slupilot01,
I think you missed the "Loss of Spending Power Due to Inflationary Pressures 101" class in college. I think you also skipped "Employee Motivation, Why They Fail to Respond to Overtime Requests for Straight Pay 101"
Basic stuff.
I think in MIA they settled the overtime issue for the rest of the year. I've heard that in passenger service, the edict came down from on high that there will be no more overtime and no more extensions granted for any reason, even if an arriving flight takes a gate miss - it sits at the gate until an agent is free to go hook up the jet bridge and open the door, and it's already happening.
Before you might think there is nothing wrong with this picture, remember this is MIA, where they were already short something like 20%-25% of their headcount and have been for more than a couple of years now. Overtime and extensions are what kept them running. Now that it has been cut out completely, I'm taking ALL my flying to FLL. I won't take the risk of being held hostage at the gate for no amount of time simply because AA, with their billions in the bank, refuses to pay their people to take care of the paying customers.
I understand the frustrations of the pilots, and I see the reasoning behind the billboards. I also sympathize for the employees who have lost money, homes, wives, husbands . . . family, then have to sit back and read the headlines about the millions execs stuck into their own pockets. The executives don't run AA, they hire consultants for that, but they certainly do take the most money out of the company and remember, when AA cries about the cost of labor, those millions in their pocket are just as much a part of those expenses as the ten dollar agents.
I believe in paying people a living wage, and sometimes that means you have to make adjustments in that wage according to the cost of living where you are doing business. It costs a helluva lot more to live and work in MIA than it does DFW or ORD. I highly doubt those cities have double digit property taxes and insurance payments that equal what many people in this country pay for six months worth of mortgage payments. AA pays it's people slum wages and expects them to get by in one of the highest places in the country for cost of living.
It's not easy to just pick up and go elsewhere. One has to wonder just how much less AA employees can do without but I have a feeling that once AA takes away healthcare for low-scale and part time employees -
and they will take it, that will be the end for many of their low wage people.
Just google "foreclosure" and "Florida" and you'll get over 3 million hits.
I didn't used to think so, but now I do believe the pilot's billboards is money spent wisely.
