Attention AA employees: be wary of union leaders who play loose with facts

[FWAAA]

In the APA's lengthy release to members today, this "factoid" stands out:

As you may have seen, AMR Chairman Tom Horton has publicly stated that he would consider a merger after American Airlines exits bankruptcy. There is a logical explanation for his position. If history is any guide, management would own a large share of the company upon exit from bankruptcy. By way of example, Glen Tilton and his management group emerged from bankruptcy with a 15 percent ownership of United Airlines. We can therefore expect that AMR management would reward themselves handsomely when the company has completed restructuring. There is an enormous financial incentive for senior management to resist merging while in bankruptcy, as their control over the corporation would be jeopardized by an agreement with US Airways, threatening their ability to “cash in” following American Airlines’ emergence from Chapter 11. Clearly we can expect significant opposition to what your APA leadership believes to be the best course of action for our collective futures.

https://public.alliedpilots.org/apa/AboutAPA/APAPublicNews/tabid/843/ctl/ArticleView/mid/1983/articleId/1100/AA-US-Airways-Our-Best-Alternative.aspx

Only problem with the bolded portion is that someone is playing fast and loose with the facts. UA management asked for 15% of the stock but after universal outrage at that demand (even from Republicans), management backed off and settled for 8%.

United defended the plan as reasonable and customary for a company emerging from bankruptcy. It cut the stock distribution last week to 10 million shares, or 8 percent of the company, after creditors objected to the initial proposal of 18.75 million shares, or 15 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/business/worldbusiness/18iht-ual.html

My point for this thread: this error stood out and was obvious for anyone who was paying attention when UA emerged from Ch 11. Debunking it required almost no effort. If you can't be trusted with such easy-to-verify facts, which other numbers in this release were not subjected to any scrutiny? I'd be pissed if my union leadership were so daft. The US deal may very well be the best alternative out there. But the APA shouldn't resort to misleading and false "facts" to sell it to its membership.

 

[737823]

Union leaders spreading fear, intimidation and misinformation? Who would have known.

Josh

 

[AA89]

Thanks for the information but...........
Who can say if this was done on purpose? I'm not a flight attentdant or too familiar with their leadership but I would think that more than likely it was an honest mistake. As you say, it was easily proven so why would they take that chance and wouldn't 8% managemant ownership piss off just as many as 15% management ownership?

The greed is the main issue. Not + or - 7%.
Why are these clowns that lead companies into bankruptcy even allowed to own anything? Aren't their salaries obscene enough?

 

[FWAAA]

Thanks for the information but...........
Who can say if this was done on purpose? I'm not a flight attentdant or too familiar with their leadership but I would think that more than likely it was an honest mistake. As you say, it was easily proven so why would they take that chance and wouldn't 8% managemant ownership piss off just as many as 15% management ownership?

The greed is the main issue. Not + or - 7%.
Why are these clowns that lead companies into bankruptcy even allowed to own anything? Aren't their salaries obscene enough?

The APA is the pilots' union. The APFA is the flight attendant union. This info is from the pilots union, not the FA union.

Was it intentional? I doubt it. More likely, someone remembered the 15% (it garnered lots and lots of media attention) and didn't remember that the percentage was cut nearly in half. It's clear that the author inserted the 15% figure to influence the opinions of the members. Pilots use checklists to avoid making lazy mistakes in flight. They don't just rely on memory for the stuff that matters. Accuracy in this tidbit would have required more than just going by faulty memory. But fact-checking it didn't require hours and hours of digging. Like I said, anyone who paid attention to the UA bankruptcy should have seen the 15% as the initial "ask" and not the result. My google search (to provide a link) took me 15 seconds and returned numerous accurate results.

Is the 8% greedy? Perhaps. Is it significantly different from what US and DL and NW executives all received when those airlines emerged from Ch 11? Nope. DL's former CEO turned down his stock when DL emerged, but the other greedy execs all fed at the trough. If the 8% is too high and is indicative of greed, then it's pretty easy to publish the accurate figure of 8% if it gets the job done. But the lazy writer of this APA release to members was apparently satisfied with the inaccurate 15% instead of the factual 8%.

My question: What other parts of this or other communications reflect the same laziness with being accurate?

 

[xUT]

In the APA's lengthy release to members today, this "factoid" stands out:


https://public.alliedpilots.org/apa/AboutAPA/APAPublicNews/tabid/843/ctl/ArticleView/mid/1983/articleId/1100/AA-US-Airways-Our-Best-Alternative.aspx

Only problem with the bolded portion is that someone is playing fast and loose with the facts. UA management asked for 15% of the stock but after universal outrage at that demand (even from Republicans), management backed off and settled for 8%.

