No AA was not in BK in 1983, the country did however just come out of an economic recession. Oil prices had risen steadily after the Iran crisis. The economy was not in good shape. And the APA (professional craft union) also agreed to a B scale and AMFA lawyer Martin Seham bragged about what a great job he did.
Airlines following the first gulf war were coming off years of shrinkage and the rise of SWA was in full swing. They were paid lower than us and outsourced far more than AA. LCCs sprang up to attack weaker legacies and many of them had laid off in record numbers. Outsourcing was increasing and AA was willing to take a strike over the SRP issue. I suppose if we had fought then we would have been a trendsetter on outsourcing and you would have cried about that as well.
AMFA negotiated at the height of an economic boom which is different then the TWU in 1995 negotiating during five years of contraction. AMFA is negotiating with SWA now with a consistently profitable airline, I am very interested on how well they will do. The TWU has done a better job than AMFA with the FAs and Fleet than AMFA at SWA. When compared head to head at the same airline, they fail to deliver top wages in their category while the TWU does for FAs.
The push for greater outsourcing was driven by the world's largest increase in sending out overhaul and line work. Where? NWA. Went to almost 90% and showed airlines that they could move out almost all maintenance activity if forced. AMFA showed management how to manage. Thanks AMFA.
Sign a card TUL, then fill out an unemployment form because over 15,000 AMTs that started over are the real proof of AMFA's "success".
