Eagle Pilots Protest Outsourcing of Jobs in Chicago

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Eagle Pilots Protest Outsourcing of Jobs in Chicago

Press Release
Source: Air Line Pilots Association, Intl. (ALPA)
On Friday September 18, 2009, 9:55 am EDT

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American Eagle pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Intl., today demanded that AMR Corporation [NYSE:AMR] halt any plans to outsource Chicago-based flying currently performed by its subsidiary, American Eagle. AMR’s announcement to shift certain Chicago flights to American Connection is “unacceptable” and violates the Eagle pilots’ current collective bargaining agreement.

AMR recently announced schedule changes for the Spring of 2010, including moving American Connection airplanes and flight crews from St. Louis to Chicago. American Connection is the brand for flights operated by Chautauqua Airlines, an independent contractor of regional flying.

“Outsourcing our flying is not only a contract violation, but is an insult to every American Eagle pilot and every American Eagle employee who has personally sacrificed for AMR,” said Capt. Tony Gutierrez, chairman of the American Eagle unit of ALPA.

Since AMR’s acquisition of TWA, Chautauqua Airlines has been providing regional feed to American Airlines on a limited basis in the St. Louis market. AMR decided to drastically reduce service in and out of St. Louis and to transfer some of American Eagle’s flying to Chautauqua.

“Management always said that American Connection contract flying was simply a byproduct of the TWA acquisition,” said Gutierrez. “Now, instead of doing the right thing and exiting these contracts, AMR is promoting a third-party airline at the expense of its own employees. We will do everything in our power to stop AMR from giving away our jobs.”

American Eagle pilots maintain that its wholly owned relationship with American Airlines makes it a seamless operation for customers travelling on American Airlines. “The average traveler doesn’t know that American Eagle is one of the few remaining ‘wholly owned’ regional airlines,” said ALPA Vice Chairman Dave Ryter. “American Eagle’s relationship with American has definite advantages for the traveling public, not the least of which is the cumulative experience of our pilots,” said Ryter.

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilots union, representing nearly 54,000 pilots at 36 airlines in the United States and Canada.
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Good luck eagle. Do anything you can to protect yourself against the growth of the evil empire.
 
WTF is going on with this industry....jeez! Ive been on JCs for about eight months and im flippin tired of hearing what this so-called "management" do to you guys/gals. They should call management....."run everything into the ground beat the hell out of our employees." ITs quite scary to see what im getting myself into with this dream that i once had. Sorry, end of rant.:mad:
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
Anyone else find it ironic that the outsourced flying is protesting outsourcing?
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No. For one thing Eagle is not outsourced flying. I would say if 90% of the flying eagle is doing was never flow by a mainline crew post 1990.
Eagle does four things for AMR. (feed main line from small cities, hold slots, try out new markets, and flight between thin cities pairs.) Even if pilot pay was the same it is a whole lot cheaper to have Eagle do these things. There are a lot of rules about stations that get mainline flights that are not in place at Eagle.

Nice work holding the line Delta: 190 90 seat RJ's / 66 70 seat RJ's / 483 50 seat RJ's.
 
Gonzo,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is an issue of AMR closing CHQ out of STL and putting them in ORD.

As I remember, when CHQ was inherited, we were only allowed to fly Connection in cities that weren't Eagle hubs.

I think I heard that TSA is also going into MIA. Is that correct?

Anyway, hopefully the new CRJs will bring some folks back for ya'll.

See you in LAS.
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
Anyone else find it ironic that the outsourced flying is protesting outsourcing?
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I do.

ORD-ROC
ORD-PHL

Just to name a couple flights I remember working on AA's F-100s & MD80s.


"They're taking OUR flying!" Mmmhmmm, yeah, it's been going on for a while now.
 
MQAAord said:
I do.

ORD-ROC
ORD-PHL

Just to name a couple flights I remember working on AA's F-100s & MD80s.


"They're taking OUR flying!" Mmmhmmm, yeah, it's been going on for a while now.
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Very true, but I'm curious (not trying to be argumentative): what did AA labor groups do when this happened? What steps were taken to mitigate outsourcing?
 
