and still nothing for the peons....

[700UW]

so Parker can accept his entire salary in stock incentives but he can't pay even 1% of frontline salaries in profit sharing.

If they did, AA employees should be in the upper tier of airline employees but they are not.


not paying profit sharing is a nice strategy to keep AA employees paid below average and has nothing to do with the stated reason of not being a fair or just way to pay AA employees.

and although AA doesn't have hedging losses but it will report lower passenger revenue as a result of lower capacity and lower RASM


and tell us how much Parker made at US.


to cry that he is making less than executives at DL or UA is a crock given how much more he is making compared to what he made at US.

A lot of CEOs in industry do this.
 
When Jim Rogers was CEO of Duke Energy, he didnt take a salary, he took it all in stock incentives.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Very few CEOs in any industry are completely paid in variable compensation. Some yes, anywhere close to the majority, no.

and again, it makes a mockery of the claim that variable compensation is inappropriate in an level for frontline employees.

Even given Parker's tax position, he wouldn't do it if he didn't expect to do very well based solely on variable compensation.

He is doing it because consolidation has provided a very strong future for the US airline industry and all of the big 4 will do very well in the years to come.

 

[usa1]

I wish they would use some of their new found wealth to stop the outsourcing, and bring back our ramp employees. Give them a pay scale that leads to a middle class life style. It's what our economy needs more than anything. In the long run, a better economy even benefits the company.

 

[WeAAsles]

For people who hold shares in AAL this news about Parker is a good thing. Yes he holds a lot of shares now but I'm sure he would like more and setting it to the airline having to meet certain metrics insures that if those metrics are met, he and the shareholders will be rewarded handsomely for it. As an employee if the airline does well it means they pay down dept and cement a foundation that can be capitalized on in the future even if employees prefer not to invest in the company themselves.

As far as Profit Sharing or any revenue gain sharing programs it's an illusion that it necessarily has to be part of any contract to be implemented and doled out.  The company can do many things with profit. Pay down debt, make Capital improvements, reward shareholders through dividend increases, save for rainy days ahead, and dole some of that out to their employees to create a more invested and focused workforce. 

I personally have no interest in wanting to be compensated the way DL's non Union employees are currently being compensated. On a FB group page many FA's have been posting actual screenshots of their Medical and Prescription costs and they are incredibly outrageous. What it shows is that those employees are 1 medical issue away from seeing their entire PS check being reduced to zero to fund their conditions. It's a shell game, in one pocket and out the other. I prefer direct wages that I can count on when I go to a bank to secure a loan and a lower reasonable out of pocket medical plan that isn't going to propel me into personal bankruptcy to possibly save my life.

Now back to profit sharing again for a moment. Here's an article from Feb 4, 2015 that proves that a company can do whatever it wants in regards to how it doles out PS even if it is in a CBA. Also again PS does not have to be in a CBA to be given if the company feels so inclined.

 
"On Wednesday, G.M. chose to once again open its checkbook. For the first time since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009, when it received a $49 billion bailout from taxpayers, G.M. gave its 48,000 union workers a bonus greater than their contract called for.
 
Each worker will receive up to a record $9,000 in profit-sharing, even though the company’s actual profits were diminished by the cost of more than 80 recalls and warranted a payment that would be about $2,400 smaller."
 
"G.M. said that its ultimate decision was not based on a formula in the contract. Instead, the company said that the $9,000 figure was a combination of regular profit-sharing in addition to a $2,000 performance bonus.
The additional bonus was highly unusual, said Art Schwartz, a labor consultant who worked for G.M. for more than 20 years. But it represented something of an admission that G.M. management had caused the company’s safety woes, he said, and not the workers on the line."

 
“It’s an acknowledgment of that,” he said. “If nothing else, it is a good-will gesture that takes the whole recall issue out of the equation.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/business/gm-reports-2-8-billion-profit-in-2014.html?_r=0

 

[AANOTOK]

And I continue to wait on my .92 CENTS (4%)

 

[WorldTraveler]

good perspective but recalls are a part of the cost of doing business and GM had every legal right to factor them into what is paid in profit sharing.

Obviously the part that GM did that was above and beyond was to admit that the employees should not pay for the recalls with reduced profit sharing. That is big and says that GM doesn't want to foster the same contentious labor-mgmt. type of conflict that has hurt the auto industry just as it has the legacy airline carriers in the past.

but hoping that AA or any other US airline will dole out profit sharing just because employees are paid below average compensation compared to their peers is more than a stretch.

