June 13, 2008
“Dont grant more concesssions now because either way it wont protect you any more than prior concessions protected those who went BK.”
Hmm, havent you been claiming that I said that BK was just a bluff? Well that statement shows that I acknowledged that BK was a possibility now wouldnt it? Another one of your claims debunked. Time to make up a new alias?
“AA still has the money. Rumor is they offered $42 an hour if we would agree to allowing them to have 20% LSMs and part timers to replace full time A&Ps on the line.”
Bob says don’t give up on anything. Even starts setting the expectation that the Company is considering giving Southwest wages. WRONG MCT's are keeping their pay raise.
I wrote that about us? Think you screwed up again, we dont even have LSMs. I did say that a guy from UPS told me that if they wanted to bring heavy checks in house the best that UPS would offer was $42/hr.
September 26, 2008
“Even if we just got everything back we would still be working under a 5 year pay freeze which is in reality a pay cut due to inflation. Restore and more.”
Owens gets ready for his run for President and promises, “Restore and more.” He will say anything to get elected. Boy was he WRONG.
September 30, 2008
“So they could give back every penny and still be in the black $120 million.”
First of all I never made claims about what I would get people in the contract, I've always told my peers that according to Article 47 we are just witnesses. The only real power I have is in pulling back the curtain. The statement is true as far as how much moneyt we lost and the company saved, just because they managed to pisss it away and show losses does not change the fact that we lost all that money, but being the company man you are go ahead and spin it the companys way, after all its what you do and why you do it from behind an alias.
States that AA could give everything back and still make $120 million in 2008. AA has not turned a profit yet. WRONG again.
Your spin once again, read the whole statement and its clear. They could give everything back and they would still have $120 million of ours. Whether or not they show a proifit is up to them.
July 15, 2009
“I could care less if they ever increase the headcount in my Local, I prefer to see my members get more, not to get more members.”
He talks about how to get more money and doesn’t care how many members that will not have jobs. SELFISH
If they were never here then they were never members. You seem to want membership to increase at the expense of wages, I dont. You seem more concerned with dues revenues than wages, why is that?
July 21, 2009
“Last year they lost billions but they still "found" money for Executive bonuses. If they can find the money for that then they can find the money for us.”
Bob doesn’t understand that “bonuses” are mostly made up of stock options. It is not money that gets given to management out of AMR bank accounts. Bob makes statements that there is more “…money for us.” Again, those bonuses were not cash out of the AA treasury. I don't agree AMR management should had received any bonuses however.
Sure defending management again, with the ineffectual caveat at the end.
October 8, 2009
“Keep in mind this is the company's first counter, it still sucks but AA continues to demand more concessions and we keep moving closer to the company! Dont blame me, I warned that this would happen, just make sure you vote NO. Like I said, let our brothers and sisters at Continental fight for the profession just like our brothers and sisters at NWA did in 2001. We waited this long, why cut off Continentals chances of getting a better deal by settling for the concessionary piece of crap thats on the table now?”
Bob discussing negotiating tactics and tells members to vote NO and hasn’t even brought a deal forward yet. Suggests that we let CO settle first and then we will have a batter baseline to work from. That happened now what?
What happened was the International was able to convince enough members of the committee to keep putting off asking for a release until the company, having not reached a deal with the pilots, ran into C-11. If we had asked for our release back in April when I first made the motion we probably would have had a deal in place that at least mirrored Continentals months before AA filed. Many of the procrastinators are now gone, but it was too late to change the outcome.
January 11, 2010
“Do we sit back and let all the other corporations that feed off the airlines take everything, thus providing AA with the excuse that there's nothing less for us or simply grab as much as we can regardless of what the airline says they can afford to pay? I say grab whatever we can get.”
Stated before we should get top pay now says, “…grab whatever we can get.” What is it? Top pay of whatever we can get?
What we can get depends on what we are willling to do to get it. If not then we move on.
May 17, 2010
“Instead of just accepting this because you dont trust your union reject it, prove to the International, the Company and some of your representatives that you arent a bunch of sheep willing to accept whatever they throw at you. VOTE NO!!”
