Unions vs. Executive Bonus

[FA Mikey]

Good thing they waited with the accounting changes until now. In the unlikely event it would have made our stock price lower and further degrade the hard working bonuses management so desperately needed and deserved.

AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, said Tuesday it was restating results for the past three years, including widening its 2008 loss, because of a change in accounting for interest costs on some debt.

The changes increased AMR's cumulative 2006-2008 loss by 10.3 percent, or $137 million.

AMR said in a regulatory filing that it increased its 2008 loss by $47 million, or 18 cents per share.

That boosted the company's 2008 loss to $2.12 billion from $2.07 billion, and to $8.16 per share from the $7.98 per share it reported in January.

The company also revised downward its reported earnings for 2006 by $48 million, or 20 cents per share, and 2007 earnings by $42 million, or 21 cents per share.

AMR had originally reported earning $231 million, or 98 cents per share, in 2006 and $504 million, or $1.78 per share, for 2007.

For the 2006-2008 period, the company's loss widened to $1.47 billion from $1.34 billion.

full story here


I am sure the pay freeze was announced right after the executive compensation committee finished there work at CP5.

 

[Rogallo]

AKA Enron Air.....cookin' the books!!

 

[Hopeful]

Oh dear! I hope it doesn't affect our poor executives' PUP pay!

 

[FrequentFlierCA]

Oh dear! I hope it doesn't affect our poor executives' PUP pay!

Actually this hurt them, since they have held on to their shares for the most part. At this point AMR's executives have every incentive for the company to perform well. It's a big chunk of their paycheck that's on the line.

 

[aamechntx]

And aside from getting people whipped up, what exactly has it accomplished?...

I don't like paying income taxes either, but there comes a time where you have to send the IRS the check and get on with life...

If you want to fix the problem, do it at the bargaining table.

We are at the table. Heck, we got to the table early. The mouths of decadence are full while our patience runs out waiting for bread and water. They might as well call it the,"The stalling table"!

 

[Hopeful]

Actually this hurt them, since they have held on to their shares for the most part. At this point AMR's executives have every incentive for the company to perform well. It's a big chunk of their paycheck that's on the line.

How exactly do you determine their performance level? They put a memo out that rolls down hill and at the end of the day, it's the front line worker who makes it happen. It's funny how the pro company supporters who post here like to remind us how lucky we are to still have jobs, but it never seems to apply to the executives. They need more than a six figure salary to "perform" but they tell the rest of us if we don't like it, we can quit.

 

[Hopeful]

And aside from getting people whipped up, what exactly has it accomplished?...

I don't like paying income taxes either, but there comes a time where you have to send the IRS the check and get on with life...

If you want to fix the problem, do it at the bargaining table.

With a company that won't bargain in good faith? Regardless what your former co-worker connections tell you, they want more concessions in exchange for NOTHING.

And spare me the "fix it at the bargaining table" lecture.

RESTORE and MORE fixes it!

 

[Deleted member 14439]

I`ll take the same% bonus as the top elite that managed us into such a mess

 

[WingNaPrayer]

Newbie here, with a question that may have been answered already. Which union (if any) represents Airport Agents in non-union cities?

This is a tricky question but bear with me, most of my response is from memory.

Yes, there IS a union that represents Agents, O.Cs. Sky Caps, etc.
No, AMR Corp does NOT recognize them and they do not have a contract.

The union is under the Communication Workers of America (CWA) http://www.cwa-union.org Be careful visiting their website, it is crap and tends to lock up quite a bit.

The agent union is called the Association of Passenger Service Agents. They have one local, 6001 based in Euless Texas. Most of their board positions remain unfilled. They have a Pres, Sec, Treas and last I knew anything about them, all they did is collect union dues, they don't do much of anything else, including recruiting.

At one time, the bulk of their members were from Miami, but most of MIA Agents quit them. I don't believe they have much more than 500 members and out of nearly 15,000 eligible, that isn't very good. For now, they collect enough union dues (10.00 Mo, Part Time, 20.00 Mo, Full Time) to pay the rent and pay someone to sit in the office and field questions.

The agent's union website is http://www.apsa6001.org They don't seem to maintain it much as a lot of the information is outdated.