AA hasn't made any strategic errors that are costing its employees any compensation. AA and the unions specifically agreed to exclude profit sharing at a time when the AA/US merger was the final step in industry consolidation that would dramatically improve profitability in the industry.

what is clear with today's round of earnings announcements and will be seen tomorrow from AA is that low fuel prices are more than enough to offset weakened int'l demand and those low fuel costs are allowing carriers to expand their networks, even if they won't admit they are adding capacity to do so.

EVERY US carrier is reducing capacity in its strength markets to force fares up and then adding new capacity in other markets where they need a larger strategic presence. Wall Street analysts aren't dinging carriers for that - and they shouldn't. but the US airline industry is heavily controlled by a few very rational players and lower fuel prices that should last for at least a year or more will fuel strong profits.

While airlines are giving some wage increases to employees, it is ONLY those that are receiving profit sharing that will tap directly into the profits the company makes TODAY - but which could very well not be as large tomorrow - or those airlines could roll some of that profit sharing into base salary.... while it's hard to predict the future, it is clear that airline employees that have profit sharing will do proportionately better than those who do not have it.

and profit sharing can very well be designed to be paid on operating income which employees do control and before special items like stock buybacks and debt repayment etc.
That is precisely how DL profit sharing is calculated which is why there have been quarters where DL's profit sharing was more than its net income.

 

[WeAAsles]

Didn't care to mention those Medical and Prescription costs I see? Duly noted.

 

[WeAAsles]

And I continue to wait on my .92 CENTS (4%)

Carrot on a stick. Meant for you to push your negotiating teams to get a deal done and hopefully be used to get something by you in the middle of the contract. That .92 cents doesn't mean anything if something in your CBA causes you to lose .93 cents such as medical expenses. 

 

[eolesen]

Now back to profit sharing again for a moment. Here's an article from Feb 4, 2015 that proves that a company can do whatever it wants in regards to how it doles out PS even if it is in a CBA. Also again PS does not have to be in a CBA to be given if the company feels so inclined.

I just don't see this management team doing anything like GM did out of the goodness of their pocketbooks, but I'd be thrilled for you guys to have them prove me wrong.

Just to keep things in perspective... Parker zeroing out his cash salary only frees up about $7-10 per active employee. That's on an annual basis, not hourly.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Didn't care to mention those Medical and Prescription costs I see? Duly noted.

Medical costs have gone up for ALL Americans and they will continue to do so. Airlines don't provide medical services so health care costs for airlines is essentially the same (airline employee populations are essentially large enough for employee health care issues to be statistically identical). If a carrier absorbs costs for one item, they come out of some other "bucket"

AA employees are still lower paid than their peers at DL, UA, and WN based on SEC reports.

to pretend otherwise or to believe that profit sharing at US airlines that have it is not paying far more than increased medical costs is simply factually incorrect.

 

[WeAAsles]

I just don't see this management team doing anything like GM did out of the goodness of their pocketbooks, but I'd be thrilled for you guys to have them prove me wrong.

Just to keep things in perspective... Parker zeroing out his cash salary only frees up about $7-10 per active employee. That's on an annual basis, not hourly.

Absolutely not anything that I would expect this early after the merger and still with a lot of debt that needs to be drawn down. Not PS at least. I can see a much better revenue gain sharing program in the future that ties that extra compensation to hitting performance goals though. That's just smart business sense.

Second part. Of course correct.

 

[WeAAsles]

Medical costs have gone up for ALL Americans and they will continue to do so. Airlines don't provide medical services so health care costs for airlines is essentially the same (airline employee populations are essentially large enough for employee health care issues to be statistically identical). If a carrier absorbs costs for one item, they come out of some other "bucket"

AA employees are still lower paid than their peers at DL, UA, and WN based on SEC reports.

to pretend otherwise or to believe that profit sharing at US airlines that have it is not paying far more than increased medical costs is simply factually incorrect.

Not going to argue with you because when facts are presented to you they become irrelevant to the agenda you want to propel here. I simply really don't want to entertain the little game you play any longer. It gives me indigestion.

 

[FWAAA]

I'm happy for the GM workers, but let's not read too much into GM's decision, which was essentially to categorize the recall expenses (correctly, IMO) as "extraordinary" or "special" items, which most profit sharing formulas already would have done. If GM could have included those recall expenses to reduce the "profit" on which the profit sharing was based, that just shows the incompetence of the UAW negotiators.

 

[dfw gen]

American Airlines posts record $932 million profit, nearly double 2014’s first quarter
 
 
and STILL NOTHING FOR THE PEONS.............

 

[Black Magic]

Yep..makes the delta plus 7% look like crumbs on the table for the employee groups. I tried to tell people this but....