Shared Sacrifice?

[Decision 2004]

April 24, 2004 by Steven Baumert

No Shared Sacrifice for Ex-CFO

Just three months after American Airlines employees swallowed
enormous concessions, AMR's Chief Financial Officer at the time,
Jeff Campbell, was given a large raise and other financial
incentives to stay with the company according to AMR's 2004 Proxy
Statement.

The company's Proxy Statement, released Friday, revealed that in
July 2003 AMR's compensation committee awarded Campbell what
amounted to a 22% increase in his base salary, $288,360 in
restricted stock and 84,000 stock options, a 20,000 increase from
the previous year. The Proxy Statement stated the pay raise and
other compensation awards were granted "in an effort to retain his
services."

Campbell resigned from AMR anyway a mere five months later on
December 16, 2003 to become CFO of AT&T. Though he had to surrender
the restricted stock and options, Campbell walked away from AMR
without having to give back his $74,246 pay increase because,
apparently, the compensation committee placed no conditions on the
raise.

Campbell's 2003 compensation, which AMR waited to reveal until the
release of its Proxy Statement, is sure to raise the ire of American
Airlines employees who a year ago accepted dramatic pay cuts and
egregious changes in benefits and work rules.

Throughout and after the contentious concession negotiations, AMR
executives assured employees there would be a shared sacrifice when
it came to executive compensation. In Campbell's case, the company's
Proxy Statement clearly shows their assurances to be false. The
compensation committee granted the raise and other awards to
Campbell despite knowing the immense give-backs employees were
working under. In the end, Campbell took the money and ran.

AMR's compensation committee at the time was virtually the same
compensation committee responsible for the notorious retention
bonuses and $41 million bankruptcy-proof special trust for
executives' pensions. Though the retention bonuses were eventually
cancelled in the face of employee and public uproar, the special
trust still exits today. The compensation committee chair for the
last several years has been Michael Miles, an AMR director the AFL- CIO is urging shareholders to vote out for granting excessive
executive pay packages.

Steven Baumert

 

[James T. Kirk]

Name: Rhino
Employer: NWA
Location: MSP
Date: Saturday, April 24, 2004
Time: 08:26 PM


Comments
I agree with the observer on his last post. AMFA leaves everyone high and dry. They took our dues and ran away. I have heard complaints that Delle stiffed some of you on a debate, well, he has stiffed us since the day AMFA won here. I have never seen him again and that's the absolute honest truth. McCormick, AMFA's professional adminisTRAITOR, also is on hiatus and left us with the absolute worst contract and 5,700 job losses at NWA alone. We have never seen him again and he doesn't even do the Farm Out audits he promised. Yep, the majority of the population was definitely the fools.

 

[Decision 2004]

Poor James T. Kirk and the rest of the TWU faithful, they cannot defend the TWU sucessfully on their own, so they bring postings from other websites.

I notice one thing clearly, in their flyers, video, and postings, they are not pro-twu, they are anti-amfa. In fact, they don't appear to be pro-anything, it is all just anti-this and anti-that, negative, negative, negative.

They cannot give the union plan on how we recover our losses, they can only attack with negative campaigning that which we the majority seeks.

And they never have an answer to this solution...

The Concept of “Craft or Classâ€￾

This is Federal Legal concept “Craft or Classâ€￾

In accordance with the Railway Labor Act, the Federal Government has decided that certain work groups have a mutuality of interest at the bargaining table and in advancing worker related issues, and that groups outside of that particular craft or class should have no participation in how the union is run or at least in the initial decision as to who represents that work group. And so Pilots vote with Pilots, and Flight Attendants as matter of law are prohibited from voting with the Pilots. And in turn, the Pilots are prohibited by law from voting with the Flight Attendants because they are considered to be in different Craft or Classes by the National Mediation Board. And Mechanic and Related Workers within the Airline Industry are entitled by law to vote just amongst themselves.