As long as CWA has their hooks into things, the agents will never have a union that AA will recognize. They are constantly under a membership drive, which prevents agents from discussing issues with management such as pay and benefits.

AA does not consider this "union" to be a threat and won't even talk with them for any reason. The last time they held a "vote" was like 1998 so CWA has been holding the agents back for more than ten years now. Without an active, paid for, hit the ground running union drive, Passenger Service agents will always remain the step-children at AA. Without a Union, when concessions took place in 2003, AA got to name it's price on the Agent work group, and name it they did.

Someone needs to take the initiative to approach a different union and ask them to try to unionize this group at AA. Until that happens, nothing else will.

Check out the websites for more details and hopefully answers to any other questions you might have regarding unions. As outdated as the website is, you'll get the general idea about just how good a CWA union is.

 

[eolesen]

So APSA is still around, eh? Up to the mid 90's, IIRC, the Teamsters were still staffing an office in Euless or Grapefine, trying to collect cards, but gave up. Then the CWA tried and failed. The original people behind the Teamsters drive had been represented by IBT at Braniff until BN imploded in 1982. They eventually found jobs at AA, and decided that AA needed to be more like Braniff....

BTW, out of all the non-management workgroups in 2003, the agents had the lowest dollar value and % value cuts.

 

[SDFEagle]

Thanks, folks. I tried to switch this to a dedicated thread, after it was pointed out that this one was inappropriate, but that was nixed.

It does look as if airport agents don’t actually have a valid representative, which raises interesting issues.

I was kind of surprised to find that any union would agree worse terms for its members than they would have under the Fair Labor Standards Act, e.g., overtime after 40 hours. Does anyone know why they do? CSing benefits the company as much as it does the worker.

 

[jimntx]

You seem to be under the mistaken impression that the airline employees and their unions have a choice as to which Federal Labor laws they are covered under. Not so. It was a decision of Congress many years ago (with some encouragement from the airlines, I'm sure) to place airline employees under the Railway Labor Act rather than the Federal Wage-Hour Law (aka, Taft-Hartley).

The fact that employees in general are covered under the RLA does NOT mean that specific employees are covered. If you are not in a union, you are not represented. You are an at will employee. The company can pay you whatever they want to pay you as long as it is minimum wage or better. They can work you any hours they choose to within certain state and Federal restrictions. If they decide to fire you, NO ONE will represent you in a termination hearing. For that matter, you probably won't get a termination hearing.

There have been a number of attempts to organize the gate agents over the years. None have been successful. If gate agents at the airline next to you at SDF are represented, good for them. You are not if you work for AA or AE. Is there any way to make that any clearer?

All coverage means under the RLA is that IF you are in a union, the RLA applies.

 

[Bob Owens]

IIRC it was the pilots who requested that the airline industry be included under the RLA.

 

[jimntx]

You are correct. Shows what I get for assuming. According to the book, Air Transportation: A Management Perspective (I found it via Google), the just-formed pilots unions began lobbying Congress in 1931 to put the airlines under the RLA because of the provisions in the law protecting the right to unionize and bargain collectively. April 10, 1936 was the day the law passed putting airlines under the RLA.

To this day the railroads and the airlines are the only industries covered by the RLA; yet, the RLA became the model for all other Federal laws regarding labor unions and organizing. I didn't realize that the reason we are under the RLA was due to pilot lobbying, and the reason was that at the time there was no other law offering the same protections and rights. The National Labor Relations Act came later.

 

[WingNaPrayer]

The RLA is an antiquated hinderance, rather than a help. It needs a good spit polish if not complete erasure.

Organizing the agents is never going to happen as long as AA is allowed to fire up the anti-union machine every time someone tries. AA fights dirty. Look what unions have gotten those of you who ARE represented. . . nothing. Contracts became amendable moons ago and still no changes have been made and executive management continues to haul in huge bonuses.

Today, rumor has it (and its a good one) that AA has threatened to suspend any ground employee (gate agents) who wear gloves and masks at the gates as it gives AA a bad image. Meanwhile, other carriers and airport employees are allowed to protect themselves from perceived swine flu exposure but AA expects it's agents to keep greeting those mexico flights with an un-masked smile and continue doing so until they drop over dead (at which time they'll loose their pension, benefits and probably their final pay). If ever an employer couldn't care less about it's labor force, AA is at the top of the heap.