Dear Mr Brundage,
Please explain to me why I wasted an hour of my life doing the 'Value of
Respect' training. The biggest offender of workplace harmony is the
company, not employees. So, you can imagine my surprise when AA was
portrayed as a corporate Mother Teresa in the training. Occasionally, a
wayward soul had to be spanked, but generally speaking AA was all
encompassing. This resembles Mardi Gras; not the truth. There are 2
distinct realities @ AA. The 1st intimidates employees to meet a defined
corporate goal. The 2nd reality doesn't want liability for workplace
discrimination, which, incidentally, has been fostered by the 1st
reality. Combine the 2 realities & you're staring into the face of
hypocrisy.
Unions in contract disputes are occasionally locked-out from the
workplace. In Mar/2001, AA took the oblique step of locking-out its own
passengers @ JFK. In an academy award winning performance, AA ran to the
media with horrific tales of rogue mechanics shutting down the airport.
This despite having virtually every airplane in service. The terminal
resembled a refugee camp & the mechanic group was ostracized. In federal
court, AA said that 4 or 5 mechanics, in a station of 400 mechanics,
were responsible for the disturbance. This means 1% of the workforce @
JFK brought a corporation to its knees. The judge recognized this as a
lie & lifted the injunction on the mechanic group.
In a final indignity, an irate passenger spat in the face of a mechanic.
This wasn't an assault on an individual, but an attack on the entire
mechanic group . . . & it was engineered by the same company now craving
a harmonious workplace.
Deception is nothing new to AA. The ‘shared sacrifice' extravaganza
showcased AA's lies on a public stage. Don Carty, with his big puppy
eyes awash in tears, said it was a misunderstanding. The 3 Unions were
promised unprecedented access to the company's books only to be
bushwhacked by a public filing after ratification. It's odd how
executives remembered to file the wallet-bulging perks with govt
regulators, but neglected to tell Union negotiators. Not really . . .
the company would have faced hefty fines had AA used its amnesia defense
with the SEC. However, there are no such consequences for lying to
employees because 'zero tolerance' is a mere slogan.
I seethed as I sat through 'Value of Respect'. You see, I am a victim of
corporate harassment. When I sought relief from HR, my charges were
treated as though it was hand delivered by a suicide bomber. The HR rep,
Joe XXXXX, never interviewed me or my witnesses. I suppose in the
digital age 1st hand accounts are somewhat cumbersome. XXXXX probably
utilized the latest in technology to conduct his investigation . . .
like a crystal ball. I appealed XXXXX' decision to your predecessor, Sue
Oliver. After a protracted period of time, another stealth investigation
ended with meaningless rhetoric.
All this originated from an argument with management regarding the
serviceability of an aircraft tire. I won out & the tire was replaced.
Instead of receiving a commendation, I got a gift wrapped rule 32 letter
& had my name slandered on Sabre. Rule 23 'moral conduct' was also
tossed in to spice up the charges against me. In AA world, it's
completely moral to pressure a mechanic to dispatch an airplane with a
tire that looks like a cube, but it's immoral if the worker protests. In
a bizarre Woody Allen twist, the supervisor who charged me with these
abuses was arrested for statuary rape. Only in the paradoxical world of
AA can an employee be charged with immoral conduct by a child molester.
A fellow mechanic, Brian XXXXXXXX, was confounded by a similar
stonewalling when he pursued justice. Brian filed harassment charges
after he was berated by a supervisor. What could make a member of
management versed in the nuance of respect explode into a tirade??? . .
. Brian wouldn't improvise when the proper tooling wasn't available to
deactivate a thrust reverser. Mechanics like Brian refuse to have their
judgment impaired by the constant drumbeat of industry gloom.
Supervisors hyped up by company strong arm tactics find this
objectionable. When Brian filed harassment charges, HR simply forwarded
his charges to JFK management to settle. This violated every tenet of
impartiality. Not only did HR put the fox in charge of the chicken coop,
it also gave the fox a knife & fork.
Needless to say, Brian never again sought internal remedies for dispute
resolution. He has successfully used the ASAP program to reverse
discipline, & many supervisors have been ordered to undergo retraining
as a consequence. Yet, local management has refused to comply with a
directive from the ASAP committee to remove a disciplining letter from
Brian's file. This coming from a company which sanctimoniously expects
the fullest compliance of its rules. AA's own arrogance has caused the
Dept of Labor to intervene on Brian's behalf. When the Dept of Labor
decides in his favor, & it will, Brian will have whistleblower
protection. Only then will the harassment end & NOT because of an
enlightened company policy.