Supporters of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) believe that it comprises our mission to remain associated within a union structure with other crafts or classes that according to Federal Government do NOT share our mutuality of interest. The mission is further compromised when we remain associated with other crafts or classes within the union structure of “majority ruleâ€￾ and our particular craft or class is the minority in size. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) is the only union in this current debate at American Airlines that says “We will forbid ourselvesâ€￾, it will be unconstitutional for us to go and represent baggage handlers, flight attendants, or passenger service clerks, and we will not let ourselves do that because this would compromise our mission. We wish the baggage handlers and other crafts or classes on the property the very best, but they cannot pick our pockets, we wish them to get the very best on their own, but they should no longer be allowed to ride on our backs. In other words, it is time for the airline industry to decouple the mechanic vs. baggage handler pay and benefit structure. It is suffice to say that since deregulation of the airline industry which since enactment has created enormous competition and pressure on airline ticket pricing, and that has resulted in the craft or class of mechanic and related workers suffering in economic buying power, and especially when compared to the Pilots and Flight Attendants who at American belong to craft specific unions. In the mid 1970’s, the Flight Attendants of American Airlines were also represented by the Transport Workers Union of American (TWU), and just as the mechanics today seek a change to a craft specific union, they also left the TWU in favor of the independent Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) The craft or class of Mechanic and Related at American Airlines can no longer afford to remain in an organization that advocates a linking of different work groups that according to law do not share a mutuality of interest.

Regardless of good or bad economic times, and regardless of whether the union is negotiating concessions to prevent a bankruptcy filing or negotiating from economic growth with corporate profits, the formula by which the economic pie is divided amongst the union membership is a union decision. The recent concession are a clear case in point, because American Airlines was demanding $620 Million in concessions from the TWU, but how those give backs were divided up was a union decision, not a company decision. And the facts are clear, that the craft or class of Mechanic and Related at American took more than our fair share of that amount, and it is also clear this was a union decision.

AMFA IS THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR SKILLED TECHNICIANS



Fairwell TWU, we will not miss you.

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

James T Kirck


Your quote from an X NWA mechanic proves what? :huh:

It proves that the 3000 laid off mechs at AA also hate the twu for saving everones job except thiers. :angry:

Why dont you talk to the guys at NWA who are making 10K more than you and see how happy they feel about it. Ask them about thier sick time holiday pay and OT. You Mr Kirck need to beam back down to earth.

And I suppose in your feeble mind Mr Kirk the IAM would have done a better job saving jobs at NWA. :blink:


Actually they might have the IAM could have given back 1.6 billion in concessions and saved everyones job just like the useless twu did
Get a grip fool. h34r:


Fight for what you are worth.

 

[Bob Owens]

James T Kirck


Your quote from an X NWA mechanic proves what? :huh:

It proves that the 3000 laid off mechs at AA also hate the twu for saving everones job except thiers. :angry:

Why dont you talk to the guys at NWA who are making 10K more than you and see how happy they feel about it. Ask them about thier sick time holiday pay and OT. You Mr Kirck need to beam back down to earth.

And I suppose in your feeble mind Mr Kirk the IAM would have done a better job saving jobs at NWA. :blink:


Actually they might have the IAM could have given back 1.6 billion in concessions and saved everyones job just like the useless twu did
Get a grip fool. h34r:


Fight for what you are worth.

The IAM lost a lot of jobs at NWA.

The IAM Lost a lot of jobs along with concessions at UAL.

The IAM lost a lot of jobs along with concessions twice, going on three times at USAIR.

But nobody gave as much in concessions as the TWU did at AA. Not only were jobs eliminated by the thousands across several contract groups but the contracts were gutted, except for company paid UB.

If given the choice would you have opted to keep some benifit, or company paid UB?

The TWU made that choice for you, they decided that they would rather continue to collect their kickback of $3.1 million and let all the members give back a little more. Figure that its another $103 per year for union dues that goes directly into the pockets of TWU officials.