American Airline Pilots' Slowdown Wins a Victory, Despite What You Read in the DMN

[Super FLUF]

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/09/american_airline_pilots_slowdo.php



American Airline Pilots' Slowdown Wins a Victory, Despite What You Read in the DMN
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[background=transparent]Mitchell Schnurman is a really good business reporter. [/background]The Dallas Morning News[background=transparent] scored a major coup recently when it hired him away from the [/background]Fort Worth Star-Telegram[background=transparent]. He's an ace, the a[/background][background=transparent]But as we see again in today's paper, Schnurman is strangely obtuse when he starts handing out moral advice to the rank and file. Schnurman [/background]posts yet another[background=transparent] in what is fast becoming a regular series of preachy epistles to the pilots union, scolding them for their rogue slowdown action at American Airlines.[/background][/background][background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]
[background=transparent]
He says, "The negative publicity couldn't be much worse, as cancellations made national and local headlines. ... Plenty of pilots who are doing their jobs must be embarrassed, too. They often talk about getting the respect they deserve, especially from management, but these tactics put their interests ahead of everyone else's."[/background][background=transparent]
Funny. For all this finger-wagging and tch-tching in the paper this morning, I still don't see the real story about American Airlines. I am scouring my very expensive print version of the paper. Nope. Not there. I go back over the web page as well, navigating around the "Ask Mitch Manners" column to look for some news.[/background][background=transparent]
No. Not there, either. Maybe they'll move themselves to get it up by the time my item gets posted on Unfair Park.[/background]So as a last resort I go to my usual source for big Dallas business stories that the local paper doesn't like: The Christian Science Monitor. Sure. There it is, big and bold! I thought I saw that mentioned on TV just before the lights went out in my head last night: Management at American has agreed to go back to the bargaining table with the pilots![background=transparent]
[background=transparent]That's the real story today. That's the news. The headline at the top of the front page of any honest morning paper in this town today should be: IT WORKED![/background][/background][background=transparent]
Damn straight. By dragging the company out to the edge of the cliff -- and only by that! -- the pilots have been able to push a stubborn management team off its arrogant dime. Management was determined to cover its own incompetence with blood drained from the pilots' contract. The pilots showed them that the blood would be their own.[/background][background=transparent]
Is that really how it's done? Do you really threaten to harm the company if they won't talk? Do you really threaten to shut it down? Of course you do! How in the hell do we think labor ever got management to talk in the first place?[/background][background=transparent]
The labor movement and unions in this country have weakened to the point of near extinction in the last 20 years because union members have lost the courage and resolve that the American Airlines pilots found again in this dispute.[/background][background=transparent]
It ain't tiddlywinks. Americans were able to form unions and fight for decent pay in the first place only because workers weren't afraid of an ultimate shootout. They had the courage to go out to that line and face the management goons sent there to beat and even kill them, if that's what it took.[/background][background=transparent]
Maybe it's time for working and middle class Americans to stop bitching about the plague of income disparity gnawing at the very fiber of our society. Maybe it's time people remembered that in this world you get what you're willing to fight for.[/background][background=transparent]
Not take. Not steal. Fight for. An honest day's wages for an honest day's work. And when management, acting under Wall Street rules, tries to turn that principle on its head -- comes up with a plan by which the CEO gets a larcenous bonus for doing a lousy job while labor gets the shaft -- then, yes, labor has to be ready to toe that ultimate line.[/background][background=transparent]
In today's America on any given day, it can seem like management has all the tricks and the ammo. They rewrite the laws themselves. They stack the courts with cronies. And they fill their newspapers with propaganda.[/background][background=transparent]
But as the American Airlines pilots have reminded us, labor always has the ultimate weapon. The one leverage. The last resort.[/background][background=transparent]
Shut it down.[/background][/background]

 

[Rogallo]

Damn right It Worked

 

[Mach85ER]

Not quite.

At the moment, I bet it's another tactic to deflate the pilots with "calm down, see, I am willing to talk".

Smisek just tried that with the UAL pilots. They took a strike vote, picketed and had NMB pressure, then comes their AIP (Agreement in Principle). Not long after while writing actual language, they start lying, delaying and stonewalling again. Word is the NMB was forced to get involved again and is pissed at Management.

 

[AA-MRO.COM]

You mean drag out more negotiations... they wouldnt do that....

 

[DNTULSA]

AA can afford to give the pilots a better contract than the LBO. They can use the money AA saved when they shafted the workers who belong to the twu! They did it with the twu's help.

 

[1AA]

The pilots deserve more than the last offer. They are putting up a fight. We deserve what the company threw at us because we were unable to fight with the worthless TWU in charge. Screw all you TWU die hards!! Support the Pilots. The more write ups the more work we have. More overtime and field trips. Layoffs are coming soon. Make as much as you can and thank the pilots for fattening up your pay checks in the mean time. Party will be over come December. Direct your anger at the TWU and the company but do your job as expected. The Pilots are our fellow employees and they are fighting our fight that we were unable to do so check the attitude at the jet bridge door. After all this is over jobs might be spared after all the bad publicity that AA is getting. I'm not putting the Pilots on a pedestal just pointing out that they are fighting corporate greed and it may help us as well down the line. Time will tell.

 

[BoeingBoy]

It's one thing to fight "corporate greed" and another to brag about how the success of a job action on a public forum. There could be a TRO request just waiting to be filed...

