Who exactly is defending it? I've seen one or two people comment on how AMR isn't being as greedy as other CEO's, but I haven't seen a single person on these boards come out and say that the execs deserve these bonuses.
Probably referring to me.
Not only have I pointed out how AMR's execs are being somewhat reasonable compared to the execs of the bankrupt peer group, I had the audacity to remind them that the non-management employees received options on 35 million shares currently worth $945 million (at today's closing price). Especially when they complain that they got "nothing" while the execs loot the place.
Nearly a billion ain't "nothing" where I come from. And it's still 8.5 times more than CO's recently announced profit sharing payments to its employees. It's not as much as everyone would like, but it's still nearly a billion dollars.
I have no idea whether the AMR execs "deserve" their PUP/PSP shares. I do know that these agreements were public knowledge and that anyone could see huge potential payouts if AMR's stock outperformed.
Most of the vocal posters here were certain that AMR would file for Ch 11 protection anyeay. Check out some of the posts from 2003-04. And many posted that they sold their options on the first day they vested - since they were again certain that it wasn't going any higher. Well, AMR doesn't file for Ch 11 protection after all and the stock hit $41 three months ago. Even today, with oil much higher than in January, it's still at $32.
And all of a sudden, those same posters are angry/livid/hopping mad that the execs intend to take their variable compensation; compensation that was obviously gonna happen given a lack of Ch 11 filing by AMR, bankruptcy filings by others in the peer group, and lackluster stock performance by B6 and WN.
As I posted yesterday - AA management certainly screwed up. Instead of designing these convoluted PUP/PSP incentive plans, they should have simply distributed an additional 10 million options to themselves in April, 2003, in the same proportions as the PUP/PSP plan percentages. The rank and file wouldn't have had a clue and the management would have the same $260 million of value from the shareholders' pockets as they have with the PUP/PSP plan payouts today.
It's not like the execs woke up last spring and said "Let's loot the treasury by awarding ourselves outrageous bonuses."
All they did was dust off their existing plans and compute what they already had comin' to them.
Maybe Arpey should have filed for Ch 11 protection anyway. Could have terminated the pensions (which would really have impacted only the pilots, since everyone else's pension is completely guaranteed by the PBGC), closed the maintenance bases (shipped all of it offshore or to AL or to the MROs that would have eventually taken over the bases), rejected the leases on (or returned to the lenders the owned) 350 or so fuel hog airplanes and petitioned the court to throw out the labor contracts unless the unions agreed to even bigger givebacks. That's just for starters.
Maybe that would have satisfied the complainers.
But instead, they complain about how much stock the execs print for themselves. Stock the complainers say they don't want and wouldn't take if offered to them.
It's old news. Stupid greedy bastard management isn't some new thing Arpey and his friends just invented.
The unions failed their membership by not demanding half or two thirds (or more) of AMR's outstanding stock in exchange for such huge concessions. But the unions' collective failure isn't Arpey's problem. It's not management's job to negotiate on behalf of the unionized workforce. They pay plenty of their paycheck in dues to their union leaders, and that's where the anger should be directed.