Top Ten Reasons to Vote NO

[amt66]

Laura Einspanier, the new vice president of employee relations, has sent a letter to Transport Workers Union international president Jim Little in which shevwarns that TWU members won't get some stuff if they don't approve American's contract proposal.

Here's the letter, dated Thursday, May 10, 2012:

Dear Jim:

There have been a number of misstatements recently made on the various Internet blogs, YouTube videos and other collateral material produced by some of the TWU Locals about the Company's March Term Sheetes that are before the Court. They paint a very inaccurate picture of what will happen if the Company proposals are not ratified and the Court rejects the current collective bargaining agreemenets.

So there is no confusion about our intentions, let me reiterate the Company's position. Any provision in the March term sheet that was dependent on a ratified consensual agreement will not be implemented without the ratification of the consensual agreemenet. We have made that clear throughout the negotiations process sine February 1.

For example the following items are available only under a ratified consensual agreement:

• 1.5% wage increases • Early Out Incentive Allowance • Company prefunding refund • 401(k) match up to 5.5% • 1st dollr Profit Sharing Plan • Gain Sharing proposal

If the proposals do not ratify and the court permits rejections of the collective bargaining agreement, the Company has no plans to implement these "upside" provisions until it achieves a ratified consensual agreement.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call me at 817-XXX-XXXX.

Sincerely,

Laura Einspanier Vice President Employee Relations

TWU members began voting on American's "last, best" offer on Thursday, with voting to wrap up at 11:59 p.m. Monday.

 

[odie01]

Fear mongering (or scaremongering or scare tactics) is the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end. The feared object or subject is sometimes exaggerated, and the pattern of fear mongering is usually one of repetition, in order to continuously reinforce the intended effects of this tactic, sometimes in the form of a vicious circle.[sup][citation needed][/sup]

 

[Tex-Mech]

For example the following items are available only under a ratified consensual agreement:

• 1.5% wage increases • Early Out Incentive Allowance • Company prefunding refund • 401(k) match up to 5.5% • 1st dollr Profit Sharing Plan • Gain Sharing proposal

If the proposals do not ratify and the court permits rejections of the collective bargaining agreement, the Company has no plans to implement these "upside" provisions until it achieves a ratified consensual agreement.

Well we know that we won't exit bankruptcy without a consensual agreement, and now these things are guaranteed when we do. Awesome...that makes voting no a win win at this point. 😀

 

[1AA]

How about $4.1 billion in reserve cash at time of filing.
$4.2 billion and climbing.
$4.8 billion in March.
American Airlines, reported operating income of $102 million in March, as well as a $49 million net profit if bankruptcy-related items are excluded.
Contracts still in place we would have made money.
Restricted cash increased to $771 million from $738 million. In all, current assets climbed to $7.78 billion, up $1.02 billion.

AA is making money under current labor contracts. But with the expenses of the lawyers and consultants we are losing money. So if we are making money why the consultants, lawyers and Bankruptcy? We are being taken for FOOLS!!!

Another reason to...........

VOTE NO

 

[amt66]

I'm a no vote

 

[Strake]

If you think you can find a job and can make 10-15 bucks an hour, VOTE NO!!!! If you know you're going to be layed off and want to take as many as you can with you... VOTE NO!!!! If you are a high senior line mechanic, VOTE NO!!!!

Solid YES vote here. Common sense goes a long way with some of us. Don't be a lemming. VOTE YES, while there is still time.

 

[Buck]

If you think you can find a job and can make 10-15 bucks an hour, VOTE NO!!!! If you know you're going to be layed off and want to take as many as you can with you... VOTE NO!!!! If you are a high senior line mechanic, VOTE NO!!!!

Solid YES vote here. Common sense goes a long way with some of us. Don't be a lemming. VOTE YES, while there is still time.

To understand your position, it would help if the year of your seniority.

 

[MCI transplant]

If you think you can find a job and can make 10-15 bucks an hour, VOTE NO!!!! If you know you're going to be layed off and want to take as many as you can with you... VOTE NO!!!! If you are a high senior line mechanic, VOTE NO!!!!

Solid YES vote here. Common sense goes a long way with some of us. Don't be a lemming. VOTE YES, while there is still time.

Strake, love your avatar. The F4U. Beautiful Aircraft!------ But it did have it's flows! Just like your reasoning.---- "The XF4U-1 also became the first Navy fighter to encounter "shock stall". This insidious problem affected the first generation of U.S. fighters to achieve high mach numbers in a dive and was due to their lack of laminar flow wings. In other words, the F4U, P-38 and P-47 all had wings that were thick in cross section, which provided high lift, but caused the early formation of shock waves as the air flow over them reached supersonic speeds in high altitude, high speed dives. These standing shock waves degraded the lift normally provided by the wings, resulting in an increasingly steeper and faster dive from which the pilot could not pull out until the plane reached the thicker air of lower altitudes, where drag increased enough to slow the plumeting aircraft and gradually return control to the pilot. Such uncontrolled dives were terrifying and could be fatal if they happened over mountainous terrain where the pilot might run out of altitude before enough speed bled away to permit recovery." ------- I hope, unlike your avatar, you don't crash and burn!!!!

 

[Tex-Mech]

If you think you can find a job and can make 10-15 bucks an hour, VOTE NO!!!! If you know you're going to be layed off and want to take as many as you can with you... VOTE NO!!!! If you are a high senior line mechanic, VOTE NO!!!!

