Corporate Welfare Continues

[Decision 2004]

NOW A BIGGER ELECTRIC BILL...

PSO Proposes Rate Cut For American Airlines
Wednesday September 01, 2004 5:40pm

AEP Proposal Would Give American Airlines 15-Percent Discount


Tulsa - It could cost you more to turn on the lights to brighten the forecast for Tulsa's largest employer. PSO wants to give American Airlines a fifteen percent rate cut. But, that means its other customers will pay more. That news is turning some customers off.

PSO says it will only cost the average residential customer about a dime per month. But, some say it's the principal of the thing. Since American Airlines first threatened to pull out of Tulsa a year ago, workers have taken pay cuts and taxpayers voted to tax themselves. Now, the power company wants to save them more by raising other customers' electric bills.

Tanning beds are just the start of what Melody Isaacs plugs in every day at Raze of Beauty Salon in Owasso.

"Washer and dryer that never stops, six stylists that run the hair dryers all the time," she says.

The last thing she wants to do is see her electric bill rise.

"I feel like I pay enough as it is," she says.

It costs Isaacs a lot to plug everything in every day. Her June electric bill was more than a thousand dollars. But, it could go up another couple dollars or so if the power company gives Tulsa's biggest employer a rate cut.

PSO says to save American Airlines a million dollars a year on utility costs, other customers should pay more. And, it's all about saving eight thousand jobs at American.

"They have indicated this is an important piece of the overall puzzle in keeping them here," says PSO President Stuart Solomon. "Is it the only thing? Certainly not. Certainly, the Vision 2025 vote was important."

Melody Isaacs voted for that taxpayer-funded economic incentive package that included 22-million dollars for American. After all, she has a lot of customers who work there.

"I value their business," she says. "But, I won't have a business if we have to keep on picking up when big companies leave off."

She thought American was already committed to staying in Tulsa. But now, she wonders what will be asked of her next.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission still has to approve the proposal. Some opponents include some American Airlines maintenance workers. One worker who took a 20-percent cut in pay and lost five vacation days says he's tired of contributing and asks how long is this going to continue?

It's not just Tulsa that would be impacted. The less than one-percent increase proposal would affect all Oklahoma PSO customers. The more than 500-thousand customers live in about 230 communities throughout the state.

 

[Bob Owens]

NOW A BIGGER ELECTRIC BILL...

PSO Proposes Rate Cut For American Airlines
Wednesday September 01, 2004 5:40pm

AEP Proposal Would Give American Airlines 15-Percent Discount


Tulsa - It could cost you more to turn on the lights to brighten the forecast for Tulsa's largest employer. PSO wants to give American Airlines a fifteen percent rate cut. But, that means its other customers will pay more. That news is turning some customers off.

PSO says it will only cost the average residential customer about a dime per month. But, some say it's the principal of the thing. Since American Airlines first threatened to pull out of Tulsa a year ago, workers have taken pay cuts and taxpayers voted to tax themselves. Now, the power company wants to save them more by raising other customers' electric bills.

Tanning beds are just the start of what Melody Isaacs plugs in every day at Raze of Beauty Salon in Owasso.

"Washer and dryer that never stops, six stylists that run the hair dryers all the time," she says.

The last thing she wants to do is see her electric bill rise.

"I feel like I pay enough as it is," she says.

It costs Isaacs a lot to plug everything in every day. Her June electric bill was more than a thousand dollars. But, it could go up another couple dollars or so if the power company gives Tulsa's biggest employer a rate cut.

PSO says to save American Airlines a million dollars a year on utility costs, other customers should pay more. And, it's all about saving eight thousand jobs at American.

"They have indicated this is an important piece of the overall puzzle in keeping them here," says PSO President Stuart Solomon. "Is it the only thing? Certainly not. Certainly, the Vision 2025 vote was important."

Melody Isaacs voted for that taxpayer-funded economic incentive package that included 22-million dollars for American. After all, she has a lot of customers who work there.

"I value their business," she says. "But, I won't have a business if we have to keep on picking up when big companies leave off."

She thought American was already committed to staying in Tulsa. But now, she wonders what will be asked of her next.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission still has to approve the proposal. Some opponents include some American Airlines maintenance workers. One worker who took a 20-percent cut in pay and lost five vacation days says he's tired of contributing and asks how long is this going to continue?

It's not just Tulsa that would be impacted. The less than one-percent increase proposal would affect all Oklahoma PSO customers. The more than 500-thousand customers live in about 230 communities throughout the state.

[post="174984"][/post]​

Sounds like another scam to me. They claim that they have to raise everyone else up to save AA one million but more than likely they will end up getting a lot more than the million that they discounted to AA.