As alluded to earlier, corporate communication is exploiting financial
turmoil in the industry to create a culture of shortcuts &
improvisation. Without any reference to safety, workers are fed a steady
diet of thermonuclear airline devastation. Employees, for the
survivability of the airline, relax their exacting standards. We now
have a situation where employees are guzzling the company kool-aid &
becoming corporate cultists. This is how an MD80 flies 2 weeks with a
fuel leak, or why a pilot aware of mechanic staffing problems writes his
complaints on a napkin instead of in the logbook. A mechanic, after a
kool-aid binge, filled a generator with 10 pints of oil for the sake of
a timely departure. These shortcuts, although illegal, are embraced by
AA for productivity gains. All this is perfectly ethical for an airline
that locked-out its own passengers.
Recently 4 mechanics @ JFK were blacklisted from working European trips.
Naturally, Brian XXXXXX & I were among the blacklisted. The nature of
2-engine airplanes crossing the Atlantic require special inspections, &
we were prohibited from working these trips because we "find too many
things." Isn't this why AA employs mechanics . . . to find things???
Unless AA would rather recruit mechanics from Lighthouse International
for the Blind. If it were not for the courage of a lone crew chief, who
demanded the company write out their directive, we would still be
blacklisted. Local management wasn't stupid enough to leave a paper
trail for a blacklist.
Throughout this period of record losses, the only employees prospering
are the lawyers. They're fortunate to be employed by a company which
mistreats its workers & invites lawsuits, like Sullivan v American
Airlines. Jack Sullivan was a tenacious Union officers, & consequently a
prime target for harassment. What followed was a witch-hunt worthy of
McCarthyism. During the 2002 TWU elections, AA decided to censor
campaign literature. Not only was this unprecedented, but AA selectively
enforced the censorship with the incumbents only. The challengers were
allowed to employ whatever tactics necessary for winning.
AA suspended Jack & 3 others, at the height of the campaign, for posting
offensive literature about the opposing slate. 3 law firms & the Dept of
Labor have since stated that the literature wasn't defamatory. Moreover,
AA failed to produce the 2 individuals who allegedly witnessed Jack
posting the literature. Their identity was not learned until discovery
for the lawsuit, & they weren't credible witnesses. Subpoenaed company
e-mails also revealed that HR advised management that both campaigns
were guilty of the same offense, but the witch-hunt against the
incumbents continued unabated.
Jack & the others were kept off the field as the challengers &
management labeled them as blue ribbon racists to tilt the election
their way. The incumbents were terminated for rule 32 violations. Here
we see your beloved rule 32 unmasked & all its ugliness exposed!!! This
being the same rule 32 being rammed down our throats in 'Value of
Respect'. After Jack & the others had their names sufficiently smeared &
the election thus lost, they were reinstated with severe discipline. In
another Woody Allen plot twist, the supervisor who fired Jack was
himself terminated for using the workplace as a cathouse.
Jack ran for Union office again in 2005, & the company ghouls returned.
In SJU, literature branding Jack as a racist was plastered all over a
hallway under 24-hour surveillance. We know from the lawsuit that the
racist characterization is untrue. Jack filed harassment charges to
clear his good name. You would think, with the stigma of the lawsuit,
that HR would pull the tapes of the security camera & conduct a thorough
investigation. Instead, Jannette Montes stated the postings were
perfectly fair because Jack was "a high profile employee." HR needs to
invest in dictionaries because nobody has a clue what 'zero tolerance'
means.
So, as you can see, AA doesn't have the moral compass to lecture me on
ethics. The company freely uses blacklists & witch-hunts. It capitalizes
on the financial distress of the industry to undermine the maintenance
manual. It conceals managerial harassment. It singles out employees for
unfair treatment. It doesn't show contrition, nor can it reconcile with
the past. I don't need a lesson on morality from a morally corrupt
company. It would be like Capt Ahab championing the humane treatment of
whales at the end of 'Moby Dick'.
Sincerely,
G Santos
mechanic, JFK
PS- Stacy XXXX asked me to curse you out for taking away her stock
options after she left AA. I doubt executives have their pockets picked
when they pull the ripcord.
I recieved this via E-mail. The author was active on a letter campain PRIOR to Sept 11, 2001 to increase airport security. If people had listened then perhaps the horrors of 9/11/01 would not have happened. But then again had they not happened the airlines never would have been able to attack our compensation as successfully as they have.
