In all fairness Mr Ream hasnt broken his word, a few days into this and he made an offer that was more than anything his predicessors had put out in over two years. He was probably shocked that it was accepted. Its not his fault that we never bothered to counter his offer, its not his fault that we didnt take this down the line to the companys last best offer, where the members make the final choice. It was not his fault that we said yes to a deal before entering into a 30 day countdown and marathon negotiations. It was the committee, which conducted a "Road Trip" last year telling members across the system how they would not bring back another concessionary deal, how they would not use Roll Call, how their strategy was to come in with a low ball offer they said was "Credible" and not budge from it. They are the ones who broke every promise they made. They came back with a concessionary deal, Steve Luis seconded the motion for a Roll Call, and they abandoned their "Credible" table position and accepted the companys offer without even making counter offers. The "Wage Opener" they thew in, which was voted on unseen, will be just as effective and enforcable as our 1995 "ME TOO" clause or our 2003 "Early Opener" .
This contract proposal is nothing more than a mop up of 2003. The concessions they forgot or never even thought of before are in this deal. We go two years with zero increases, we lose our prefunded bridge insurance, we remain at industry bottom for sick time accrual, IOD time, vacation time shift differentials etc, etc, As I said before some concessions are made to look like gains, the MRT window was shorted from 11hrs to 8 hrs, our 8.5 hour shifts will allow the company to cover all three shifts without paying the premium to anyone. The bases have seen a complete rewrite of Article 12 which will allow them to wipe out pretty much all the OT and move OSMs into positions currently held by and paid as A&Ps. This is the next step towards driving all the top paid guys out of OH and having the entire base staffed by OSMs who, licesned or not, will permanently remain OSMs.
AA will have their MRO at MRO wages and their Line Mechanics at bottom of the industry wages. This deal brings them one step closer to that. Read the "Wage Opener and tell me what our rate of pay will be when the IBT gets CAL/UAL $40/hr. You cant because it doesnt say. Our rate will go unchanged because the language is unclear.