 

[Checking it Out]

The one million cost savings will not help AA. AA will ultimately have to survive its own demise. The public is going to have to be willing to pay more for the right to fly. If they are unwilling to pay, than AA will fall like so many in the past.

Wages and benefits are comparable to the rest of the Industry, That is not the answer. The old way of doing business needs to change!

 

[Hopeful]

CIO:

Youa re right about ticket prices HAVING to be increased. Plain and simple!

Look at the last increase initiated by AA. All the majors followed suit except the LCCs. If they too increased their fares by the same amount, ALL airlines would see an increase in revenue. It is plain to see that the Jetblues and Southwests want to hasten the demise of the majors!

Neeleman of Jetblue smiles an awful lot while hoping more of the majors go out of business and as the experienced employees hit the street, he's there with applicationsfor Jetblue employment.

 

[Bob Owens]

The one million cost savings will not help AA. AA will ultimately have to survive its own demise. The public is going to have to be willing to pay more for the right to fly. If they are unwilling to pay, than AA will fall like so many in the past.

Wages and benefits are comparable to the rest of the Industry, That is not the answer. The old way of doing business needs to change!

[post="175172"][/post]​

You are wrong again CIO. The TWU represented workers at AA make less than the most of the Industry.

We are the only unionized workforce that has as little as one week of paid vacation and the only ground workers that get half pay for only five holidays. Even non-union Delta gets double time for the holidays because they get Eight hours pay for working then 8 more hours of Comp time. TWU members get only four hours pay for working eight hours on the holiday, of which there are only five instead of the Industry standard of 10.

Why should AA change the way they do things when all they have to do is make a call to the TWU?

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

If AA would implement the COLA they could install airconditioning in Tulsa and still give us our 25 dollar bonus every month.

 

[Bob Owens]

CIO:

Youa re right about ticket prices HAVING to be increased. Plain and simple!

Look at the last increase initiated by AA. All the majors followed suit except the LCCs. If they too increased their fares by the same amount, ALL airlines would see an increase in revenue. It is plain to see that the Jetblues and Southwests want to hasten the demise of the majors!

Neeleman of Jetblue smiles an awful lot while hoping more of the majors go out of business and as the experienced employees hit the street, he's there with applicationsfor Jetblue employment.

[post="175194"][/post]​

Hopeful dont buy into that blame the LCC scam. Look at our flights, they are full. All the LCCs combined only carry 20% of the passengers, if they are full what are the other 80 % going to do?

The fact is that the big guys can, and probably will wipe them out when they feel like it, but not until they have sqeezed their employees an who ever else as much as they possibly can.

The airlines are cash cows for the people who own the stuff that airlines lease. So even if the airline never shows a profit-SO WHAT! Those guys are still making their money. This includes Banks, that own the planes, municipalities, that own the airports and all the other other companies that the airlines deal with. The less we get paid, the less the airlines can charge for tickets, expand air travel and then lease more aircraft.

How much does AA pay Sabre, a company that was established with AA funds? I know they are making money. I still get my dividend check from them. (The whole 22 cents)

This scam has been going on for a long time. It lets them rake in the cash-at our expense, while providing cheap air travel to the public. All thec money gets siphoned away, then they tell the people who sacrifice their lives to provide the service that there is no money left for them!

Many years ago I worked for Capital. I remember us getting Aircraft that Laker was using, it was a DC-10. Worth millions of dollars. They took off the laker colors and painted Capitol Air on it. A few years later I was working at LGA for AA when I found out that that the aircraft that I was working on now was painted in AA colors. Same airplane, three different airlines. Do you think the group that owns that, and many other airplanes really cares what color they are painted? They dont care about any color except green.

You have to remember that things work differently for corporations and workers. As a worker you can only do one thing at a time. So you are limited to increasing your income by increasing your hourly rate or working more hours but you are limited, because you can only work so many hours. However a corporation or business has no defined limit of increasing income. They can increase price or volume. Lets say a bank own 10 airplanes and leases them for $1million a year. They get $10 million a year from leases. However if they can increase demand for those leases and lease 50 airplanes for $1 million they can make $50 million. Its still seeing a growing income. Even if they cut the lease rate in half, they will still see lease income increase by 15 Million, of course we are not taking into account the fact that they are buying those aircraft, but then again the person who made and sold them the aircraft probably is paying off a loan, with interest to the same institution. But the point is that a lot of other people benifit from a growing airline industry, airline employees should not be the ones financing it.

