After screwing you to death, now they want to be your friend.
AMR wooing workers
Warmer relations can breed profit, American vice president says
An effort at American Airlines Inc. to treat employees better will give the Fort Worth-based carrier an edge over its competitors.
At least that's the hope of Mark Burdette, American's new vice president for employee relations. Last week, he replaced Jeff Brundage, now senior vice president of human resources.
The idea of warmer labor relations as a competitive tool is more than just the management slogan of the month, American officials say.
Because American already went through a painful restructuring last year, the airline thinks it has an advantage over rivals including US Airways Corp., Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Airlines Inc.
American has the lowest costs of the top six network carriers, and it can smooth long-contentious relations with its people, Mr. Burdette said.
"These kinds of processes start like a little snowball rolling down a hill," said Mr. Burdette, who previously served as a liaison to the pilots' union under Mr. Brundage.
American hired labor consultant Overland Resource Group Inc. last summer to act as a marriage counselor.
American's approach is to build joint committees between managers and labor leaders at the top of the airline and then similar groups at middle levels and even on shop floors and at airports.
The committees steer the airline's decisions and help explain the carrier's financial performance and its decisions to American's 80,000 employees.
Evidence that the Overland work is paying dividends came in the second-quarter earnings report for American parent AMR Corp.
Collaborative work with employees through the initiative produced more than 70 concepts that will save a combined $75 million, chief executive Gerard Arpey said.
The Transport Workers Union supports the Overland effort, even though "it hasn't sunk down yet to the local levels, so they haven't seen it yet," said Jim Little, international representative for the TWU Air Transport Division.
Mr. Little said Mr. Burdette was a good choice to lead labor relations at the airline.
Backers of the project admit that it hasn't moved as quickly as some had hoped, but joint committees being set up at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport will soon spread to other American hub locations.
A joint committee of managers at the airline's Kansas City maintenance base will decide what kind of work to bid on to help keep jobs there, Mr. Burdette said.
"It develops very fluidly at each place we do it," he said. "It is such an adaptable process, and that's why we're seeing so much variation as to how people want to make it work."
American's brush with financial insolvency last April gave it a window to try something new with its labor relations.
All of its labor groups are under contracts that won't be changeable until late 2008, though negotiations on those deals will begin in mid-2006.
Some contract issues remain that could cause friction. The airline needs to negotiate new language with its pilots to allow for long-haul flying to places such as China, which the airline hopes to get permission to serve next year.
But relations between American and the Allied Pilots Association are as good as they've been in recent memory, Mr. Burdette said.
Ralph Hunter, the new APA president, couldn't be reached for comment. He has commended the Overland effort as the pilots union's only rational choice as the industry goes through troubled times.
The pilots' union praised Mr. Burdette's promotion in a message to employees Friday.
AMR wooing workers
Warmer relations can breed profit, American vice president says
An effort at American Airlines Inc. to treat employees better will give the Fort Worth-based carrier an edge over its competitors.
At least that's the hope of Mark Burdette, American's new vice president for employee relations. Last week, he replaced Jeff Brundage, now senior vice president of human resources.
The idea of warmer labor relations as a competitive tool is more than just the management slogan of the month, American officials say.
Because American already went through a painful restructuring last year, the airline thinks it has an advantage over rivals including US Airways Corp., Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Airlines Inc.
American has the lowest costs of the top six network carriers, and it can smooth long-contentious relations with its people, Mr. Burdette said.
"These kinds of processes start like a little snowball rolling down a hill," said Mr. Burdette, who previously served as a liaison to the pilots' union under Mr. Brundage.
American hired labor consultant Overland Resource Group Inc. last summer to act as a marriage counselor.
American's approach is to build joint committees between managers and labor leaders at the top of the airline and then similar groups at middle levels and even on shop floors and at airports.
The committees steer the airline's decisions and help explain the carrier's financial performance and its decisions to American's 80,000 employees.
Evidence that the Overland work is paying dividends came in the second-quarter earnings report for American parent AMR Corp.
Collaborative work with employees through the initiative produced more than 70 concepts that will save a combined $75 million, chief executive Gerard Arpey said.
The Transport Workers Union supports the Overland effort, even though "it hasn't sunk down yet to the local levels, so they haven't seen it yet," said Jim Little, international representative for the TWU Air Transport Division.
Mr. Little said Mr. Burdette was a good choice to lead labor relations at the airline.
Backers of the project admit that it hasn't moved as quickly as some had hoped, but joint committees being set up at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport will soon spread to other American hub locations.
A joint committee of managers at the airline's Kansas City maintenance base will decide what kind of work to bid on to help keep jobs there, Mr. Burdette said.
"It develops very fluidly at each place we do it," he said. "It is such an adaptable process, and that's why we're seeing so much variation as to how people want to make it work."
American's brush with financial insolvency last April gave it a window to try something new with its labor relations.
All of its labor groups are under contracts that won't be changeable until late 2008, though negotiations on those deals will begin in mid-2006.
Some contract issues remain that could cause friction. The airline needs to negotiate new language with its pilots to allow for long-haul flying to places such as China, which the airline hopes to get permission to serve next year.
But relations between American and the Allied Pilots Association are as good as they've been in recent memory, Mr. Burdette said.
Ralph Hunter, the new APA president, couldn't be reached for comment. He has commended the Overland effort as the pilots union's only rational choice as the industry goes through troubled times.
The pilots' union praised Mr. Burdette's promotion in a message to employees Friday.
