TWU negotiations.........what?

[TWU informer]

And how do we get this agreement without negotiating and no further dates determined?

 

[odie01]

I got an E-mail from one of my guys about it the other day. This is nothing new, I dont see the justification for it other than yet another way of insulating our International reps against the realities our members face. Its wrong, after all cars are competitors for the business that the overwheliming majority of our members are in, Mass Transit, Railroads and Airlines. Other than going back and forth to the office what need do they have for cars? This is nothing more than hidden compensation, my guess is the fuel and insurance are paid as well. This represents a significant cost savings for guys that are paid significantly more than the members they represent. Transportation represents around 20% of most houshold expenses, so its like a 20% raise if your employer picks up your transportation expense. Its wrong.

Their is absolutely no difference between the bonuses aa executives are about to take, and the bonuses our twu international leadership grant upon themselves. Corporate greed in our union, pathetic, when is enough, enough? How stupid do we look picketing at DFW the day after the Super Bowl against Corporate Greed when we can't even control it in our own union.

 

[strikeforce]

And how do we get this agreement without negotiating and no further dates determined?

Worst case senerio & not too far fetched.....AA requests to be released & does...."Are YOU ready to walk in 30 days?"
How many people have the nads to walk? This is the real deal...forget about Buick's and Cadillacs, time to walk the walk friends!

 

[strikeforce]

I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see the company paying $42 an hour for OH. This means one thing.....less for Line & that's been the story of my 20 year career. Very unfortunate, especially when Line has a valid argument for $45-50 per hour.

 

[odie01]

Worst case senerio & not too far fetched.....AA requests to be released & does...."Are YOU ready to walk in 30 days?"
How many people have the nads to walk? This is the real deal...forget about Buick's and Cadillacs, time to walk the walk friends!

Let's do it! That way we will be forced to stick together, line and OH.

 

[will fix for food]

I beleive that one of the main drivers of the loss that AA showed was Eagle. AA buys every seat on Eagle which despite its lower labor costs is an ineffiocient airline. The planes are simply too small and it doesnt make sense to waste slots into places like Miami, NY,ORD and LAX.

AA will try and secure a contract where once they dump Eagle they can post profits and tell us like they did in the late 90s "Too bad fellas, we will take care of you next time but we got a contract and the Board will not authorize us to open it to bring you up to everyone else. Dont blame the company, blame the union." And of course the International will say "You voted for it".

I doubt American will magically make a profit once Eagle is divested. All of that money that American pays for feed would then be leaving AMR, not staying in it. American admitted recently that the CPA with Eagle is at market rates so you won't be getting someone to come in much cheaper.

In the last round of talks did they specifically say they wanted to ease the "American Eagle" ASM cap or the "regional affiliate" ASM cap?

 

[strikeforce]

Let's do it! That way we will be forced to stick together, line and OH.

I'm there, and been ready since 2003. That's the ONLY way AA will understand brother. Bottom line, we can sit here and point blame to whomever you want, but OUR fight is with AA and it's greedy executives. Period! I haven't seen one post where someone blames Arpey, Reding, Horton and Ream for the waste in management, and how the only thing that's changed with this company since 2003 has been OUR pay! Nothing else has changed.

 

[FWAAA]

I beleive that one of the main drivers of the loss that AA showed was Eagle. AA buys every seat on Eagle which despite its lower labor costs is an ineffiocient airline. The planes are simply too small and it doesnt make sense to waste slots into places like Miami, NY,ORD and LAX.

I'm not sure I agree.

AA does buy every seat on Eagle, but AMR's consolidated results include both AA mainline and Eagle, so even if AA grossly overpaid Eagle per departure, that would inflate Eagle's profits, right? And Eagle's profits are part of AMR's consolidated results.

AMR (AA mainline plus Eagle) lost $471 million in 2010. You don't seriously believe that owning Eagle was a main contributor of that loss, do you?

Yes, Eagle owns too many 37, 44 and 50 seaters, but it has increased the number of somewhat-more-efficient 70 seaters and is flying them on key LAX/ORD/NYC spokes to feed the international flights and carry higher-yield business traffic.

As for "wasting slots," LAX and MIA are not slot controlled. I think that the ORD departure controls that replaced the ORD slots have expired. That leaves just DCA and the NYC airports as slot resticted, and 50 seat RJs are flown by AA's competitors in NYC in even larger numbers than Eagle flies them. Look at CO at EWR and DL at JFK and LGA. Many 50 seaters flown by those airlines.

UA, DL, CO and US buy every seat on hundreds of RJ departures every day. If capacity purchase agreements were the cause of losses, how did those airlines overcome that RJ drag to make billions of dollars last year?

I gotta agree with will fix for food. The only change the Eagle spinoff will permit is for Eagle to bid on regional feed for other airlines and will permit AA to outsource more regional feed to even poorer quality operators, alll while guaranteeing them a profit.