After the M&R TA is approved for a membership vote, Owens recommends a no vote because he believes there is more money to be had. WRONG
Went over that a hundred times, no point in doing it again.
November 26, 2010
“The OH vs the line came long before the AA vs TWA BS, maybe you didnt realize it but you had the same thing at TWA, because like Tulsa you could afford to ignore the needs of the line out there in the low cost heartland.”
“The TA was a non offer to the line but an all out attack on the bases, for many years the Tulsa base gave AA a huge cost advantage over all their competitors. They could always count on Tulsa to give AA the lowest total costs in the industry.”
“From what I've read a rival to the IBT for the mechanics at UAL materialized in Denver two weeks ago as well. That will undoubtably put pressure on the IBT to get them a better deal. They have to try and explain why an A&P at UPS needs more than $46.99 but an A&P at UAL and CAL should settle for $36/hr. $10/hr is simply too big of a difference to be pawned off as "Apples and Oranges", they have to basically convince the UAL guys that they are Pintos and the UPS guys are Lincolns.”
Owens again setting the expectation that AMTs should get more than $36/hourly and more like $46.99 at UPS.
Thats your spin.
December 8, 2010
“We need to bring balance between the company and the union, last time they took and only took, this time they have to give and only give.”
After the failed TA, which he recommended a no vote on, Bob makes promises that we can get more now.
Where is there a promise? Note the word "We". Nowhere do you see "I".
March 14, 2011
“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.”
The failed TA would provide thousands of AMTs in the Bases with near top pay for overhaul mechanics. Bob now throws out a number of $39.83 when he has been told that MROs pay around $25 top out. The airlines he quotes as paying $40 plus have less than half the number of AMTs that AA has and outsource the rest of the work. He never says that.
"He has been told"Once agin you cite things that you claim happened in negotiations. How would you know what I've been told? The fact is that oour base guys do not work for an MRO, they work for an airline. I've never denied that other carriers outsource a lot of their maintenence, in fact I've acknowledged it many many times despite another false claim by you, you dont like the reason why I say they do, because they could not compete with AA who had just given a 25% paycut outside of BK and already had put in a low paid mechanic scheme called OSMs back in 1995 (formerly SRP).
March 19, 2011
“We should plan on getting to the $50/hr mark within the next five years or before they use the shortage to push through FAR 66.”
Now Bob says let’s shoot for $50 by 2016 and says the FARs will change. Swami Bob has not been accurate yet, but why not? Let’s get $50 Bob, you can do it!
Actually I've been fairly accurate all the back to 2002, when I said that all the unions should get together and block abrogation of the USAIRWAYS deal. I said that if we dont help them we would all end up going through BK and face the same fate. Well thats happened now hasnt it? This is really BK Number 2 for us.
May 14, 2011
“The IBT at UPS was doing it for what, 6 years? They asked to be released, got the support of their pilots union and eventually walked away with $50/hr. The APA and APFA have been in as long as we have.”
Owens throws out $50 at UPS again as if we have the possibility of getting that. Maybe he does think that but the IBT at CO and UA have not been able to get that for their airline members.
Thanks to us.
June 4, 2011
“If we had voted YES we would still be making less than we were in 2003. We proved that we will not settle for the crumbs the company wants to give us after we doubled our productivity and the company saw their revenues soar. We need to get released.”
Yes we would have been making less that 2003 however “doubled our productivity and revenues soar?” Costs have risen faster than revenues which he conveniently ignores.
Argueing on behalf of the copmpany agin I see. We have doubled the amount of revenue per employee, we cant control how AA decides to spend all that extra money. Sure fuel ate up a big portion but wherer did the rest go? Between the labor savings and increased revenue, even after taking out the billions extra for fuel, there was a few billion left over that they had to piss away . The fleet was reduced by a third yet other costs somehow ate up all the savings. Placing the largest aircraft order in history, writing BIG Checks for IT projects (their words not mire) and scores of other capital mintensensive projects was all at their discretion. Why should we pay for all that on top of doubling the productivity?
