Rumor Alert! AA to stop using airport wheelchair attendants

[WeAAsles]

yes, there is  common threat which AA, DL, and UA understand and the APA, ALPA, and APFA also get.
 
but specific to the wheelchair pusher issue, let's be clear that AA is overstaffed.... they have 20 thousand more employees to fly similarly sized networks to what DL and UA have.
 
AA is in a position where it can cut contractor costs and use its own people because overall it is overstaffed.
 
AA has to deal with its overstaffing or it will come at the cost of AA employees reaching salary parity with DL, WN and UA employees.
 
AA cannot pay its employees the same amount as its competitors and have more employees and deliver the same levels of profits.

I'm not going to argue with you anymore because I find it to be too redundant for my tastes. But I will say that I think you have more of a short term mentality and only consider numbers without there being any intangible values, IMO. 

Otherwise have a nice day.

 

[Kev3188]

Some CEO's "may" understand or be beginning to understand the value behind having in house Customer Service? Sure the absolute known labor costs would be more than their peers but the value behind having a motivated workforce who themselves is invested in the product and the company they work for will surely show up in other areas that could potentially generate greater revenue production as a whole? "Customers always write"

Kev did you catch this one this morning?
 
One other intriguing event occurred last week. On Friday, Parker took the stage at the National Press Club with Delta CEO Richard Anderson and United (UAL - Get Report) CEO Jeff Smisek. The three presented their case regarding the threat U.S. aviation faces from heavily subsidized Gulf carriers that gain an illegal advantage from overly generous Open Skies treaties.
 
The three CEOs have a unified case. But what struck me was that as people, they seemed to have absolutely nothing in common.

At the end, Parker took the time to recognize that his two peers were wearing socks with bright patterns. (He wore the typical darkly colored socks). Making the point that the three wouldn't be together at all if they didn't have an important point to make, Parker declared, "Just look at the socks, for God's sake."

http://www.thestreet.com/story/13154008/1/american-air-execs-17-months-into-merger-are-just-getting-started.html

Hadn't seen it yet... Saw the headline on our company website, but skipped over it...

 

[WorldTraveler]

I'm not going to argue with you anymore because I find it to be too redundant for my tastes. But I will say that I think you have more of a short term mentality and only consider numbers without there being any intangible values, IMO. 

Otherwise have a nice day.

I however am not arguing

I am just waiting for you or others to tell me when AA is going to match its headcount to the rest of the industry based on mainline size and how the economics of an oversized workforce can't help but influence the pay level for AA employees

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

WT hangs around the airport with a wheelchair to fill in when Delta gets behind. Real AA fanboys would do the same. Even though we can never catch Delta we don't want to fall further behind.

 
When you first mentioned WT hanging around airports in a wheelchair, the first thing that popped into my mind was this:

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

WT hangs around the airport with a wheelchair to fill in when Delta gets behind. Real AA fanboys would do the same. Even though we can never catch Delta we don't want to fall further behind.

 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaVdYw73-aI

 

[WorldTraveler]

and yet no answers as to how AA can have considerably more employees per ASM than DL, UA, or WN but get less revenue per ASM than some of their competitors while AA employees have the expectation that they will get pay equal to or better than their peers.

 

[WeAAsles]

I wonder if someone realizes that two Unionized workgroups are already done and there doesn't seem to be too many complaints coming out of them in regards to their compensation? I'm extremely interested in reading the Agents TA when that comes out.

 

[WorldTraveler]

the issue is not what the unionized groups think... the issue is that AA, the company, continues to hire people instead of reducing its workforce despite the fact that ÄAs mainline network has the least amount of growth (mainline capacity year to date is DOWN 1%)

It is not sustainable for any company in an industry to have labor headcount larger than its peers wiht producing less per employee UNLESS those employees are paid LESS.

If AA can staff their wheelchair pushers with existing employees, great.

If it means more and more employees, AA employees should be concerned about the very obvious reality that AA cannot pay its people as much as its peers while having more of them on the payroll and producing less revenue per employee.

the economics simply do not work.

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

and yet no answers as to how AA can have considerably more employees per ASM than DL, UA, or WN but get less revenue per ASM than some of their competitors while AA employees have the expectation that they will get pay equal to or better than their peers.

 
I'll bet that on the inside you're going apesh!t that nobody cares about your ramblings.
 

