Boycott Opening Day Celebrations

[Real tired]

Great post my new co worker !!
 
It's good to know there are at least a few like you left.
 
Happy Holidays.

 

[767one]

 
Gary Drummond put out a letter urging that we Boycott and merger Celebrations out there. His letter focuses of the fact that US management has been stalling for three years in Contract Negotiations. As I said to their management team last year "if you treat your current workers like crap why should we believe you will treat us any better".
 
 
I agree. We should boycott any opening day celebrations. What are we celebrating? The fact that the largest carrier in the world was built upon the ruins of our careers, our hopes and our dreams?
 
AA has us locked into a concessionary deal till the end of 2018, so that makes it at least 15 years of massive concessions which includes the loss of 75 days of Vacation, 150 Holidays, 105 sick days, at least $200,000 in wages, 40,000 jobs, the loss of our Pensions and retiree medical along with dozens of other concessions. We have already seen our Medical go up by 600%. In real terms our compensation has been slashed by over 50% and we are at a very distant last in the industry in every measure of compensation and work rules. From 2003 to 2013 AA saw their revenues soar, in other words the concessions from us were not even needed. Our concessions and in the increased revenues enriched Oil companies, Airports, Bankers and Shareholders of the companies that AA did business with (often one and the same) as they either jacked up their charges or continued collecting revenue on redundant assets (such as Folkers and terminal space in abandoned hubs). Then to top it off, AA sought the assistance of the Federal government to impose even more concessions on us after dragging out No-gotiations for three years,, with the help of some now gone Union officials they managed to intimidate just enough workers to accept six years of even more onerous concessions on top of the 9 they already got.
 
Sure those Union Officials and the old management team are no longer running the place, or so we are told, but the new management team has not treated their workers at US any better than the team at AA treated us. They took their employees through two rounds of BK and for three years have refused to put forth an offer that would bring their employees even close to what other carriers who also went through Bankruptcy are paying. Their suffering started in 2002 and they remain right next to us at the bottom of the industry 11 years later.
 
Without the Merger AA's legal team boasted in court that when they come out of Bankruptcy that they would be earning close top $3 billion a year in profits, that's with a carrier that would have been 28% smaller than what they have formed, and on top of paying the lowest wages with the worst benefits the NEW AA will remain the only carrier to not even offer their workers Profit Sharing.
 
There is nothing to celebrate for us, I would say that if anything we should be wearing black armbands. Sure we will be getting some Equity, but its only a small fraction of what they have taken, and will continue to take.
 
 
 

Bob,
 
Your post is right on the money! I retired last Dec. with 39 yrs. 8 mo. as a pilot and anybody that thinks that the New American is anything other than the latest rendition of USAirways is only fooling themselves. If you expect the worst in labor relations/employee treatment you will for sure not be disappointed.
 
Good luck to all,
 
Bob

 

[767one]

"eolesen"
He is right! The deal is done. If you want to get mad at anyone it should be the ones who took the early out and voted in this contract.
As far as the free food, I'll ship lunch to make extra room for what ever they offer.
As of Monday American Airlines is the same airline, but in name only. We are now US Airways with the AA name.

You are right about  being USAirways with the AA name but if you think that's a good thing you might be unpleasantly surprised in the future because USAirways writes contracts in invisible ink or interprets them out of existance.

 

[OldGuy@AA]

Gee...all of a sudden the TWU are big time unionists?
When they were negotiating with DP and US, did they NOT know that our IAM brothers DID NOT HAVE A CONTRACT FOR QUITE SOME TIME?  
When they negotiated our raise in lieu of profit sharing, did they not know our IAM brothers were being ignored?
This is their big leap into the world of what it means to be a union?
Isn't this the same union that got us to where we are today?
Isn't this the same you union many of us signed other unions' cards to free ourselves from?
 
And all they can come up with is "don't eat the fruit, cookies and cake?"
 
Please,.......

You are correct in every part of your post. I signed cards to rid us of the TWU also. I feel they sold our careers down the river to improve the international's bottom line. I did not boycott to support any worthless union like the TWU. I did it to support my new coworkers from U.S. Air who were ignored in their contract negotiations while they promised the TWU a bone and they jumped at it. I was against this merge from day one. U.S. Air might be the only airline with worse management than AA has/had. But the TWU always wants what is bad for us. I'm sure they saw the U.S. Air guys and saw more members. Again sell us out for head count. But it is possible to stick together on some issues while we disagree who our bargaining agent should be. Like it or not we are all in the same boat now. We hate the TWU, the U.S. Air guys hate the IAM. Hopefully we can get AMFA in before either or both of them can do more damage to our already ruined careers. An overtime ban? The TWU lets management force us to work just by filling out an AOI. Refusing O.T. doesn't mean crap anymore. The fact that some went and ate after they were asked not to just shows they don't care about anything. These are the people we need gone. These people will continue to help the company screw us. They ran out of food in Tulsa TWICE. That is completely disgusting. I just hope these are the guys who hit the street.

 

[cactusturdherder]

"eolesen"
He is right! The deal is done. If you want to get mad at anyone it should be the ones who took the early out and voted in this contract.
As far as the free food, I'll ship lunch to make extra room for what ever they offer.
As of Monday American Airlines is the same airline, but in name only. We are now US Airways with the AA name.

And with that reasoning, US Airways is in name only, that is now America West with the US airways name