Executive to be sold (back) to founder Joaquin Bolivar

AA offered the Pilot a 6 percent across the board pay raise retroactive. If the APA would agree to Baseball arbritration. They turned it down and that was pre (/11. Now watch them cry about this new contract they are trying to negotiate. That took a chance before 9/11 and screwed themselves. It makes me smile........................

 

[RV4]

Could it be that AA will soon begin divesting itself of many more Eagle Assets until they merge what is left of Eagle (Regional Jets) into AA and then go head to head with no-frill carriers using RJ's with an AA Tail?

This seems to be an answer to the scope problem that would be win/win for eveyone. With exception of course the ALPA Pilots/FA's. But who knows, given the right circumstances, this could lead to AA Employment for EVERYONE involved.

 

I like the idea of ALPA instead of APA.

Do you have any suggestions on how to replace the APFA

 

[AAmech]

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On 11/7/2002 840 AM G4G5 wrote:



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If this is the case then it won't help AMR's case with the APA's arbitration hearing. If their is an "exclusivity clause" associated with the sale then AMR mgt will have to prove that something has changed. When in fact nothing has changed, executive has always had it's own operating certificate. This may prove to be a major blunder if AMR mgt looses the APA or Eagle pilots Scope arbitration cases. [/P]


Then they will have divested Executive for nothing..........[/P]


Wouldn't it have made more sence to sit down with the APA, 463 days with out a contract and counting. Don, It's not going away just because you sold Executive, all you are doing is adding fuel to a fire.[/P]
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I would think AMR management is smart enough to have thought all that out. The key part is that the AA code will be removed from all those flights. Customers will purchase tickets with an OW code, and the Executive name on them. Without that AA code on the flight the argument that that flying is being outsourced is a weak one.

 

[AirwAr]

I have to admit, I am very disappointed in AA management concerning this topic. Of course I’m disappointed in the APA as well, but that’s to be expected.

I believe the course that management has taken may be a short-term remedy that will do more harm in the long run. This of course is assuming there is not a hidden agenda by management here.

I have not seen it, but my understanding is that the previous scope clause only amounted to a few paragraphs and the current one is multiple pages. Seeing how management tramples on an agreement, it’s not hard to see why the APA wanted to get so much of it in writing. Ok, Ok. Maybe management is following the current scope to the letter of the contract, but to me (and I’m sure, many others), it doesn’t appear to be the spirit of the contract. That “spirit of the law†is exactly what causes distrust between the pilots’ unions and management.

The Eagle pilots put their trust in management, signed a 16 year agreement and believed that management would live up to their end of the bargain. It only seems, however, that management has taken advantage of the agreement. The AX carriers are allowed to operate and even expand in a capacity that rightly should be Eagle’s. Sure Eagle didn’t have enough planes to just step in and take over the routes, but over time, those routes should have been moved to Eagle. Even better, Eagle should have purchased the STL feed. If by chance that was actually management’s intention, I’ve never seen anything published to that fact.

Now as another lesson to the pilot group that put it’s trust in management, management has decided to begin the breakup of the company. What’s next? Spin off Simmons, Flagship, and Wings West into their own companies. These carriers will then become AX carriers, able to expand wildly under their own code. Once this happens, not only will AA be competing with the likes of UA and DL but also it’s own partners, the AX Airline Alliance.

Where will it stop? Using this “reverse codesharing†scheme, AMR could spinoff AA and contract with individual carriers to be “American Connection†carriers. Alaska Airlines could be the AX carrier in the west. Use United as the AX carrier in the Midwest, American Airlines could be the AX carrier in the south, and Delta would provide AX services in the east. All without violating scope clauses. Right?

You can bet that the scope clause in the next contract will be so tightly written that it will make the US Tax Code look like a children’s book. This is one of the main reasons I believe management is making a mistake with not only the Eagle & AA pilots, but with all employees in the company.

 

[MiAAmi]

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On 11/7/2002 6:57:44 PM A77IGW wrote:

I like the idea of ALPA instead of APA.

Do you have any suggestions on how to replace the APFA
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If you don't like APFA you could work for someone else

 

[AirwAr]

Even though I believe management is making a long term mistake, the APA is just as much to blame. The APA has backed management into a corner with very little wiggle room. The scope clause was signed in a time in which management believed they could handle a slow down in the economy. But guess what, there wasn’t a slow down, it’s like someone actually through the economy into reverse. IMO, the APA’s decision to be inflexible on the scope clause is a short sited view. Surely there is a middle ground that both groups could live with to the benefit of all.

It appears to me that the APA keeps their head in the sand and refuses to acknowledge that competition in the aviation world changes quickly. If an airline is to survive, it also must be able to change direction in short order. But dealing with an inflexible union causes good, strategic decisions to take years to implement.

My belief is that you can’t “legislateâ€￾ growth or job protection at an airline. The only way to truly protect your jobs is to provide economic incentives for the company to do so. In the 80’s, when there was a B scale plan, it provided a huge incentive to grow AA. Every time a new pilot was added, the average cost per seat mile was reduced. Now I wouldn’t suggest going back to that “Bâ€￾ scale where pilots are paid less for the rest of their career, but there has to be something that can be done encourage AMR to invest in bringing back the 800 plus pilots on furlough. How about allowing all 70 to 100 seat aircraft to a new “Bâ€￾ scale entity to be staffed by furloughed employees. And to reduce the negative impact on Eagle employees, allow Eagle to have the samelimits as the Delta Connection carriers have on the number of RJs allowed.

I’m sure that there are even better incentives that could be used, but instead, the only thing that comes out of the APA is that AMR can buy an unlimited number of RJs only if they are operated by AA. So, to the APA, pull your heads out of the sand.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail before the whole company is sold off piece by piece, creating a piecemeal of carriers creating the “American Connection Airline Allianceâ€￾.