Jim

 

[1AA]

It's one thing to fight "corporate greed" and another to brag about how the success of a job action on a public forum. There could be a TRO request just waiting to be filed...

Jim

A TRO against what? Broken aircraft? A TRO would just make things worse then I agree we will be another Eastern.

 

[BoeingBoy]

No, a TRO for changes in past practice. A so-called "work to book" campaign can result in a TRO. Remember, all the company has to show is that the pattern of write-ups changed when the pilot's contract was changed - minor items written up at departure time or at non-maintenance stations, etc to deliberately delay a flight. The APA is left stuck between arguing that it's members either weren't following the FAR's before the contract was abrogated (carrying minor write-ups) or are engaging in an illegal job action now. Bragging about the success of an illegal job action just makes the company's case for them. Super FLUF should know better.

Just ask USAPA or any US East pilot about TRO's and permanent injunctions...heck, ask the APA about the fine levied for an illegal job action. As I recall, that was the result of a sickout - what---a TRO against being sick??? Absolutely.

Jim

 

[WorldTraveler]

Not quite.

At the moment, I bet it's another tactic to deflate the pilots with "calm down, see, I am willing to talk".

Smisek just tried that with the UAL pilots. They took a strike vote, picketed and had NMB pressure, then comes their AIP (Agreement in Principle). Not long after while writing actual language, they start lying, delaying and stonewalling again. Word is the NMB was forced to get involved again and is pissed at Management.

it is precisely because AA pilots can see that UA mgmt ended that company's operational problems in part by promising a better contract - yes there are many different issues between AA and UA including the computer issues and lack of integration planning - only to pull the rug out from under the pilots.

Yes, you could argue that the sudden increase in maintenance calls by pilots was a result of a job action but there are a whole lot of other moving parts that no one is acknowleding might contribute to the problem including reducing parts inventory, having the company constantly changing their mine whether they are going to keep specific aircraft - and thus require maintenance on aircraft the company was ready to get rid of, plus affecting thousands of people by WARN letters..... the US and UA situations weren't at all comparable in that regard.. .and APA would very much be justified in arguing there are alot of other moving parts that must be considered for AA's operational problems.

I'm not arguing for or against any one side but simply saying that AA's BK is complex and difficult as some expected it to be....

but it is also true that if there was an intent to put financial pressure on AA, it is there perhaps more than ever in this BK.

 

[NYer]

It's interesting how some of you are counting victory for a group that has yet to get a victory. Last November they stalled their talks and the American filed for Bankruptcy. During this process they were offered 17% cuts, turned that down and now are in the middle of taking 20% cuts. They may have put together a little protest to get back to the table that has always been available to them.

Where is the victory? I understand the anti-TWU sentiment and the hope someone else get something better so you can make your point, but what you're doing is further pushing yourselves away from reality. Nothing positive has happened! Yet.

 

[Mach85ER]

It's one thing to fight "corporate greed" and another to brag about how the success of a job action on a public forum. There could be a TRO request just waiting to be filed...

Jim

He just did a cut-n-paste with an article.

The only thing he did was violate the copyright of the original article.

As for write ups, I'm sure the company can claim a deliberate change in behavior. I would argue that exactly when does the court gain jurisdiction over employee morale.

Maybe the pilots aren't showing enough devotion for "the dear leader" like a North Korean parade, and can be sent for re-education.

Me? canned a flight a couple of days ago. Maybe the judge can hold me in contempt for not contiuing a takeoff with a Red Master Caution Warning.

AA pilots have carried write ups in the past. AA has responded by cutting outstation mechanics and parts. Any court is free to contact me.

 

[1AA]

No, a TRO for changes in past practice. A so-called "work to book" campaign can result in a TRO. Remember, all the company has to show is that the pattern of write-ups changed when the pilot's contract was changed - minor items written up at departure time or at non-maintenance stations, etc to deliberately delay a flight. The APA is left stuck between arguing that it's members either weren't following the FAR's before the contract was abrogated (carrying minor write-ups) or are engaging in an illegal job action now. Bragging about the success of an illegal job action just makes the company's case for them. Super FLUF should know better.

Just ask USAPA or any US East pilot about TRO's and permanent injunctions...heck, ask the APA about the fine levied for an illegal job action. As I recall, that was the result of a sickout - what---a TRO against being sick??? Absolutely.

Jim

Past practices like changing a DC-10 engine together with the Pylon attached instead of following the MM? Oh I get it now.

 

[1AA]

It's interesting how some of you are counting victory for a group that has yet to get a victory. Last November they stalled their talks and the American filed for Bankruptcy. During this process they were offered 17% cuts, turned that down and now are in the middle of taking 20% cuts. They may have put together a little protest to get back to the table that has always been available to them.

Where is the victory? I understand the anti-TWU sentiment and the hope someone else get something better so you can make your point, but what you're doing is further pushing yourselves away from reality. Nothing positive has happened! Yet.

Wars are won one battle at a time. Give it time. We will see how better or worse they come out of this.

 

[Phoenix]

A TRO against what? Broken aircraft? A TRO would just make things worse then I agree we will be another Eastern.

Boeing Boy doesn't understand that a TRO would piss off the APA pilots enough to do something really operationally ugly. He never worked for a group with any unity or backbone.