 

[WeAAsles]

Anyone ever heard the term "buyout" or transitioning the workforce? There is a time expanse to be able to accomplish that feat. People don't just walk in the door proficient for all the tasks that are expected of them in many of an airlines job functions. There are no schools for many of these jobs.

Didn't all of the other airlines offer buyouts a few years after they were out of BK?

 

[WeAAsles]

These are the items I pay attention to rather than individuals on Airline Forum blog sites.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2015/05/18/southwest-and-american-airlines-top-list-of-companies-poised-for-best-2015-earnings-per-share-growth/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix

 

[eolesen]

Work performed exclusively by Customer Service Agents includes: boarding and deplaning non-ambulatory special assist passengers between the passenger’s seat and the aircraft threshold;

Seems pretty ambiguous as to who takes them from the aircraft threshold to the next aircraft threshold.

In a previous life, I worked as a theater electrician. When working a road show that had equipment trucked in, we (IATSE) moved the gear between the stage and the loading dock edge, where the road crew (IBT) would take it and position it inside the truck. Zero room for ambiguity.

If you go by the letter of what John John wrote, using a contract wheelchair pusher is entirely permitted by the CWA jetbridge to jetbridge.

It would also permit a wheelchair pusher to move an ambulatory customer (elderly), no?

 

[WorldTraveler]

Anyone ever heard the term "buyout" or transitioning the workforce? There is a time expanse to be able to accomplish that feat. People don't just walk in the door proficient for all the tasks that are expected of them in many of an airlines job functions. There are no schools for many of these jobs.

Didn't all of the other airlines offer buyouts a few years after they were out of BK?

if AA does offer buyouts, then, yes, they could quickly rebalance their workforce.

but reducing headcount by even 10K employees will be costly. remember that UA paid up to $100K for early retirement of FAs. Even assuming AA gets only 5000 employees to take early retirement at a cost of half of UA's max for FAs, or $50K, AA will spend $250 million.

that would make a dent in AA's overage but we're still talking about 1/4 of the difference in headcount between AA and DL or UA.

early retirement programs when you are talking about 10K plus employees will be very costly.

but you are correct that if AA is focusing on the finishing the merger and then will use half a billion dollars of their fuel savings this year to move a lot of senior workers out the door, not only will AA's labor costs go down as senior workers are replaced by the newer employees who are being hired now, but a lot of you will see a lot of upward movement.

It is also possible, though, that there could be some major station/base closings which could accompany those cuts too.

Cutting headcount just for the sake of cutting headcount is not near as common as cutting headcount in order to reduce the size of certain operations or to redeploy assets - which do include people .

 

[WeAAsles]

if AA does offer buyouts, then, yes, they could quickly rebalance their workforce.but reducing headcount by even 10K employees will be costly. remember that UA paid up to $100K for early retirement of FAs. Even assuming AA gets only 5000 employees to take early retirement at a cost of half of UA's max for FAs, or $50K, AA will spend $250 million.that would make a dent in AA's overage but we're still talking about 1/4 of the difference in headcount between AA and DL or UA.early retirement programs when you are talking about 10K plus employees will be very costly.but you are correct that if AA is focusing on the finishing the merger and then will use half a billion dollars of their fuel savings this year to move a lot of senior workers out the door, not only will AA's labor costs go down as senior workers are replaced by the newer employees who are being hired now, but a lot of you will see a lot of upward movement.It is also possible, though, that there could be some major station/base closings which could accompany those cuts too.Cutting headcount just for the sake of cutting headcount is not near as common as cutting headcount in order to reduce the size of certain operations or to redeploy assets - which do include people .

I'll agree with most of what you just said for a change. Just one small item in you post that I don't? I think I'll let you guess?

 

[jimntx]

Seems pretty ambiguous as to who takes them from the aircraft threshold to the next aircraft threshold.

In a previous life, I worked as a theater electrician. When working a road show that had equipment trucked in, we (IATSE) moved the gear between the stage and the loading dock edge, where the road crew (IBT) would take it and position it inside the truck. Zero room for ambiguity.

If you go by the letter of what John John wrote, using a contract wheelchair pusher is entirely permitted by the CWA jetbridge to jetbridge.

It would also permit a wheelchair pusher to move an ambulatory customer (elderly), no?

The exact question I was asking in post #10.  At airports like DFW, ORD, MIA, etc., getting the disabled passenger from the a/c to the jetbridge is the LEAST part of the operation unless they require an aisle chair.