First lets see what they throw out there.
This BK will be like no other because each BK is different and many things are different between now and 2003. In 2003 unions across the industry had just recieved 30% increases months before the filings, we have already lost over 40% since 2003 and have not had an increase in three years. AA is rolling in with over $4 billion. Their planes are full, fares may not be super high but the fees are. Their revenue is strong, over $24 billion this year and their average hourly wage for mechanics not including OT is pretty much at the bottom. The company will likely cite the OT driven inflated number and we will have to show that they are trying to decieve the court because they made a choice not to hire, hiring would not only drive down OT but drive down the average wage not including OT because the starting wage is lower than competitors and we have longer progressions to the top. We could cite how AA has a relationship with several A&P schools across the country and a flexible starrting rate so they could have hired more mechanics to reduce both their OT and average costs but failed to do so. OT costs will likely be reduced as the fleet shrinks and is rebnewed as well. BK will not produce more Pilots or Mechanics and people are already leaving AA. Just heard a guy from DFW quit and got hired by SWA and a few new hires quit in Tulsa. Boeing has billions of dollars worth of contracts and has estimated that huge numbers of new mechanics will be needed for the industry. The skills that mechanics have are portable and other industries have surpassed what Aviation pays in many major urban areas. UAL which went through BK has a deal on the table thats better than what we rejected and USAIR is in Mediation. Otherwise we are below everyone else, including non-union post BK Delta. Any cuts in any way are unrealistic because the market dictates otherwise. Sure they may cite the Pension and Retiree medical, we can show how the costs for those items, which are far off in the future are more than covered by what we gave up now that nobody else gave up. Even the company said that switching to the DC plan would not net them any savings until far off in the future. In other words there is nothing left to take. If they target OH then they have to fork over the numbers and prove that they can get it done cheaper and have alternatives, looks like Timco is already late. When AA dumps all their underwater leases they wont have so many spares and 10 days is a lot of lost revenue.