- Nov 4, 2003
- 7,550
- 3,767
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 11:29 AM
Subject: Letter from JFK Mechanic
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 8:12 AM Subject: Shared Sacrifice
Dear Mr Garton,
Please explain to me why employees are expected to be loyal with life altering concessions, while executives must be richly compensated for the same loyalty??? You have special insight on this subject since you're receiving an eye-popping $1.7 million bonus to keep you from bolting. I guess marketing VP's are in high demand, especially those who sponsor posh stadiums.
I read a fuel savings document in a cockpit and discovered AA's annual fuel saving initiatives total $100 million, including $1.7 million from single engine taxiing of aircraft. In essence, the $78 million executive bonuses will devour 78% of AA's fuel saving, & all the proceeds from single engine taxis will go straight into your wallet. Such recklessness is plentiful. Heading into a period of skyrocketing fuel prices, what did AA do with its fuel hedges??? . . . you guys sold them to arch rival Southwest for $41 million. Coincidentally, this was the exact sum needed to buy executives a brand new pension plan after the employee plan tanked due to bad investments. Workers watched as executives corrected their own pension shortfall, but NOT ours, for the stated purpose of retaining their talents.
Do you recall your debate with aircraft mechanic Angelo Balbo in JFK a few years ago??? Answering a question on give-backs you stated: "I would hope the concessions are behind us." It's easy to be stoic when you have deferred compensation in your back pocket. Executives, like you, need leadership lessons from history. The night prior to the D-Day invasion, thousands of US paratroopers were dropped into France. The 1st guy to jump out of an airplane wasn't a lowly private but the commanding general of the 101st Airborne. When employees sacrifice, we struggle to meet the mortgage. When executives sacrifice, they buy a Porsche instead of a Rolls-Royce.
What really boils me is the lack of candor. Even though the company swears it's committed to a new era of cooperation & openness, I learned about every executive get rich gambit from the NY Times & not from AA. What does this tell you about candor??? The Don Carty charade in 2003, Mr Arpey's 290,000 shares of options in 2005, & now $78 million in executive bonuses were all hidden from workers until they appeared in the morning tabloids. Only after executives were caught with their hands in the cookie jar did JetNet examine the bonuses. It was a feeble attempt at damage control rather than sincerity. How many more surprises on 'shared sacrifice' are there in the horizon for us???
Mr Garton, if you need $1.7 million to maintain the same level of loyalty as I do, then leave the company. You're a drain on the recovery plan if it's true. I'd rather use the $1.7 million to hire the entire graduating class of Princeton & replace all the executives suffering from the Michael Douglas greed-is-good mentality!!!
Sincerely, G Santos
mechanic & burdening the sacrifice @ JFK
Subject: Letter from JFK Mechanic
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 8:12 AM Subject: Shared Sacrifice
Dear Mr Garton,
Please explain to me why employees are expected to be loyal with life altering concessions, while executives must be richly compensated for the same loyalty??? You have special insight on this subject since you're receiving an eye-popping $1.7 million bonus to keep you from bolting. I guess marketing VP's are in high demand, especially those who sponsor posh stadiums.
I read a fuel savings document in a cockpit and discovered AA's annual fuel saving initiatives total $100 million, including $1.7 million from single engine taxiing of aircraft. In essence, the $78 million executive bonuses will devour 78% of AA's fuel saving, & all the proceeds from single engine taxis will go straight into your wallet. Such recklessness is plentiful. Heading into a period of skyrocketing fuel prices, what did AA do with its fuel hedges??? . . . you guys sold them to arch rival Southwest for $41 million. Coincidentally, this was the exact sum needed to buy executives a brand new pension plan after the employee plan tanked due to bad investments. Workers watched as executives corrected their own pension shortfall, but NOT ours, for the stated purpose of retaining their talents.
Do you recall your debate with aircraft mechanic Angelo Balbo in JFK a few years ago??? Answering a question on give-backs you stated: "I would hope the concessions are behind us." It's easy to be stoic when you have deferred compensation in your back pocket. Executives, like you, need leadership lessons from history. The night prior to the D-Day invasion, thousands of US paratroopers were dropped into France. The 1st guy to jump out of an airplane wasn't a lowly private but the commanding general of the 101st Airborne. When employees sacrifice, we struggle to meet the mortgage. When executives sacrifice, they buy a Porsche instead of a Rolls-Royce.
What really boils me is the lack of candor. Even though the company swears it's committed to a new era of cooperation & openness, I learned about every executive get rich gambit from the NY Times & not from AA. What does this tell you about candor??? The Don Carty charade in 2003, Mr Arpey's 290,000 shares of options in 2005, & now $78 million in executive bonuses were all hidden from workers until they appeared in the morning tabloids. Only after executives were caught with their hands in the cookie jar did JetNet examine the bonuses. It was a feeble attempt at damage control rather than sincerity. How many more surprises on 'shared sacrifice' are there in the horizon for us???
Mr Garton, if you need $1.7 million to maintain the same level of loyalty as I do, then leave the company. You're a drain on the recovery plan if it's true. I'd rather use the $1.7 million to hire the entire graduating class of Princeton & replace all the executives suffering from the Michael Douglas greed-is-good mentality!!!
Sincerely, G Santos
mechanic & burdening the sacrifice @ JFK