Solid YES vote here. Common sense goes a long way with some of us. Don't be a lemming. VOTE YES, while there is still time.

And if you are getting one of those new international gigs in the back of the offer, you should vote YES. :wacko:

 

[olderguyAMT]

If you think you can find a job and can make 10-15 bucks an hour, VOTE NO!!!! If you know you're going to be layed off and want to take as many as you can with you... VOTE NO!!!! If you are a high senior line mechanic, VOTE NO!!!!

Solid YES vote here. Common sense goes a long way with some of us. Don't be a lemming. VOTE YES, while there is still time.

I respect your opinion, but don't agree with it.

Perhaps you should read the whole LBO, then reconsider.
Many would do exactly as Jim Ream- Little commands them to do.
Don't be a shlemming. Half sheep, half lemming.

 

[FWAAA]

AA slashed their wage expenses in 2003, and that didn't help the company one bit.

What do you mean it didn't help the company one bit? It helped a lot. AA was able to borrow billions of dollars and sell billions of dollars of new stock in the years following the 2003 concessions. AA turned a profit in 2006 and 2007. Problem was, the other airlines used bankruptcy to take even more from their employees.

The company has lost $10B over 10 years. In the 2010 T/A the company agreed in principal to keep the pensions intact, and increase wages for most employees. Now, fast forward just 18 months later....and the company wants everything including our new borns. What the hell changed in just 18 months???

Good question. Practically everyone on the outside thinks that Arpey's refusal to file Ch 11 years ago was a misguided, albeit good-intentioned, decision. The big beneficiaries were the more than 1,000 pilots who retired since May 1, 2003 with their full pensions. Everyone else benefitted some by way of the higher labor costs and nine years worth of pension accrual. The official answer to your question is that the contract offers Arpey made in 2010 to M&R plus the November, 2011 offer to pilots were too rich and wouldn't have solved AA's problems - that bankruptcy and the accompanying cost reductions were necessary.

Look, it seems only a few people really know AA's business plan, Horton, the BOD, and Harvey Miller. Only the company really knows what 35-40% of the total maintenance costs they will outsource on top of the 10-23% AA currently does. AMT jobs are based on the number of aircraft in the mainline fleet.....so, does anyone really know how many aircraft AA will have by 2013, 2014, 2018?? Wouldn't it been more sensible to wait until the APA settled on their scope before we agree to our percentage of work being outsourced???

The revenue side of the plan is already working as AA's revenues are growing faster than any airline besides Delta's for the first four months of 2012. As to specifics about outsourcing, I don't think it matters whether the LBO is accepted or the company abrogates the contracts - the result will be about the same.

I actually agree with Owens on one thing, and that is on the level of immediate outsourcing. I think the outsourcing will start small as the MROs ramp up capacity. By retiring 200 MD-80s the day before their next heavy C check, Tulsa won't have as much work to do, and in the 5-6 year maintenance holiday on the new planes before their first heavy C check, that's time for the MROs to hire people and expand. The widebodies will get their next heavy checks in HKG or somewhere else in China.

 

[Buck]

FWAAA: are the labor cost savings broken down between the three major union groups?

Then with the mechanics at the lowest in the industry, how can lowering their cost help the airline ?

 

[olderguyAMT]

A company's greatest asset is not found in the Balance Sheet, or the 10-K or the 10-Q SEC Filings.
It is something that most beancounters know nothing about.
Very few executives know the answer.


ANY company's greatest asset is the employees. Are Southwest Airlines execs the only ones that know it and act on it?

Another reason to Vote NO.

 

[Bob Owens]

What do you mean it didn't help the company one bit? It helped a lot. AA was able to borrow billions of dollars and sell billions of dollars of new stock in the years following the 2003 concessions. AA turned a profit in 2006 and 2007. Problem was, the other airlines used bankruptcy to take even more from their employees.

Who took more? We gave up different things but our compensation was slashed by at least 25%.

Everyone else benefitted some by way of the higher labor costs and nine years worth of pension accrual.

Not really, we gave up things that others didnt lose in BK that more than covered the cost of thye pension such as Vacation, Holidays, sick time, doubletime, straight time pay for training off shift etc. I'll tell who benefitted by AA not filing in 2003, that banks that owned the planes that AA didnt fly but were still paying leases, the banks that owned the bonds on airport facilities that AA was paying for but did not use.

The official answer to your question is that the contract offers Arpey made in 2010 to M&R plus the November, 2011 offer to pilots were too rich and wouldn't have solved AA's problems - that bankruptcy and the accompanying cost reductions were necessary.

Too rich? we would have still been at the bottom of the industry with the laest amount of Vacation, Holidays and sick time.

 

[olderguyAMT]

Who is the last person in America to sign the pilots "No Confidence" petition? It's Jim Little, he will not be standing with those pilots on the doorsteps of Headquarters........... Judging by his recent actions, he would probable be starting a petition drive, like this.......It's Jim's "Do What the Co. Wants" petition!

Note the lack of solidarity. Must be a lack of leadership, and it comes from the top.

If this Yes vote wins, J Little will be a lame duck. What is the truth behind this lack of leadership? Where is the CIA when we need them?
Just another reason to Vote NO.