 

[will fix for food]

I still don't know who is going to replace Eagle. Virtually every other feeder out there with the type of lift American needs violates the pilots SCOPE in one way or the other. Unless the APA caves the only result would be that Eagle could bid for competitors flying.

Unless.... they were to use the Executive certificate to fly bigger planes in some sort of agreement like JetBlue has.

Hmmmm...

 

[FWAAA]

I still don't know who is going to replace Eagle. Virtually every other feeder out there with the type of lift American needs violates the pilots SCOPE in one way or the other. Unless the APA caves the only result would be that Eagle could bid for competitors flying.

True, but I figured that the other regionals could move their 70 seaters to other corporate subsidiaries the way Republic solved their Chautauqua problem. Chautauqua flies nothing larger than 50 seats while its scope-problem 70-seat airplanes were moved to Shuttle America (another Republic sub).

 

[Hopeful]

Seems to me that if it is sooooooooooooo imperatative that the APA gives in on SCOPE changes, that the company can simply GUARANTEE all current APA members protection in domicile and employment status. With any changes granted by SCOPE to affect future operations.

Same can be said for the aircraft maintnenace overhaul argument. If they soooooooooooooooo much want the 24/7 operation, make it palatable to current members in compensation.

But it appears to me that the company is not at all that serious about these changes they seem to desparately seek.

 

[eolesen]

I got an E-mail from one of my guys about it the other day. This is nothing new, I dont see the justification for it other than yet another way of insulating our International reps against the realities our members face. Its wrong, after all cars are competitors for the business that the overwheliming majority of our members are in, Mass Transit, Railroads and Airlines. Other than going back and forth to the office what need do they have for cars? This is nothing more than hidden compensation, my guess is the fuel and insurance are paid as well. This represents a significant cost savings for guys that are paid significantly more than the members they represent. Transportation represents around 20% of most houshold expenses, so its like a 20% raise if your employer picks up your transportation expense. Its wrong.

If they're using their own vehicle to transport themselves to/from union business away from their normal daily work location, then it's a legitimate reimbursable travel expense. If use is to/from their normal daily work location, it's a benefit or compensation.

I forget the current rate, but in 2009, I believe IRS calculated the value of reimbursable travel at $0.51/mile.

If the company or union provides the cars, fuel and insurance, then they don't have to reimburse the employee. There might also be some reduced liability exposure to the employee/official, since getting into an accident or incurring use-related repairs has its own negative implications. I know my employer makes me rent a car if driving for work related travel exceeds a certain mileage threshold; likewise, if driving from home plus parking exceeds taxi rates, I have to take a taxi or limo...

 

[Bob Owens]

I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see the company paying $42 an hour for OH. This means one thing.....less for Line & that's been the story of my 20 year career. Very unfortunate, especially when Line has a valid argument for $45-50 per hour.

Under the proposal a BASE AMT working days would max out at $39.83. What you earn would vary depending on where and when you work. Work midnights you get $2.33, which is still less than the standard 10% that most night shift workers get. Work on the Line or weekends in the base and you get $0.55 more on top of that. Live in a high cost city and you can get as much as $1.25 more.

 

[Bob Owens]

I'm not sure I agree.

AA does buy every seat on Eagle, but AMR's consolidated results include both AA mainline and Eagle, so even if AA grossly overpaid Eagle per departure, that would inflate Eagle's profits, right? And Eagle's profits are part of AMR's consolidated results.

AMR (AA mainline plus Eagle) lost $471 million in 2010. You don't seriously believe that owning Eagle was a main contributor of that loss, do you?

UA, DL, CO and US buy every seat on hundreds of RJ departures every day. If capacity purchase agreements were the cause of losses, how did those airlines overcome that RJ drag to make billions of dollars last year?

Perhaps you are right about the losses, I still think that the showing of losses was intentional. With all their labor agreements open what benifit would the company have had at this point in time showing a profit?

 

[Hopeful]

If they're using their own vehicle to transport themselves to/from union business away from their normal daily work location, then it's a legitimate reimbursable travel expense. If use is to/from their normal daily work location, it's a benefit or compensation.

I forget the current rate, but in 2009, I believe IRS calculated the value of reimbursable travel at $0.51/mile.

If the company or union provides the cars, fuel and insurance, then they don't have to reimburse the employee. There might also be some reduced liability exposure to the employee/official, since getting into an accident or incurring use-related repairs has its own negative implications. I know my employer makes me rent a car if driving for work related travel exceeds a certain mileage threshold; likewise, if driving from home plus parking exceeds taxi rates, I have to take a taxi or limo...

Maybe the TWU should deduct the cost of the car from these bloated excessive union fatcat salaries.