June 28, 2011
“We are looking for a top pay of around $44. That would be a guy working nights in a high cost area. At the most a few hundred mechanics. The majority would be at $39, with around 1200 OSMs way below that. I havent figured out what the weighted average would be but my guess is around $40/hr. Thats $5/hr less than SWA and $10/hr less than UPS.”
Now Bob says we are looking at $44 an hour. Remember, that is what he is asking and has backed off from getting UPS or Southwest wages. That’s only $8 more an hour than what CO and UA settled for and they outsource more than half their work. He doesn’t tell us that.
More Spin.
July 20, 2011
“I said that we needed to get a better deal and that the TA was totally unacceptable. If another shoddy deal like last years TA gets ramrodded through again then the members must be prepared to do the same thing again, Vote No and be ready to engage in Self Help. The two remining major carriers that pay less than AA are also in mediation, and UAL rejected a deal that was better than ours.”
And UA accepted the same deal with a buyout option. The TA Bob rips actually paid more DOS than UA and CO deals they accepted. The UA deal still has no cap on outsourcing while the AA filed TA Bob recommended we vote no on did.
UAL got a $75k buyout option. They currently earn a lot more than we do, get more Holidays, Vacation and sick time as well.
September 28, 2011
“I believe UPS took five years and they got full backpay as well, plus they top out at $50/hr. I agree these talks have gone on too long, locking ourselves in the room may seem like a good idea but only if there are consequences to not having an agreement when we come out, we have to get released, then we get to hold a gun to their heads instead of them being the only ones with a gun. Its our move and we need to make it. Saying we wont get released is no excuse for not asking for it.”
Bob throwing out a number, $50/hour, and the idea that full retro is possible. Still says that we need to be released yet he knows that the APA and APFA have asked already and the NMB has said there is still movement.
The NMB pulled out of our negotiations in August, historically no party has been denied being released once the NMB pulls out. We had brought a deal back to the members which was rejected, the APA and APFA had not.
October 1, 2011
“The Continental contract was a transitional agreement so that one really doesn't count,the rest are either non-union or open. That leaves two contracts where to compare with, UPS and WN.”
Bob said on October 8, 2009 that we should wait for CO to settle. Now they have and he discounts it as being, “…a transitional agreement so that one really doesn’t count.” Is that how it works? You ignore what doesn’t back your argument? Nice Bob. Were the little kid that sticks his fingers in his ears saying, “La, la, la, I hear nothing,” when someone told you something you didn’t want to hear?
Once again, making the companys arguement again. You left out some very pertinent facts:
On October 8 2009 Continental Airlines was an independant Airline, so yes wait and see was perfectly valid to say wait and see, but on May 3 2010 it was announced that they were merging with UAL. Maybe you missed that but that does change things doesnt it?
October 9, 2011
“Its not so much the difference between the two that concerns me but the total, if the base guys want to keep us all exactly the same and shoot for $50/hr I'm OK with that as well, what I'm against is when guys say "its good enough for us here so it should be good enough for you there".”
“Glad to hear it, we all need to get more than what was in the TA.”
Does Bob think that negotiations is like sitting on Santa’s lap?
No, I think its more like War.
December 15, 2011
“Well you can play whatever games you like with your numbers but let me tell you something, we aint coming out of this with anything less than what UAL settles for, we would rather shut the place down first.”
Well Bob, what the hell happened? BK was a scam, if we get anything less than the 2001 agreement we will be taking a paycut, the pension is safe, outsourcing won’t happen, we are looking at top pay of $44/hour, AA has lots of money, and now according to you, “…we ain’t coming out of this with anything else than what UAL settles for, we would rather shut the place down first.” Bob, they have all of their airframe overhaul outsourced and the DOS wages of the TA are less than the AA failed TA you recommended to VOTE NO on!
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We have a TA on wages? They have all the airframes outsourced? Really? To whom? You obviously have information that I dont. Tell us who are they?