The cheap air travel provided by our low wages, (and despite what the TWU tells you they are low, over 40% lower than they were twenty years ago without even taking into account increased productivity), then creates demand for more leased aircraft. Another WIN -WIN, in other words we lose double! The government likes it because Air travel stimulates spending, provides more demand for aircraft from Boeing-more jobs, plus the kickbacks that politicians get from the interested monied parties. The business unions are bought off with the "Hey airline workers make more than the National Average and if you work with us you will get more dues paying members". The volume of members more than makes up for the reduced amount of dues per member.



The fact is we have been through this cycle twice already since deregulation. The LCCs that go head to head with the majors will dissaprear once again just like Laker, Peoples Express etc. The companies that own the planes the LCCs have will them add them to those that they lease to the majors. The problem that we have is that the organizations that we pay to protect us have instead aligned themselves with those that wish to exploit us. Unions like the TWU have no problem doing this, the leaders can not be held accountable, they get their raises despite getting us paycuts, and the only thing they have to fear is an election for a new union.Thats where their "political muscle" kicks in. They use our funds, through COPE and other sources to deny us the ability to hold them accountable. They do this by lobbying to get "friendly" people appointed to the NMB.

Forget the smoke and mirrors that the Unions and the companies have set up for airline employees. The fact is your eyes are not decieving you. Tose thousands of peoplke you see every day are dumping tons of cash into the airlines and all they get is moved from here to there. The problem is that everyone else gets to take out their share of the money first, and they dont want to leave anything for us. Like I said before the business unions have been bought off through either outright bribes like the $3.1 million that the TWU gets, or the bribe of more dues paying members.

 

[twuer]

From Bob......Hopeful dont buy into that blame the LCC scam.


Once again this proves that the only opinion that ever matters and the only person who is ever right about ANYTHING is Bob Owens. How many times do I need to tell you people. DON'T STATE WHAT YOU BELIEVE ON THESE BOARDS!!! Bob Owens is in the house!!!! He knows everything about everything!!!!!!!



Ooooh!!!! You give me goosebumps Bobby!!!!

 

[Hackman]

From Bob......Hopeful dont buy into that blame the LCC scam.
Once again this proves that the only opinion that ever matters and the only person who is ever right about ANYTHING is Bob Owens. How many times do I need to tell you people. DON'T STATE WHAT YOU BELIEVE ON THESE BOARDS!!! Bob Owens is in the house!!!! He knows everything about everything!!!!!!!
Ooooh!!!! You give me goosebumps Bobby!!!!

[post="175308"][/post]​

Aw, is twuer tired of Bob's facts and figures that show how the twu has failed for 20 years? I know its hard being a twu cultist, but we have hope for ya twuer.

Sooner or later twuer, and those blind like you, have got to see the twu for what it is; a failed industrial union that has done nothing but take our money and refuse to fight this company.

It has to change, and there is only one way the twu will change........to dump them and go AMFA.

 

[Decision 2004]

From Bob......Hopeful dont buy into that blame the LCC scam.
Once again this proves that the only opinion that ever matters and the only person who is ever right about ANYTHING is Bob Owens. How many times do I need to tell you people. DON'T STATE WHAT YOU BELIEVE ON THESE BOARDS!!! Bob Owens is in the house!!!! He knows everything about everything!!!!!!!
Ooooh!!!! You give me goosebumps Bobby!!!!

[post="175308"][/post]​

Is that the best you guys have left?

You are beat!

 

[Checking it Out]

Bob, you don't have a clue what you are talking about!!!!

 

[Decision 2004]

Bob, you don't have a clue what you are talking about!!!!

[post="175421"][/post]​

Based on my reading of this bulletin board, Bob Owens' accuracy in postings compared to your own is overwhelming, and I am convinced that you are the clueless one.

 

[Buck]

Bob, you don't have a clue what you are talking about!!!!

[post="175421"][/post]​

Ok you clue us in CIO?

 

[High Speed Steel]

Based on my reading of this bulletin board, Bob Owens' accuracy in postings compared to your own is overwhelming, and I am convinced that you are the clueless one.

[post="175429"][/post]​

Take off the shades wise one..! "Lord Tabloid Bob", has limited documentation to support his claims. Like the 3.1 million/billion he keeps jabbering about...!!! YAP/YAP/YAP....Duhhhhhhh
:wacko: :bleh: :wacko:

---------------------------
amfa: The YUGO of the labor movement
Where bargaining means YOU GO....!

 

[Oneflyer]

The old way of doing business needs to change!

You don't want that change, the new way of business will involve a lot less of you union folk, doing a lot more work in a very different pay structure(Think incentive based pay).