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You would have to understand some of the history behind the attempts to replace them.
The first Bankruptcy threat was not enough to wake them up so maybe another will.
AA headed for bankruptcy?
- Thread starter MCI transplant
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You would have to understand some of the history behind the attempts to replace them.
The first Bankruptcy threat was not enough to wake them up so maybe another will.
I have done what I can. I have signed the cards. I have not had a chance to vote them out, however. I also stood out by the front gate in Tulsa with my brothers from Dallas and held a vote no sign when local 514 was taking pictures of us. How their attitudes changed when the TA was voted down 2 to 1! The point is we cannot give in now. It is too late in the game. The TWU international knows that prefunding is very important to us and I am offended that they are even considering giving that away now. It just proves that they don't nor have they ever had the membership's welfare in mind. The people that retired before us got their medical and their pensions. I want mine and I want you all to get yours too. Sign a card and get the TWU out before they hand over our retirement. Little Jimmy doesn't care. I am sure his medical is free and his retirement is set. I say what's good enough for him and the rest of the international is good enough for us. How about his $140K per year secretary? You think she is worried about losing her retirement? She'll make more on retirement than we make in a year now! And I'll bet she won't have to shell out anything for medical. Fleet service must turn this TA down! If it passes, the company will use it to screw the rest of us. Vote No Fleet!
They will remain allied in the NMB/AA/TWU axis of evil, where they bask in an eternal state of eudaemonia.
ASAP
Old Guy you are correct don't give in now. Throw them out / how many more cards do we need before we can vote for a new union?
WorldTraveler
Corn Field
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AA's stock closed at 2.38 which is the lowest it has been except for the one day plunge about a month ago.
ALL THE WAY TO ZERO BOYS
nonrev
Member
http://seekingalpha.com/article/308706-american-airlines-dilemma-creditors-in-the-captain-s-seat?source=yahoo
Take another look. I can see LCC picking up some of the operation. Look for a change by the end of January.
Take another look. I can see LCC picking up some of the operation. Look for a change by the end of January.
AA's costs - including labor - have to come down one way or another. Either it will happen through new union contracts, or it will happen by AA following every one of their legacy/network peers into bankruptcy.
The current situation is not sustainable forever. It is for a while, but not forever. AA's union contracts are in many ways uncompetitive with where the market is today - that's just reality. Other airlines masterfully used bankruptcy to exact huge concessions from their union groups, and then translated that into a substantial cost advantage and strategic leverage to reform their business models.
Management has made various stupid decisions and mistakes. They should have offloaded Eagle at the market/credit peak 6-7 years ago. They should have reconfigured and upgraded the international cabins (777/763/752) years ago. They should never have given so much ground at JFK. They should have diverted more precious/scarce capital to replacing the MD80s earlier. All of that is entirely true. But all of those stupid decisions - and many more that we could all identify - plus all of Arpey's now-practically-worthless stock options still don't mitigate the huge direct cost and opportunity cost of AA's structural competitive disadvantage enshrined in some aspects of the union contacts.
AA's competitors - either post-bankruptcy, post-merger, non-union, or some combination thereof - have more freedom and flexibility to rapidly adapt to evolving market conditions, lower costs in competitive markets, and access emerging revenue streams. They have more flexibility to add more and larger regional jets. They have more flexibility to codeshare domestically. They have more flexibility to fly more longhaul flights. They have frozen or dumped most if not all of their defined benefit pensions. They have outsourced far more and laid off thousands more people. Their workforces are, generally speaking, in many areas, more productive on various metrics than AA's.
For better or worse, whether it's right or wrong, AA's competitors enjoy all of the above benefits, and AA is at a huge competitive disadvantage because of it. Thus, in the long run, if AA is to survive, it will have to do the same thing - either with or without bankruptcy. It's unfortunate, but it's inevitable.
The current situation is not sustainable forever. It is for a while, but not forever. AA's union contracts are in many ways uncompetitive with where the market is today - that's just reality. Other airlines masterfully used bankruptcy to exact huge concessions from their union groups, and then translated that into a substantial cost advantage and strategic leverage to reform their business models.
Management has made various stupid decisions and mistakes. They should have offloaded Eagle at the market/credit peak 6-7 years ago. They should have reconfigured and upgraded the international cabins (777/763/752) years ago. They should never have given so much ground at JFK. They should have diverted more precious/scarce capital to replacing the MD80s earlier. All of that is entirely true. But all of those stupid decisions - and many more that we could all identify - plus all of Arpey's now-practically-worthless stock options still don't mitigate the huge direct cost and opportunity cost of AA's structural competitive disadvantage enshrined in some aspects of the union contacts.
AA's competitors - either post-bankruptcy, post-merger, non-union, or some combination thereof - have more freedom and flexibility to rapidly adapt to evolving market conditions, lower costs in competitive markets, and access emerging revenue streams. They have more flexibility to add more and larger regional jets. They have more flexibility to codeshare domestically. They have more flexibility to fly more longhaul flights. They have frozen or dumped most if not all of their defined benefit pensions. They have outsourced far more and laid off thousands more people. Their workforces are, generally speaking, in many areas, more productive on various metrics than AA's.
For better or worse, whether it's right or wrong, AA's competitors enjoy all of the above benefits, and AA is at a huge competitive disadvantage because of it. Thus, in the long run, if AA is to survive, it will have to do the same thing - either with or without bankruptcy. It's unfortunate, but it's inevitable.
WorldTraveler
Corn Field
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except that you can't seem to grasp that AA's labor cost disadvantage has nothing to do with what individual AA employees make and everything to do with the fact that AA has used its labor inefficiently.
Aside from AA's uncompetitive medical costs driven by 8 year old labor contracts, AA labor has similar or lower pay rates than its peers, have contracts that allow AA to work more efficiently than they do, and which give AA the freedom to adapt as much as any other carrier. As much as this board focuses on outsourcing overhaul, it is a pretty small part of AA's labor cost problem and one which could be used to AA's benefit if they insourced like they once did.
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AA's labor cost disadvantage is due to AA's failure to manage the enterprise effectively. The primary cause of AA's labor cost disadvantage is a more senior workforce - which is directly related to the fact that AA has not grown the company - and too many people for too small of a network. AA set the size of its workforce years ago based on the flawed assumption that a competitor would fail and AA would be able to grow; no competitor has failed and AA now has a significant cost disadvantage of its own - and it can no longer grow because its costs are so much higher than its competitors that they would rapidly undercut AA.
AA was given the concessions it needed but failed to use them to build long-term stability for the company or its employees.