Eagle is not outsourcing. Eagle is owned by AMR, just as American is owned by AMR. We exist due to scope language in the pilot contract between AMR and APA because we do provide a service to mainline. I take pride in the fact that Eagle ALPA and APA have held the line on not allowing AMR to outsource our flying to other companies and setting the stage for future whipsawing as we see everyday at other carriers.
CHQ is outsourcing but they were inherited from TWA and they also flew there own routes (pre-AA) and they were not making a move on AMR routes or hubs. AMR attempted to move TSA into Miami routes last year and we grieved and won because now another company was taking over our routes. This is the same story as TSA, AMR wants to move CHQ into our hub and have them take over some of our routes. This is against our contract, and is a threat to our future solvency, and I am sure the arbitrator will agree.
What makes me really upset is the press release was chock full of good news and then they try to sneek this in at the end hoping nobody notices. Sort of like how the government will release all the bad press on major holidays when nobody is paying attention.
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
Anyone else find it ironic that the outsourced flying is protesting outsourcing?
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Somewhat, yes. There is a difference, though, in that the EGL complaint is a scope violation, while the outsourcing to EGL is a scope exception agreed to by the APA membership. The EGL guys are just enforcing their contract.
 
subpilot said:
Eagle is not outsourcing. Eagle is owned by AMR, just as American is owned by AMR.
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Just a point of discussion. The US Air wholly owned carriers, the DL wholly owned carriers, and the AMR wholly owned carrier, none of them, when acquired, were merged onto the master seniority list like when the mainlines listed acquired other airlines.

AMR, in fact, talked about spinning off Eagle to raise capital a few years ago.

Indeed, and unfortunately, all regional/commuter pilots are thought of as second class citizens. The old adage was that you don't hire from your feeder.

I don't wish ill on anyone, but commuters/regionals/feeders live off the castoffs that the mainline pilots don't want.

And if you think that being a wholly-owned makes you safe, just remember every airline is for sale for the right price.

CHQ is outsourcing but they were inherited from TWA and they also flew TWA's routes (pre-AA) and they were not making a move on AMR routes or hubs [per the fixed fee agreement- available in CHQ SEC filings- ed].

AMR attempted to move TSA into Miami routes last year and we grieved and won because now another company was taking over our routes. This is the same story as TSA, AMR wants to move CHQ into our hub and have them take over some of our routes. This is against our contract [I don't know your contract, but from what I remember, I agree whole heartedly], and is a threat to our future solvency[I really doubt it. AMR controls the purse strings and isn't looking to diversify the feed. Thus they did not convert the options for the additional 10 aircraft for CHQ], and I am sure the arbitrator will agree.
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Good luck eagle guys!

We had an eagle jumpseater recently, and he expressed this as a problem to.

They consider this as CHQ moving in on their turf, and a threat.

But just like said in other threads-many times its a way to cause problems during contract time of course.

I've heard from countless senior guys the uproar about when CHQ moved into Orlando and the coamir base being shrunk, followed by a close.

Probably similar things will happen at Eagle if it continues.
 
NC_BE300 said:
I've heard from countless senior guys the uproar about when CHQ moved into Orlando and the coamir base being shrunk, followed by a close.

Probably similar things will happen at Eagle if it continues.
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Again, in that case of the DL-CHQ deal, DL was looking to diversify the regional feed. And from what I heard, was a shot across the bow to the CMR guys for the strike, as MCO was the senior base.

MCO was a Brasillia base for CMR, and as they were being phased out, the strike occurred (or was about to) and holy guacamole CMR found that they needed to close MCO! Coincidence? I think not.

From my perspective, the ACA/Patriot deal was shutting down and DL wanted the 135 lift to replace the DoJets. However, they found away to torque back the CMR pilots for shutting down CVG (It's that whole Newtonian law deal....every action results in an equal and opposite reaction?). Right, wrong or indifferent, DL did it.

A different scenario than the deal at AMR. AMR was forced into accepting the CHQ deal when the bought TWA. AMR wasn't looking to diversify, but was forced to.

AMR is just using the excuse of "realigning" their hubs to torque the Eagle guys, hoping the order for the extra 22 Jets would cover that up.

However, the problem is between the Eagle guys and AMR management for MGT trying to violate the Eagle scope. The CHQ guys are only being leveraged to this, as they can only do what AMR tells them. AMR MGT is probably well aware of how much heat the CHQ guys take anyway, so let the pilots fire upon pawns of AMR management instead of aiming the heat to DFW.

OTOH, I can't believe that the 16 year contract that seemed forever to me is coming up for renewal soon.
 
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