What will be revealed on Wednesday

Hatu

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Aug 20, 2002
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Some ideas by the Dallas Morning News:

Here's some of what we expect to be proposed, in brief:

• The Alliance Fort Worth maintenance base will close (although probably not the TAESL engine joint venture there).

• It likely will shrink the other two bases somewhat as it outsources some maintenance work.

• The company will terminate pension plans. The company will put employees in a 401(k) plan, with a company match (up to a point).

• It will seek to outsource thousands of jobs of ground workers.

• Flying hours by pilots will go up.

• Scheduled maximum hours for flight attendants will go into the high 90s every month. The minimum number of hours to keep benefits will go up.

• Employees will pay a greater percentage of their health insurance premiums.


What we don't have a feel for:

• Will there be widespread pay cuts? Pay didn't seem to be an issue in contract talks. The company was willing to trade a little bit more pay for greater productivity. The exception was for fleet service clerks. For those, management sought either to create a new lower-paying job classification or, its preference, outsource low-skilled jobs to outside contractors.

• Does American plan near-term reductions in capacity? American has a large number of jets that it has negotiated an extension in time (beyond last Friday) to make a decision to keep or give back. Its ability to negotiate really deep reductions in lease rates or loan costs could affect its decision to ground or fly many of those airplanes.

• What are the plans for American Eagle? How big will it be? What airplanes will it fly? What are the plans to spin it off post-bankruptcy?

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/01/what-we-think-american-airline.html
 
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Having gone down this road twice, I know what the waiting too see what the company is going to take away feeling is like. With all of the bickering going on about a possible AA/US merger going on, many have lost sight of the fear of the unknown factors looming. On the Fleet Service employee end of things, can someone tell me what the top hourly rate is along with a rough cost of medical benefits are? I can most likely give you an idea of where AA is looking to be on these items based on what direction US management took during BK.

If you don't want to post the info here, a PM will do.
Thanks..
 
Dallas Morning News article from Terry Maxon, only had conversations with "managers" and what other airlines did during their BK.

How about interviewing some top brass at AA and then you can write a story, not just posting predictions.
 
If you don't want to post the info here, a PM will do.
Thanks..
The whole world can see comparisons of all the work groups on aanegotiations.com. It needs an update because some of us are further behind than indicated.
 
• Will there be widespread pay cuts? Pay didn't seem to be an issue in contract talks.

Some details seem to be leaking out and one of the rumors (at least for the pilots) was no (hourly) pay cut proposed by the company. This doesn't really surprise me as we are already below most peers, even discount LCCs.

Everything else I have heard is pretty much spot on with what the article said. The same rumor must be spreading around.
 
Some ideas by the Dallas Morning News:

Here's some of what we expect to be proposed, in brief:

• The Alliance Fort Worth maintenance base will close (although probably not the TAESL engine joint venture there).

• It likely will shrink the other two bases somewhat as it outsources some maintenance work.

• The company will terminate pension plans. The company will put employees in a 401(k) plan, with a company match (up to a point).

• It will seek to outsource thousands of jobs of ground workers.

• Flying hours by pilots will go up.

• Scheduled maximum hours for flight attendants will go into the high 90s every month. The minimum number of hours to keep benefits will go up.

• Employees will pay a greater percentage of their health insurance premiums.


What we don't have a feel for:

• Will there be widespread pay cuts? Pay didn't seem to be an issue in contract talks. The company was willing to trade a little bit more pay for greater productivity. The exception was for fleet service clerks. For those, management sought either to create a new lower-paying job classification or, its preference, outsource low-skilled jobs to outside contractors.

• Does American plan near-term reductions in capacity? American has a large number of jets that it has negotiated an extension in time (beyond last Friday) to make a decision to keep or give back. Its ability to negotiate really deep reductions in lease rates or loan costs could affect its decision to ground or fly many of those airplanes.

• What are the plans for American Eagle? How big will it be? What airplanes will it fly? What are the plans to spin it off post-bankruptcy?

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/01/what-we-think-american-airline.html
"What will be revealed?", indeed. That sounds much more like a trailer for a soap opera or "C" grade Sci-Fi movie.

All you need now is the sound of a creaking door or something like it.

You also forgot the part about "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth", in the rhetoric.