September 18, 2007
Mr. Gerard J. Arpey Chairman, President & CEO American Airlines, Inc. PO Box 619616 MD5621 DFW Airport, TX 75261-9616
Dear Mr. Arpey:
We are in receipt of Robert Hughes' e-mail and attached PowerPoint presentation stating the purpose and goals of the Joint Leadership Team (JLT).
It was difficult for us to get past the first PPT slide, which advertised "immediate, significant bottom line improvement" and "unified regular delivery of credible 2-way business information." All we can see from our vantage point is the vast enrichment of AMR executives from bottom line improvement that is levered into their pockets via the 10-to-1 leverage of the P/E ratio, and an unlimited opportunity for continued one-way delivery of corporate business information. Meanwhile, labor is deprived of any of the bottom line benefits mentioned because profit sharing does not kick in until $500 million (after all of management's bonuses are accounted for in the Salary Expense line), and AIP Financial does not pay until $1.2 billion in pre-tax profits.
AMR executives love to listen to labor's ideas for solving "their* problems, but have nothing to say in response to our bitter complaints of being cut out of the rewards while management counts the gold. In our view, the JLT has been a cruel hoax perpetrated upon AA employees. We were promised regular meetings to discuss and improve our gain-sharing programs, yet after 47 months we are still waiting for this promise to be kept. You promised that if we would "pull together," we would "win together." Yet despite our sacrifices and hard work to provide ideas through forums such as the JLT, AA continues to deprive pilots of advancement opportunities by shrinking, while more and more VPs are hired. Rather than address the causes of the poor ratings our customers give us on the many surveys you take, your solution always seems to involve hiring another VP or forming another "team." At least in the old days of Bob Crandall, which are looking more and more like the peak of leadership in AMR's arc of history, we were all rewarded congruently. Executives did not enjoy big bonus payouts unless employees received profit sharing.
When we met with you last month, we spent four hours in the room with your senior leadership helping them brainstorm issues that they are being paid handsomely
to address. Still we participated and offered our observations and ideas. After the meeting we attempted to get one minor issue of our own addressed by Mark Burdette and were rejected out of hand. Upon returning to our offices, we discovered that the "hypothetical" American Way article you asked about had been delivered earlier in the day to our safety committee in a nearly final form. We also discovered that a letter to the pilots about the state of negotiations had been delivered to our members and the press, even as we sat in the room with the author, who never had the courtesy to share it with us face-to-face.
In our view, the JLT has become a classic "union busting" exercise, devoid of rewards for our members and lacking the basic respect and courtesy expected in a cooperative professional relationship. We no longer have time to participate, as we are needed back at APA headquarters to work on issues such as restoring our members' pay and overturning management's illegal, immoral, and retroactive garnishment of earned and rightful sick pay for our pilots...a cruel persecution pressed on APA by oblivious human resources and flight departments. Now that you have decided to start persecuting the most defenseless pilots in the group, disabled pilots with mental/nervous disorders, we are seeing unprecedented suicide rates and pilots deserting their families. One pilot caught in this drive to reduce costs was forced to come off his medications to try to get his medical back. His reaction to this cessation of treatment was to leave his wife and children behind; we are trying reel him in before *he* kills himself.
Enjoy your blood money and your union-busting meetings. We'll see you in court, in the newspapers, and on the picket line.
Regards,
Captain Lloyd Hill Captain Tom Westbrook Captain Bill Haug
President Vice President Secretary-Treasurer
cc: Robert Reding Jeff Brundage Mark Burdette
_______________________________________________________________
This was a letter sent nearly a month ago which recently began making rounds on the internet again. It isn't written with much thought or intelligence behind it.
Mr. Gerard J. Arpey Chairman, President & CEO American Airlines, Inc. PO Box 619616 MD5621 DFW Airport, TX 75261-9616
Dear Mr. Arpey:
We are in receipt of Robert Hughes' e-mail and attached PowerPoint presentation stating the purpose and goals of the Joint Leadership Team (JLT).
It was difficult for us to get past the first PPT slide, which advertised "immediate, significant bottom line improvement" and "unified regular delivery of credible 2-way business information." All we can see from our vantage point is the vast enrichment of AMR executives from bottom line improvement that is levered into their pockets via the 10-to-1 leverage of the P/E ratio, and an unlimited opportunity for continued one-way delivery of corporate business information. Meanwhile, labor is deprived of any of the bottom line benefits mentioned because profit sharing does not kick in until $500 million (after all of management's bonuses are accounted for in the Salary Expense line), and AIP Financial does not pay until $1.2 billion in pre-tax profits.
AMR executives love to listen to labor's ideas for solving "their* problems, but have nothing to say in response to our bitter complaints of being cut out of the rewards while management counts the gold. In our view, the JLT has been a cruel hoax perpetrated upon AA employees. We were promised regular meetings to discuss and improve our gain-sharing programs, yet after 47 months we are still waiting for this promise to be kept. You promised that if we would "pull together," we would "win together." Yet despite our sacrifices and hard work to provide ideas through forums such as the JLT, AA continues to deprive pilots of advancement opportunities by shrinking, while more and more VPs are hired. Rather than address the causes of the poor ratings our customers give us on the many surveys you take, your solution always seems to involve hiring another VP or forming another "team." At least in the old days of Bob Crandall, which are looking more and more like the peak of leadership in AMR's arc of history, we were all rewarded congruently. Executives did not enjoy big bonus payouts unless employees received profit sharing.
When we met with you last month, we spent four hours in the room with your senior leadership helping them brainstorm issues that they are being paid handsomely
to address. Still we participated and offered our observations and ideas. After the meeting we attempted to get one minor issue of our own addressed by Mark Burdette and were rejected out of hand. Upon returning to our offices, we discovered that the "hypothetical" American Way article you asked about had been delivered earlier in the day to our safety committee in a nearly final form. We also discovered that a letter to the pilots about the state of negotiations had been delivered to our members and the press, even as we sat in the room with the author, who never had the courtesy to share it with us face-to-face.
In our view, the JLT has become a classic "union busting" exercise, devoid of rewards for our members and lacking the basic respect and courtesy expected in a cooperative professional relationship. We no longer have time to participate, as we are needed back at APA headquarters to work on issues such as restoring our members' pay and overturning management's illegal, immoral, and retroactive garnishment of earned and rightful sick pay for our pilots...a cruel persecution pressed on APA by oblivious human resources and flight departments. Now that you have decided to start persecuting the most defenseless pilots in the group, disabled pilots with mental/nervous disorders, we are seeing unprecedented suicide rates and pilots deserting their families. One pilot caught in this drive to reduce costs was forced to come off his medications to try to get his medical back. His reaction to this cessation of treatment was to leave his wife and children behind; we are trying reel him in before *he* kills himself.
Enjoy your blood money and your union-busting meetings. We'll see you in court, in the newspapers, and on the picket line.
Regards,
Captain Lloyd Hill Captain Tom Westbrook Captain Bill Haug
President Vice President Secretary-Treasurer
cc: Robert Reding Jeff Brundage Mark Burdette
_______________________________________________________________
This was a letter sent nearly a month ago which recently began making rounds on the internet again. It isn't written with much thought or intelligence behind it.
