Shared Sacrifice

[Hopeful]

Actually Hopeful I know how their pay and benefits are regulated, no need to ask. Also I do not wish a furlough on anyone, it's just aggravating to see my friends be the only ones affected, yes, even Drippy.

[post="197009"][/post]​

That's the point exactly. The TWU and the company crammed these concessions down our throats with the excuse it was the best way to save jobs.
Well here we are. Of course no one likes to see layoffs. This is not a good time to be jobless. But many STL people will be bumping to JFK/STL. A good number of them are from NY. The pain spreads one way or another.

It's funny that their pay and benefits are regulated, but they know what best for us by slashing ours.

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

The AMFA membership has suffered an over 50 per cent reduction in headcount since 2001.

Well Nightwatch you obviously need to erode the profession more. If you give more of your pay and benefits maybe AA could keep more people working. Actually at the rate we are going I see AA undercutting Timco and other 3rd party vendors.

Remember the twu saying less pay more work :blink:

Then again AA and the twu could all ways implement the COLA for a savings of over 210 million dollars a year. That should keep all the maint bases open with full staffing. Just at a drastically lower payscale

 

[Nightwatch]

No, the time for concessions has past, it was a one time shot at preserving our jobs. At that time fuel was not skyrocketing, 9-11 was the culprit, the concessions were simply a quick fix.

If the TWU asks for more concessions I will vote "NO". Though I am not going to be affected by the furloughs just yet, I do not want to see our wages to match those of WalMarts.

Do I think AMFA is the answer? Absolutely not, but the giving is over...the company has got to go to the consumer for more $$$.

 

[PRINCESS KIDAGAKASH]

Join us Nightwatch! Resistance is futile! Come away from the TWU kool-aid dispenser! Come back to the truth! Stop being a liar like CIO!

 

[Nightwatch]

Actually Princess I believe there is no joining required. Though our views of whose union is best for our industry differs, I do believe when push comes to shove, and the company forces a more aggressive stance, then both sides will come together and meld.

The company and especially the general public need to realize these fuel costs are not going to be lowered, THE COST HAS GOT TO BE PASSED ONTO THE CONSUMER!

 

[Ken MacTiernan]

nw,

"The company and especially the general public need to realize these fuel costs are not going to be lowered, THE COST HAS GOT TO BE PASSED ONTO THE CONSUMER!"

The airlines are too stupid to pass along the cost of fuel because if one airline does the others do not follow or even reduce their prices. If the airlines can't pass along the cost of fuel then should labor help by taking concessions?

 

[Nightwatch]

Well Ken, as fuel prices skyrocket, do you believe that the stockholders and management actually believe they can continue to come to the work force and get the necessary $$$$'s to operate?

Soon we will be paying them to work here.

 

[Bob Owens]

The AMFA membership has suffered an over 50 per cent reduction in headcount since 2001. http://www.amfa9.org/newsupdates.htm

*taken from AMFA local 9...did AMFA fail the membership there as you all state the TWU did here?

[post="197019"][/post]​

Well NW you claim that you have been in this industry a long time. Well if thats the case then you must have seen layoffs before. Remember 81 or 82, around the time of Patco, you know when the AFL-CIO did nothing to help the Air Traffic Controllers? I remember guys from UAL that had over 25 years coming over to Capitol to work. Well this is one of those times again, sure its a bit different but every cycle is a little different. The only thing was that back then they were a little smarter, they did not gut the contract in exchange for the false promise of "saving jobs". When the good times come back, so will the shortage of mechanics, the only thing is we will either be locked into a concessionary contract or we will be so far behind we can never catch up anyway. You have to remember that with the 25% cut in compensation we need twice that to get a back to where we started.

The union you are defending is the same one that helped put your old employer out of business, sure poor management had a lot to do with it but so did things like SRPs, B-scale, Employee paid medical, prefunding, losing the first year towards your pension, no benifits for the first year etc. The fact is that AA could have afforded to pay us more, but if they did they would not have had the competative edge to put EAL, Pan Am and TWA out of business. The TWU made it possible, in fact they even justify their concessionary habit by claiming that "If we did not give AA all those concessions they would not have hired you, those concessions helped AA grow and that growth created your job"-Ed Koziatek 2000. Yea, like the fact that more and more people fly had nothing to do with creating jobs.

You see the TWU was in a position to get more from AA, and if they did it would have helped all airline workers, but then all the airlines would have grown at around the same rate, in other words the IAM and other unions would have grown too. The TWU did not want that, they wanted to make sure that the TWU grew at any expense. You see the growth was neccissary to provide our International officers their perks. TWU officers make as much as officers from super large unions like the Teamsters and the SEUI, despite the fact that TWU members are among the lowest paid union members, certainly lower than other union workers doing the same type of work. Over the last four years the IAM has lost 25% of their membership, while the TWU has grown.

 

[Ken MacTiernan]

Well Ken, as fuel prices skyrocket, do you believe that the stockholders and management actually believe they can continue to come to the work force and get the necessary $$$$'s to operate?

Soon we will be paying them to work here.

[post="197254"][/post]​

I believe that fuel prices were not thought of rising to today's price of over $50 a barrel. The cost of any expense an airline has should be passed along to the customer and not labor. AA said they could not reduce head count to the numbers needed to operate prior to concessions. Well, it looks as if we are coming up on this number with the added insult of wage & benefit concessions.

Look at USAir to answer your question nw. Management and stockholders will go to the well long after it has dried. USAir should have folded a long time ago. What is being done to the work force there is an insult to not only airline labor but ALL labor. The unions at USAir need to take a stand and do what is right for their members. Accepting concession after concession is not the right thing to do.

 

[Hopeful]

Well Ken, as fuel prices skyrocket, do you believe that the stockholders and management actually believe they can continue to come to the work force and get the necessary $$$$'s to operate?

Soon we will be paying them to work here.

[post="197254"][/post]​

Well said, Nightwatch!

And with the TWU's help bending us over, remember Jim Little does not need member ratification to get more concessions!