7 day coverage does not create work, its a way of dealing with having more work than you can accomplish in 5 days. Not exactly rocket science. But still, the company plays the same games over and over again and some people fall for it over and over again. They are outsourcing and going to seven day coverage so what does that tell you? It sure as hell doesn't mean that at this time the total workload the company has is decreasing. But we do know in the future it will. So if we know that over the next few years the workload will decrease what does increasing capacity now mean? It means we get to the low point that much quicker.
The company wanted 7 day coverage in the bases since negotiations, why? Because its a more efficient use of the facilities. In other words in theory they can get more work done over the same time span in the same amount of space (overhead) that's already paid for. (The pencil pushers assume that people produce the same no matter how they feel they are treated)
Ironically by accomplishing more work in less time, over the long run it will accelerate the shrinking of Tulsa, and it makes it more likely that there will be bigger RIFs in the future. The reason is because workload will diminish as the MD-80s go away and are replaced by new aircraft. If you accelerate the rate at which the MD-80s get cleaned up to be returned to the lessor you are moving the time up where your labor is no longer needed in Tulsa, the only other way they could do this is by working more OT, but this lets them get there without OT, or less of it. Instead of Junior guys going out and filling vacancies on the line they will be working straight time with the senior guys in Tulsa and every hour they work is one less hour the senior guys have in Tulsa. Outsourcing the component work frees up more people to get work that's more difficult to outsource-MD80 Airframe, and allows the company to get rid of these planes as fast as they can get new ones. So if you accelerate the rate to the point where attrition and early outs cant keep pace with the fall in demand then they will have layoffs. Instead of a slow drop, a soft landing, it will fall off a cliff.
Everything about this deal serves the company perfectly, and in the long run hurts the membership. With way below market rates and only one week of vacation AA isn't attracting qualified candidates to fill mechanics positions on the line, so when they need guys on the line, they can simply outsource more component work, or go back to a five day line, sending the bottom guys in Tulsa who now have another year or so under their belt, and have more of an attachment to the company, they hope, out to the line to fill vacancies. The shortage out on the line is there, but its not critical, this deal allows the company to retain the Junior workers they hope will relocate till it becomes critical to use them to fill vacancies on the line. By no means did this secure jobs beyond the retirement of the MD-80s and 757s.
The company is sitting pretty. When you want something from the base with no resistance you simply announce a false RIF, make up a bunch of numbers, throw them out there and make it sound believable, (like the "White spaces" scam of 2009 in Negotiations) you say things that don't add up but they are so panicked they don't bother to question the obvious. If we are having a RIF because workload has diminished how does adding capacity via a seven day line generate more work? PFM. So they get to put in the seven day line, which the contract allows, with not only no resistance but the full support of the union and the Junior guys who think they averted a RIF, even though by doing so they will burn through the work quicker and there is nothing in the pipeline to keep the place open once they do. Sure if they wanted to they could accelerate the pace by laying off and running OT like they used to do in the old days, but that creates several other problems, one, a layoff would cut their younger more productive lower paid workforce, so it would raise costs, it would also require a lot of OT, again raising costs beyond the savings of reducing heads.
So the company didn't work with the Union to save jobs, the Union worked with the company to reduce costs and accelerate the closing or reduction of Tulsa by increasing capacity. Instead of the Junior workers possibly getting laid off now and finding employment with a competitor and retaining recall rights to AA, permanent headcount reductions will come sooner and more senior workers will be hit sooner and harder rather than later when the work dries up. The company got to keep its youngest, lowest paid workers on the property instead of losing them to competitors and AA will get to the point where they will no longer need Tulsa that much sooner without paying tons of OT. So instead of younger workers facing a temporary job loss now, or bumping (filling vacancies ) on the line (I thought they had 400 guys already qualified and ready to go?) or using this as an opportunity to try a job somewhere else while still having recall back to AA, older workers in Tulsa will face permanent job loss that much sooner.