Yes 400 UA 'executives' only received APPROX $480 Million in stocks. But this was not 'common stock', but preferred stock, U know stocks be different N'Chit .
They issued 'some common stock' to us minions in or 401K (which we were allowed to sell with a 4-5 day lag time and fees) but we were 'ESOP/Owners' so we received 'special compensation' LMAO .

IIRC, before BK exit, UA pretty much changed most of the top 400 (Tilton was hired "JUST" before BK).
(I'll always love Tilton as when he shredded our contracts, he proclaimed that his "contract" was iron clad.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/business/worldbusiness/18iht-ual.html

My point for this thread: this error stood out and was obvious for anyone who was paying attention when UA emerged from Ch 11. Debunking it required almost no effort. If you can't be trusted with such easy-to-verify facts, which other numbers in this release were not subjected to any scrutiny? I'd be pissed if my union leadership were so daft. The US deal may very well be the best alternative out there. But the APA shouldn't resort to misleading and false "facts" to sell it to its membership.

Charge the APA with embellishment or poor research, but the top executive class "WILL" fare much better than anyone else.
B) xUT

 

[xUT]

Union leaders spreading fear, intimidation and misinformation? Who would have known.

Josh

Not unlike management spreading fear, intimidation and misinformation.
DOH!

 

[chris perry]

Loose with facts now that's funny!!!, the Company has been stretching the truth on a daily basis...I only believe about 20% of what either says.Union or Company,if their mouths are moving it's pretty much BS.

 

[AA89]

The APA is the pilots' union. The APFA is the flight attendant union. This info is from the pilots union, not the FA union.

Was it intentional? I doubt it. More likely, someone remembered the 15% (it garnered lots and lots of media attention) and didn't remember that the percentage was cut nearly in half. It's clear that the author inserted the 15% figure to influence the opinions of the members. Pilots use checklists to avoid making lazy mistakes in flight. They don't just rely on memory for the stuff that matters. Accuracy in this tidbit would have required more than just going by faulty memory. But fact-checking it didn't require hours and hours of digging. Like I said, anyone who paid attention to the UA bankruptcy should have seen the 15% as the initial "ask" and not the result. My google search (to provide a link) took me 15 seconds and returned numerous accurate results.

Is the 8% greedy? Perhaps. Is it significantly different from what US and DL and NW executives all received when those airlines emerged from Ch 11? Nope. DL's former CEO turned down his stock when DL emerged, but the other greedy execs all fed at the trough. If the 8% is too high and is indicative of greed, then it's pretty easy to publish the accurate figure of 8% if it gets the job done. But the lazy writer of this APA release to members was apparently satisfied with the inaccurate 15% instead of the factual 8%.

My question: What other parts of this or other communications reflect the same laziness with being accurate?

Yeah my bad. I misread it I guess.
Of course it is possible that the number was purposely misrepresented. Or not. Unfortunately it is part of the process to exaggerate facts so who knows for sure. Using a pilot's use of memory recall as proof is kind of a stretch..but ok. I guess if it had been an APFA press release memory recall wouldn't be proof of an intentional exaggeration?
I look forward to more in-depth reporting from you............................. about both sides. Surely you can find some BS the company is purposely spouting.

 

[AANOTOK]

Yeah my bad. I misread it I guess.
Of course it is possible that the number was purposely misrepresented. Or not. Unfortunately it is part of the process to exaggerate facts so who knows for sure. Using a pilot's use of memory recall as proof is kind of a stretch..but ok. I guess if it had been an APFA press release memory recall wouldn't be proof of an intentional exaggeration?
I look forward to more in-depth reporting from you............................. about both sides. Surely you can find some BS the company is purposely spouting.

Leave FWAAA alone. He just has a case of the "White Knight Syndrome".

 

[AA89]

Leave FWAAA alone. He just has a case of the "White Knight Syndrome".

Yeah, I think to most AA employees, the factoid that sticks out of the original APA release would be the ridiculous amount of stock awarded to a management team that did little more than hire consultants to rape employees. 15% or 8%...........it's obscene either way to me.

 

[Mechanic]

Union leaders spreading fear, intimidation and misinformation? Who would have known.

Josh

Sounds just like Wisconsin

 

[eolesen]

Funny, since making the changes the unions were so against, Wisconsin seems to have balanced their budget. More than I can say for the People's Republic of Illinois, where the unions still own Springfield and City Hall.....

Getting back to AA/US.....

Ever hear the story of the scorpion and the frog?

It's clear the unions want to believe that there's a white knight or miracle cure which will avoid what Horton and crew are attempting to do.

I'm not that convinced that this is the best alternative. The only thing that's certain is it's a vote of no confidence. And we already knew the unions had no confidence. This just confirmed it.

 

[Kev3188]

If anyone plays "fast and loose with the facts," it's Walker...

 

[luvthe9]

I bet you will not get a lot of what Parker has promised the APA boys, it might take a few times but the APA will catch on.