To I-trade and Lakeguy67;
To answer questions that you posed on the mechanics may be free to strike,,,,.
Once the economy recovers the airlines will continue to expand, in fact long term shortages of mechanics are still in the forecasts. This is a cyclical industry, always has been. The idea is to make as much as possible while working so you can ride out the layoffs. All the givebacks in the world are not going to keep you employed if people are not flying. If USAIR does go under their mechanics will eventually be picked up by one of the surviving carriers.As I stated before when EAL went under AA hired guys that were very advanced in age. AA has accellerated the construction of thier $1Billion JFK terminal with plans on increasing operations out of JFK.
Lakeguy67, as for your question why did your union insist to staple the TWA employees to the bottom of the seniority rosters, so they get laid off first while junior AA emmployees are still employed? They did this because that is what the members wanted. Over the last few years many TWA workers saw the writing on the wall that the company would fail so they made the jump to AA. Giving up all their seniority and starting at the bottom again. We also saw many workers who had many years at EAL, Pan AM and other carriers that came to AA and started off with nothing. It was felt among the AA workers that TWA workers who failed to read the writing on the wall should not come over to AA and displace an AA worker. AA workers felt that TWA workers were thrown a lifeline in that they were getting full company seniority, full vacations and a $9/hr pay raise, unlike the EAL and Pan AM workers. If AA had not bought TWA these guys would have hit the streets with no recall rights and when they did get reemployment they would have started at the bottom.TWA was losing money in the best of times, TWA would be gone now. Most of the workers at AA would have prefered that we did not buy TWA. We did not benifit from the aquisition of TWA and we certainly dont want to aquire USAIR. The IAM gladly waived their successorship clause because of the huge pension liability they would have had if TWA had defaulted. The IAM could have nixed the whole deal but they were afraid that they would be stuck with the $500 million(?) pension liability (I''m not sure if thats the correct figure but its somewhere around there). So after they sold out, they started to fight for what they gave up. Isnt the IAM seeking a similar pension deal at USAIR?
I-trade, I have just as much right to post here as any one else. Do you work for the airlines? Are you a mechanic? Your name indicates that you are a trader. Perhaps you desire to see airline wages continue to decline so you can make more money on airline stock. Airline stock has been extremely volitile since deregulation and fortunes have been made in this industry by everyone except the people that actually do the work thats required to move $563 Billion passengers a year from point to point. Whats your motive?
To answer questions that you posed on the mechanics may be free to strike,,,,.
Once the economy recovers the airlines will continue to expand, in fact long term shortages of mechanics are still in the forecasts. This is a cyclical industry, always has been. The idea is to make as much as possible while working so you can ride out the layoffs. All the givebacks in the world are not going to keep you employed if people are not flying. If USAIR does go under their mechanics will eventually be picked up by one of the surviving carriers.As I stated before when EAL went under AA hired guys that were very advanced in age. AA has accellerated the construction of thier $1Billion JFK terminal with plans on increasing operations out of JFK.
Lakeguy67, as for your question why did your union insist to staple the TWA employees to the bottom of the seniority rosters, so they get laid off first while junior AA emmployees are still employed? They did this because that is what the members wanted. Over the last few years many TWA workers saw the writing on the wall that the company would fail so they made the jump to AA. Giving up all their seniority and starting at the bottom again. We also saw many workers who had many years at EAL, Pan AM and other carriers that came to AA and started off with nothing. It was felt among the AA workers that TWA workers who failed to read the writing on the wall should not come over to AA and displace an AA worker. AA workers felt that TWA workers were thrown a lifeline in that they were getting full company seniority, full vacations and a $9/hr pay raise, unlike the EAL and Pan AM workers. If AA had not bought TWA these guys would have hit the streets with no recall rights and when they did get reemployment they would have started at the bottom.TWA was losing money in the best of times, TWA would be gone now. Most of the workers at AA would have prefered that we did not buy TWA. We did not benifit from the aquisition of TWA and we certainly dont want to aquire USAIR. The IAM gladly waived their successorship clause because of the huge pension liability they would have had if TWA had defaulted. The IAM could have nixed the whole deal but they were afraid that they would be stuck with the $500 million(?) pension liability (I''m not sure if thats the correct figure but its somewhere around there). So after they sold out, they started to fight for what they gave up. Isnt the IAM seeking a similar pension deal at USAIR?
I-trade, I have just as much right to post here as any one else. Do you work for the airlines? Are you a mechanic? Your name indicates that you are a trader. Perhaps you desire to see airline wages continue to decline so you can make more money on airline stock. Airline stock has been extremely volitile since deregulation and fortunes have been made in this industry by everyone except the people that actually do the work thats required to move $563 Billion passengers a year from point to point. Whats your motive?
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