig at AA and Babbit is at ECLAT and then they renew the good ole boys club at AA in 03. Oh and I do agree with you about commiting fraud in their intentional delay of their 10-K filings. Lets not forget that the other airlines used their so called silver bullet in bankruptcy and the brain dead people at AA let the company keep their silver bullet to use at a later time.

 

[eolesen]

QUOTE (Joe Patroni @ Apr 18 2008, 10:21 AM)
As I remember, all the unions were aware of the PUP payments back during the giveback nogtiations. They just turned a blind eye to them and have only complained when they actually happened. So whose fault is that?
[/quote]

Exactly. The unions new about it, and never thought about them actually being triggered. Nobody expected recovery at AMR and the simultaneous collapse of USAirways, UAL, NWA, and DAL.

I'm with FWAAA -- the metric was flawed -- but that was the metric which had been in place since the plans were created during Crandall's tenure. and it was never questioned until it paid out in spades.

The unions, as in the union leaders at the top might have known about the bonuses, but I doubt any of the union members knew about the bonuses.

Then go read SEC filings. It was out there for over a decade, along with a lot of other detail on executive compensation. There's a hell of a lot more transparency on what Arpey & crew earn vs. what your union officials actually earn.

 

[TWU informer]

Exactly. The unions new about it, and never thought about them actually being triggered. Nobody expected recovery at AMR and the simultaneous collapse of USAirways, UAL, NWA, and DAL.

I'm with FWAAA -- the metric was flawed -- but that was the metric which had been in place since the plans were created during Crandall's tenure. and it was never questioned until it paid out in spades.

Correct.

But missing one important fact.

The BOD's recently had the chance to change, alter, or eliminate the metrics or the plan altogether and instead voted to continue the flawed plan. This, long after the Union's voiced opposition and concern. Thus, the blame now reverts back to the management not the unions.

 

[BigMac]

Courtesy of Yahoo Finance

CEO of American Airlines parent got $6.6 million in compensation last year


DALLAS (AP) -- The chief executive of American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, got a 21 percent increase to $6.6 million in compensation in 2007, the company's most profitable year since 2000, according to information disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday.
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Shareholders of AMR Corp. didn't fare as well last year. The stock fell 54 percent.

AMR also disclosed Friday that Gerard J. Arpey received a stock award worth $1.7 million this week under a compensation plan hotly criticized by American's unions.

Arpey, the chairman and CEO of both American and AMR, got most of his 2007 compensation in stock and option grants that AMR valued at $5.9 million when they were issued.

Arpey was paid a salary of $656,500 and $36,146 in other compensation, mostly an allowance to cover perks such as vehicles, club memberships and financial and tax advice. He didn't get a cash bonus and received only $50 in non-equity incentive payments, according to AMR's proxy statement.

Almost all the increase in Arpey's compensation over 2006 came from his stock and option grants. In 2006, he received grants valued at $4.8 million.

The Associated Press calculates compensation by including executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and options awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the value of pension benefits or AMR's cost of stock and options granted before 2006, so the figures can differ from the total the company lists in the proxy's summary compensation table.

Fort Worth-based AMR, which also owns the American Eagle commuter airline, earned $504 million last year, its second straight profitable year after it lost more than $8 billion in the previous five years.

But record fuel costs are taking a heavy toll on airlines this year. AMR reported this week that it lost $328 million in the first three months of 2008, and spending on fuel jumped 45 percent, an increase of $665 million.

American has also been hurt by canceling flights to inspect the electrical wiring on many of its planes. Most of the effect of those cancellations will be reported in second-quarter results, and they will run into the "high tens of millions of dollars," the company's chief financial officer said this week.

Analysts believe AMR won't turn an annual profit again until at least 2011.

Arpey faces other tough challenges in 2008, including contract negotiations with the company's three unions, which are expected to demand more pay.

Union leaders bitterly protested stock bonuses paid this week to about 900 managers, including Arpey, who got 187,600 shares worth $1.7 million based on AMR's closing stock price on the day they were issued. Arpey sold 81,520 of the shares for about $700,000, according to an AMR filing.

That was far less than the stock valued at $6.6 million that Arpey got last year under the same plan, a reflection of AMR's poor stock performance last year. The payouts are based on how AMR's stock compares to other airline stocks over a 3-year period.

Gregg Overman, a spokesman for the pilots' union, said the stock awards unfairly rewarded executives while other employees were still living under wage cuts approved in 2003.

Company officials said the stock payouts, which are tied to the performance of AMR stock over a three-year period, were just part of management compensation in line with that of peers at similarly sized companies.

"We are linking management compensation to shareholder interests," said an American spokesman, Andrew Backover.

Arpey will also have to steer his company through a changing landscape in the airline business. American could lose its ranking as the largest U.S. airline if Delta Air Lines Inc. completes its announced purchase of Northwest Airlines Corp.

American could drop to No. 3 if Continental Airlines Inc. and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines combine. Sources close to the situation say the two companies have discussed a deal.

 

[WeAAsles]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080418/amr_executi...ation.html?.v=2

:down: :down: :down: :down:

 

[Flyboy4u]

You have to keep in mind that Arpey & Horton, inc., are looking for a way to dump the old timers so they can't go feeding at the pension trough. They'd just as soon tell the FAs to go ahead and walk!

As they should walk, but this is AA, and I am still flying with my fellow F/A's older than my grandomother....Gotta Luv it