Frustrated and grasping? No, Bob, I'm not the one who posted an outlandish fabrication ("Continental already earns around $10k a year more than we do.") and when challenged on that untrue statement, confuses wages and costs. That would be you.
You must work for FOX news.
I did not say wages I did not say costs, I said they "earn around $10K more than we do". Clearly you are aware that our compensation-that we earn by working comes in forms other than wages. You seem to feel that if you write enough it makes you right. Vacation is something that we consider part of our compensation and it has a value. If you have to work more hours for the same pay then you are earning less for the work you do. In this case at least $1340 less. You can try and spin out how accountants look at it from an accounting view but nobody but you really cares, they see it the same way I do. If I have to work 40 hours more than you do do make the same amount of money then I earned less for my work than you did, its that simple no matter how you try and spin it.
Perhaps the problem is you are looking at it as an accountant while I'm looking at it as hours worked vs compensation.
So because AA would permit you to throw away a week's pay to get a week off, that means CO mechanics make $1,340 than you?
As a matter of fact it does;
Lets say I compare a 23 year employee at AA to a 23 year employee at Continental. If the AA employee wants to have the same amount of vacation as the Continental employee he has to buy a week of flex vacation. They will reduce his weekly paycheck in sums that will lower his yearly gross by $1340. So the Continental employee gets over $1340 more than the AA employee if they work the same amount of hours.
Has anyone ever bought that week of vacation?
Sure. When you work more than most people time off is important. Most people that I know outside of this industry started off with around 20 total paid days off after the first year, at AA they start with 5.
Can your turn your unused sick days into cash if you stay healthy?
No, only in SJU or $25/day when you retire, but its paid time off if you use them and since we tend to have so little time off we use more sick time.
Finally, Bob, you've pointed to something that really does equal extra pay for the CO employees. AA reduced the number of paid holidays in 2003 which saved AA cash and directly reduced your income. I'll take your word for it that their holidays are worth an extra $1,221/yr.
Did you really sell your 300-400 options for a mere $1,100? Should have held on longer. Or is it a typo and you meant to type $11,000?
Thats what they are worth now to whoever held on to them.
I'm confused about the math here. $804 represents three full days of pay, but you said you lose a half days' pay. So don't the CO mechanics come out $402 ahead?
You lose half pay for the first two days on each occurance, nobody calls in sick for just one day anymore because if you had a relapse you would lose an addition day of pay, so people stay home until they are sure that they have fully recovered, normally a week. So it would be three whole days.
I shorted them on Sick time. They get 12 we get 5. If I get 5 sick days a year and they get 12 then they get 7 more days of pay to use when they are sick, so thats a additional $1840 (not $1340)they would earn for working the same amount of hours.
They might have a match, but those corporate liars at www.aanegotiations.com say they don't:
http://www.aanegotiations.com/MechanicsPensions.asp
No, you showed me a lot less than $10k of additonal compensation, plus numerous items that combine to make their mechanics more expensive to CO. I come up with about $2,125/year in cash compensation plus an extra week of vacation and an extra week of sick time accrual. But $10k? Nope.
They are wrong, I have a copy of their current agreement and you made me dig it out. The 401K match is in LOA#1 dated 1/21/2003 . For a mechanic with my seniority they would match dollar for for dollar a mimimum of $300 , or they would match half of 6% of my contribution from eligible pay as per IRC 401(a)(7). In other words at 69k if the CAL mech put in 6% ($3450)they would put in $1725.
40 hours off for Death or critical illness in the family-we get 24
I forgot to mention IOD pay. At AA we get 80 hrs then we are on our own, at Continental they get 96 hours a year and can accrue 700Hrs. That alone is worth up $20,400 for one injury(Article 11 of the current IBT/CAL agreement.)
They get 8 hours per month and can accrue up to 1600 hrs of sick time vs our 1200, thats worth up to $13,000 if used before retirement. However if they have an illness that causes then to be out of work and use more than 240 hours they will get 12 hrs per month until his sick bank is restored to what he had before the illness, then they go back to 8 hrs per month.
Overtime for training when its in excess of regular hours-we get straight time. We regularly get assigned training after or before our regular shift resulting in a 12 or 14 hour day at straight time rates- thats around $70 per day.
Shift premium Afternoons AA +.01, CAL = .51 Thats $1040 more for CAL
PerDiem $1.95/hr for domestic or $2.50/hr International or whatever the pilots or FAs get (which ever is highest). We get expenses and if they feel we ate too well they refuse to pay them unless we falsify the reports in their favor. If we dont have reciepts I think we get $3 for lunch and $7 for dinner.
CAL still gets Double time for all hours in excess of 12 even if on 4-10s and includes all premiums.
They also have the 30 minutes unpaid lunch but they get a 10 minute rest period the first half of the shift, plus a 10 minute rest period the second half and a Mimimum 10 minutes wash up time, (if they work 4-10s they get three 10 minute rest periods) thats 130 less hours of work a year that they are paid for, around $4000
HNL employees get a $2/hr Geo pay, that would be another $4160 for those guys.
Continental also gave their employees stock. They gave 550,000 shares to the M&R group. LOA #12 (Article 154-N)
CAL also gives their mechanics an annual $100 tool allowance.LOA #28
2125 Holidays
$100 annual tool allowance
1340 Vacation
1840 Sick Time
1040 Shift Premium
2080 Longevity pay after 12 yrs of service $1/hr, we get zero.
1725 401K match
That comes out to $10250
not counting Profit sharing,Training OT, Double Time and up to $20,000 worth of IOD pay, per diem or Geo Pay. .
Admittedly some of these figures are highly variable but no matter how you try and spin it the result is a lot more in their pockets than $500. So $10k is more of a minimum starting point. We could easily get this figure as high as $35000 just using all the numbers here with average OT factored in, field trip, training , Geo and a rare injury thrown in but all that would do is prolong the debate and we are off topic.
The point is AA pays their mechanics way less than Continental, and thats why maintenance is backing up, why Continental gets better performance from their mechanics, why AA cant allow the VBR on the line and why the FAA is getting itchy. AA would rather have the "many miserable" than the "proud & productive".
