Dear Mr. Parker:
I am writing to urge American Airlines to stop outsourcing U.S. jobs overseas and to bring jobs back to this country that are critical to the safety of passengers and your employees.
It is my understanding that labor contract negotiations have broken down out of your desire to save money by outsourcing and offshoring nearly 5,000 good-paying jobs. That is unacceptable. American Airlines must stop risking the safety of the flying public and its own workers just to make even more profits.
American Airlines continued failure to negotiate in good faith with its workers is an outrage that needs to come to an end. Instead of recognizing and addressing the concerns of workers, your management team has gone to great lengths to deny workers their rights to organize and bargain collectively and even moved to sue the TWU-IAM Association. In my view, American Airlines must do the right thing and agree on a fair contract to end over three years of limbo it has forced its workers to endure.
Let’s be clear. American Airlines is not a poor, struggling company. It is not going broke. In fact, last year it made $1.9 billion in profits. It had enough money to recently buy back $15 billion of its own stock. And American Airlines is a company that has repeatedly rewarded you with a compensation package as high as $31 million last year.
American Airlines disgraceful attempt to deny its union workers a fair contract is nothing more than corporate greed at its worst.
If American Airlines has enough money to buy back $15 billion of its own stock, it certainly has enough money to pay its union workers a decent wage with good benefits. And under no circumstances should it ever outsource jobs to low-wage countries with a track record of safety violations.
It is time for American Airlines to sit down with its workers in good faith and negotiate a contract that is fair and just for union workers that have made American Airlines the profitable company that it is today.