Please explain to me why I wasted an hour of my life doing the 'Value of
Respect' training. The biggest offender of workplace harmony is the
company, not employees. So, you can imagine my surprise when AA was
portrayed as a corporate Mother Teresa in the training. Occasionally, a
wayward soul had to be spanked, but generally speaking AA was all
encompassing. This resembles Mardi Gras; not the truth. There are 2
distinct realities @ AA. The 1st intimidates employees to meet a defined
corporate goal. The 2nd reality doesn't want liability for workplace
discrimination, which, incidentally, has been fostered by the 1st
reality. Combine the 2 realities & you're staring into the face of
hypocrisy.
Unions in contract disputes are occasionally locked-out from the
workplace. In Mar/2001, AA took the oblique step of locking-out its own
passengers @ JFK. In an academy award winning performance, AA ran to the
media with horrific tales of rogue mechanics shutting down the airport.
This despite having virtually every airplane in service. The terminal
resembled a refugee camp & the mechanic group was ostracized. In federal
court, AA said that 4 or 5 mechanics, in a station of 400 mechanics,
were responsible for the disturbance. This means 1% of the workforce @
JFK brought a corporation to its knees. The judge recognized this as a
lie & lifted the injunction on the mechanic group.
In a final indignity, an irate passenger spat in the face of a mechanic.
This wasn't an assault on an individual, but an attack on the entire
mechanic group . . . & it was engineered by the same company now craving
a harmonious workplace.
Deception is nothing new to AA. The ‘shared sacrifice' extravaganza
showcased AA's lies on a public stage. Don Carty, with his big puppy
eyes awash in tears, said it was a misunderstanding. The 3 Unions were
promised unprecedented access to the company's books only to be
bushwhacked by a public filing after ratification. It's odd how
executives remembered to file the wallet-bulging perks with govt
regulators, but neglected to tell Union negotiators. Not really . . .
the company would have faced hefty fines had AA used its amnesia defense
with the SEC. However, there are no such consequences for lying to
employees because 'zero tolerance' is a mere slogan.
I seethed as I sat through 'Value of Respect'. You see, I am a victim of
corporate harassment. When I sought relief from HR, my charges were
treated as though it was hand delivered by a suicide bomber. The HR rep,
Joe XXXXX, never interviewed me or my witnesses. I suppose in the
digital age 1st hand accounts are somewhat cumbersome. XXXXX probably
utilized the latest in technology to conduct his investigation . . .
like a crystal ball. I appealed XXXXX' decision to your predecessor, Sue
Oliver. After a protracted period of time, another stealth investigation
ended with meaningless rhetoric.
All this originated from an argument with management regarding the
serviceability of an aircraft tire. I won out & the tire was replaced.
Instead of receiving a commendation, I got a gift wrapped rule 32 letter
& had my name slandered on Sabre. Rule 23 'moral conduct' was also
tossed in to spice up the charges against me. In AA world, it's
completely moral to pressure a mechanic to dispatch an airplane with a
tire that looks like a cube, but it's immoral if the worker protests. In
a bizarre Woody Allen twist, the supervisor who charged me with these
abuses was arrested for statuary rape. Only in the paradoxical world of
AA can an employee be charged with immoral conduct by a child molester.
A fellow mechanic, Brian XXXXXXXX, was confounded by a similar
stonewalling when he pursued justice. Brian filed harassment charges
after he was berated by a supervisor. What could make a member of
management versed in the nuance of respect explode into a tirade??? . .
. Brian wouldn't improvise when the proper tooling wasn't available to
deactivate a thrust reverser. Mechanics like Brian refuse to have their
judgment impaired by the constant drumbeat of industry gloom.
Supervisors hyped up by company strong arm tactics find this
objectionable. When Brian filed harassment charges, HR simply forwarded
his charges to JFK management to settle. This violated every tenet of
impartiality. Not only did HR put the fox in charge of the chicken coop,
it also gave the fox a knife & fork.
Needless to say, Brian never again sought internal remedies for dispute
resolution. He has successfully used the ASAP program to reverse
discipline, & many supervisors have been ordered to undergo retraining
as a consequence. Yet, local management has refused to comply with a
directive from the ASAP committee to remove a disciplining letter from
Brian's file. This coming from a company which sanctimoniously expects
the fullest compliance of its rules. AA's own arrogance has caused the
Dept of Labor to intervene on Brian's behalf. When the Dept of Labor
decides in his favor, & it will, Brian will have whistleblower
protection. Only then will the harassment end & NOT because of an
enlightened company policy.
