For a decade, AA has been a high-cost airline despite the 2003 concessions (thanks to everyone else's bankruptcies). Low-cost airlines grew at AA's expense. Despite its very low labor costs, US is a high-cost airline, helping to explain why US hasn't grown since its merger with HP in 2005. And now the employees think that marrying low-wage, high-cost US to higher-wage (but lower cost) AA will help AA? It will certainly help the low-wage US employees, as it will take huge raises to get them to AA's payscales.
The question is why were they "high cost"? Could it have been facilities such at RDU, BNA and scores of others, including houses in London, grounded airplanes and other things that AA was dumping money into that they did not need or use? Lease rates that were higher than their peers for similarly valued equipment? Sure you guys zero in on labor, because the difference was obvious but ignored the fact that AA did more in house which made such compararsions and apples to oranges match up, but it sounded good. Outsourcing doesnt eliminate the cost, it just shifts it to another spot. Even now after BK AA is keeping most of their work in house, but their super low labor rates are slowly grinding down their operations and putting a drag on what would be an even higher rebound after finally cutting all those liabilities they should have cut back in 2003.
They recently got the #1 spot for the rudest Flight Attendants, most of their mechanics on the line are extremely dissatisfied, however our low wages have kept us living week to week for the last 9 years so we arent going to leave till we have something else, and we are leaving, sure its a trickle right now but every week I hear of another long time coworker leaving, some to WN, some to UPS, some to the MTA, even some to Jet Blue, the smarter ones are taking advantage of the down time and studying for other careers. We are leaving, and a lot more are already gone if not in the physical sense.
Even new planes break, and when you have mechanics whose heart isn't into it, who no longer look at a broken plane and an EDT as a challenge you end up with at the very least a delay,or, more often than before, a cancellation. So for the $20k a year they save how much are they losing in delays and cancellations? How many extra mechanics do they have to keep on payroll to make it through the day?
I had to laugh when Hortons team recently claimed that they have achieved labor peace for the first time in 30 years. Really, why, because they bought off a few officials and got them to maneauver a deal into place that 80% of the guys who work their live trips rejected? There will be no peace. The deal has already sparked a war within the group, as three unions, and if their is a merger maybe fourth, vie for the right to represent the mechanics. AA got a deal jammed down our throats with votes from people who left, so the majority of people who remain rejected the deal.
So they think they got labor peace? They got their victory, they got submission and they defeated us, but do they really think we are up to helping AA battle UA, WN and Delta? Why would we want AA to do better than than them when we are looking at them as potential employers? With no pension, no retiree medical, the lowest paid time off in the industry this is a place with no future, just a place to collect a check for now. Sure they are saying that their plan will raise most of their current pilots pay by 50% by 2017 but what about mechanics? Whats in our future at AA other than less vacation, less Holidays, less sick time, more expensive medical and at best an average wage that would still leave us at the very bottom once those things are factored in?
Slaves dont make good soldiers, they have a tendancy to turn their weapons on their master instead of their masters opponent.
