I dont disagree with your financial pro-management post. But get this, if the employees are not given back what was taken away to "survive", and instead the fortunes are invested as you state, there will be labor/management war. And I mean beyond conflict anything ever seen at AA before.
I'm not certain of too many things but I am completely certain that the chance of AA agreeing to "give back" the concessions is about zero. Never gonna happen, barring drastic improvements in the numbers. One way for those numbers to dramatically improve is by increasing the profitable flying to restricted destinations, like China, NRT and LHR.
AA's mechanics make thousands less than the mechanics at WN. WN is consistently profitable. See what I'm gettin' at? Much better to work for a profitable company, because then you can threaten management and get more of the pie. Hard to get more of a negative pie, which is what you're faced with at AA. Wouldn't you rather see AA start making a couple billion a year? Don't you think that would enhance your chances at making more money?
I work for a paycheck, not to subsidize management bonuses and growth.
We gave up the $1.8 for survival, not enhancement.
Growth is the only possible chance you have to ever get back what you gave up - and growth may be the only chance you and thousands of others have at continuing to do heavy airframe maintenance in TUL.
That paycheck (what you work for) is more likely to continue (and more likely to avoid further reductions) if AA expands its profitable flying (like to China, NRT, LHR, etc). Otherwise, TUL might begin to look more like IND (don't see any UAL mechanics there anymore). How many airframe overhaul mechanics are employed at UAL? At NW? At DL? CO? US? See where this is going?
AA cannot go from death spiral to growth spiral without first giving back to the employees first. Such a move will bring destruction, reduction of any trust built, and a battle that will be impossible for Arpey to overcome!
But hey, I am just a disgruntled union member, involved in an insurgent movement to replace the most docile union in aviation history. What could I possibly know about labor/management relations?
You know a lot about labor/management relations. Much more than I do. But I'm not so certain you know much about how the airline must change to keep that paycheck coming in each week. Besides, we all know that AA's labor relations suck. They always have, and they always will. Too many AA employees are too proud of that fact for it to ever change. As such, it's a constant that can't be changed.
Restore concessions before buying the crown jewels of a bankrupt airline? Whatchusmokin? Thanks for the laugh.
I'd like nothing more for the mechanics to make at least as much as wrench-turners at GM make. Your pathetic excuse for a union has truly screwed you. Assembly line workers in the UAW make much more than you, have a much more generous health plan, and have a retirement plan even better than yours.
And you guys maintain airplanes, for chrissakes. All they do is assemble cars and trucks. Always indoors. Either they are grossly overpaid or you are grossly underpaid. Probably some of both. Delle can't help but think, "Those airhead mechanics. I've spent 40+ years of my life caretaking a mostly empty union and they all wait until the industry is in the toilet to finally leave their industrial unions and join mine. And they expect miracles."
But that's history. Crying about the last 40 years of organizational failure by the mechanics won't do any good. What matters is the future, and that future has two distinct outcomes for AA's mechanics: One, AA becomes profitable by increasing revenue and heavy maintenance stays inhouse or Two, AA continues on the same course and finally gives up on maintenance and follows UAL, DL, NW, CO and all the others by outsourcing nearly all maintenance.
If I depended on an AA paycheck, I know which course I'd prefer.