As alluded to earlier, corporate communication is exploiting financial
turmoil in the industry to create a culture of shortcuts &
improvisation. Without any reference to safety, workers are fed a steady
diet of thermonuclear airline devastation. Employees, for the
survivability of the airline, relax their exacting standards. We now
have a situation where employees are guzzling the company kool-aid &
becoming corporate cultists. This is how an MD80 flies 2 weeks with a
fuel leak, or why a pilot aware of mechanic staffing problems writes his
complaints on a napkin instead of in the logbook. A mechanic, after a
kool-aid binge, filled a generator with 10 pints of oil for the sake of
a timely departure. These shortcuts, although illegal, are embraced by
AA for productivity gains. All this is perfectly ethical for an airline
that locked-out its own passengers.
Recently 4 mechanics @ JFK were blacklisted from working European trips.
Naturally, Brian XXXXXX & I were among the blacklisted. The nature of
2-engine airplanes crossing the Atlantic require special inspections, &
we were prohibited from working these trips because we "find too many
things." Isn't this why AA employs mechanics . . . to find things???
Unless AA would rather recruit mechanics from Lighthouse International
for the Blind. If it were not for the courage of a lone crew chief, who
demanded the company write out their directive, we would still be
blacklisted. Local management wasn't stupid enough to leave a paper
trail for a blacklist.
Throughout this period of record losses, the only employees prospering
are the lawyers. They're fortunate to be employed by a company which
mistreats its workers & invites lawsuits, like Sullivan v American
Airlines. Jack Sullivan was a tenacious Union officers, & consequently a
prime target for harassment. What followed was a witch-hunt worthy of
McCarthyism. During the 2002 TWU elections, AA decided to censor
campaign literature. Not only was this unprecedented, but AA selectively
enforced the censorship with the incumbents only. The challengers were
allowed to employ whatever tactics necessary for winning.
AA suspended Jack & 3 others, at the height of the campaign, for posting
offensive literature about the opposing slate. 3 law firms & the Dept of
Labor have since stated that the literature wasn't defamatory. Moreover,
AA failed to produce the 2 individuals who allegedly witnessed Jack
posting the literature. Their identity was not learned until discovery
for the lawsuit, & they weren't credible witnesses. Subpoenaed company
e-mails also revealed that HR advised management that both campaigns
were guilty of the same offense, but the witch-hunt against the
incumbents continued unabated.
Jack & the others were kept off the field as the challengers &
management labeled them as blue ribbon racists to tilt the election
their way. The incumbents were terminated for rule 32 violations. Here
we see your beloved rule 32 unmasked & all its ugliness exposed!!! This
being the same rule 32 being rammed down our throats in 'Value of
Respect'. After Jack & the others had their names sufficiently smeared &
the election thus lost, they were reinstated with severe discipline. In
another Woody Allen plot twist, the supervisor who fired Jack was
himself terminated for using the workplace as a cathouse.
Jack ran for Union office again in 2005, & the company ghouls returned.
In SJU, literature branding Jack as a racist was plastered all over a
hallway under 24-hour surveillance. We know from the lawsuit that the
racist characterization is untrue. Jack filed harassment charges to
clear his good name. You would think, with the stigma of the lawsuit,
that HR would pull the tapes of the security camera & conduct a thorough
investigation. Instead, Jannette Montes stated the postings were
perfectly fair because Jack was "a high profile employee." HR needs to
invest in dictionaries because nobody has a clue what 'zero tolerance'
means.
So, as you can see, AA doesn't have the moral compass to lecture me on
ethics. The company freely uses blacklists & witch-hunts. It capitalizes
on the financial distress of the industry to undermine the maintenance
manual. It conceals managerial harassment. It singles out employees for
unfair treatment. It doesn't show contrition, nor can it reconcile with
the past. I don't need a lesson on morality from a morally corrupt
company. It would be like Capt Ahab championing the humane treatment of
whales at the end of 'Moby Dick'.
Sincerely,
G Santos
mechanic, JFK
PS- Stacy XXXX asked me to curse you out for taking away her stock
options after she left AA. I doubt executives have their pockets picked
when they pull the ripcord.
I recieved this via E-mail. The author was active on a letter campain PRIOR to Sept 11, 2001 to increase airport security. If people had listened then perhaps the horrors of 9/11/01 would not have happened. But then again had they not happened the airlines never would have been able to attack our compensation as successfully as they have.