Right, because management is completely innocent here. Do they not teach responsibility in MBA school?
Given the changing policies at AA pilots have to work under and the increased scrtuiny from their own company, the public and the FAA I can't say I blame them for following each manual and every policy to the letter right now. As I'm sure you know, doing this and running an on time operation don't mix well. I doubt the pilots have malicious intent but their actions clearly say they'd rather protect themselves and risk losing their jobs, potentially sending their company into the ground than capitulate to the idiocy they've worked under for so many years. That says a lot given how long most of those guys have been there.
I don't advocate illegal job action and I'll be the first to admit unions don't always handle things as well as they could. Between companies using Ch. 11 like a mulligan and the RLA, pilots aren't even fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. We're more like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail after he's lost all his limbs.
You can't crap all over your labor, take huge bonuses, poorly run the company, then expect your employees to bail you out and be surprised when things don't go so well. Likewise, as labor, we can't try and screw the company and nickel and dime the operation and act surprised when the contracts of the late 90s aren't offered to us at the negotiating table.
My wife works for a company in the top 20. I can tell you her relationship with her employer is significantly different than that of mine even though I make more money. She is completely trusted with a credit card spending hundreds of thousands. They give her $50 and $100 gift cards every so often (couple times a quarter it seems lately) for going above and beyond and send her to spas free on the company. They go out to eat every week sometimes several times a week, on the company.You have to be a moron not to see that the APA is advocating a 'sickout.'
Pilots are very short-sighted individuals. Airline pilots seem to be more so.
Look at the work ethic of employee's at successful companies; outside aviation as well. There is a mutual understanding of how success works.
Funny how I don't see airlines on here; nor are the top ones Unionized...
A crap sandwich all around, it seems. That sucks for such a proud airline with a long history.
Weird, you would think Apple would be on that list.
I know.
I never said the AA management wasn't at fault. Far from it. They are very much to blame here and they should take responsibility. Bonuses and the like would certainly be uncalled for imo. My point is that pilot actions that cause the company to lose even more money while selling less tickets is a recipe for disaster. If they are not careful they could be the next eastern airlines.
I hardly think that's fair. As a non-interested third-party who flies AA for business now and again, I fully support any and all actions by the pilots that are consistent with safety. The RLA is crap, and while I'm no huge fan of unions (I feel that the need for unions still exists, but between labor law and union longevity the unions have generally become corrupt and/or vastly overcomplicated the system), I feel that pilots withholding the "favors" they grant the airline on a daily basis (such as working slightly sick, et al) is absolutely within the dictates of professionalism.
Frankly, airline management across the board seems hell-bent on screwing their pilots on every front. (I could shorten that by saying that "management across the board seems hell-bent on screwing labor") Passengers who are buying tickets on an airline aren't innocent third parties -- they make their choice on a competitive market and pick what benefits them. A friend of mine was talking to me earlier today about buying tickets on AA, even though he knows about the ongoing labor issues. Why? They were $200 cheaper than the alternative.
As far as the airline goes, management broke it, and they alone are responsible. If their employees ARE engaging in a sick-out, it's management's fault for not doing the right thing to keep them happy, and the responsibility falls squarely on their shoulders. (Legal complications aside)
A job is not a gift from a company to an employee -- it is simply a mutually beneficial business arrangement between one entity and another. The company needs the services of the employees, and the employees offer their services for a price to the company. And before people chime in about how the company IS the employees (And therefore by damaging the company, you damage the employees), let me remind the reader that the company doesn't see it that way at all. The company sees itself as a board of directors and a management team, and everyone else is a peon. Loyalty, professionalism, and "doing whatever it takes" for the company are only putting money into the pockets of the executives and slightly increasing shareholder value; the company has no loyalty to you, will lay you off in a heartbeat, will generally not return your professionalism in kind.
-Fox
My wife works for a company in the top 20. I can tell you her relationship with her employer is significantly different than that of mine even though I make more money. She is completely trusted with a credit card spending hundreds of thousands. They give her $50 and $100 gift cards every so often (couple times a quarter it seems lately) for going above and beyond and send her to spas free on the company. They go out to eat every week sometimes several times a week, on the company.
She has gotten roughly a 50% raise over the last 2 years. I've been told for the last 7 that I'm too expensive.
Now, compare that to my management. When I called in fatigued after flying 13 hours (not duty day, but operating) due to a crappy ass hotel with jack hammers going at 6 AM I was not only docked of my pay for the next day (they chose the hotel) but also deducted 4:10 of pay because I was deemed "unavailable". Over $800 lost. They sent me "positive space" on a plane 5 hours later to overnight in domicile of around 9.5 hours to start another trip with a 6 am show.
The *only time* I have ever gotten a "thank you" from management was when I wrote up an email about going around...think about that...I screw up and I get a "good job".
You seriously cannot even start comparing the top companies to work for to most airlines and the management labor relationship.
I've never heard, from anyone in the know, that Apple was a really warm, fuzzy place to work. Apple isn't in the "fun place to work" business.
SeanD said:Weird, you would think Apple would be on that list.
Derg said:Nark
Now if there was a lot of non-finance, non-engineering related jobs, more like "blue collar", like transportation, construction, etc, I'd see your point.
Not your use of the safety word; Im just referring to how the word gets generally thrown around by any number of people/entities/unions as a "convenience" word, when whats really going on is more than obvious.
Weird, you would think Apple would be on that list.
Real professional. And the only ones affected are the passengers who bought tickets in good faith.
This cancellation and sick-out crap only causes collateral damage, which the union has no problem doing. Their target should be management.....or really, themselves, since they got themselves in this mess. But taking it out on the pax, is akin to me disagreeing with US foreign policy while deployed overseas, and thinking I can just go randomly kill civilians in protest of it.