American Airlines pilots eye strike authorization

derg

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American Airlines pilots eye strike authorization

American Airlines pilots take step toward strike authorization vote


DALLAS (AP) -- The pilots' union at American Airlines is pushing ahead with a strike-authorization vote, while the company says a walkout would be illegal and the vote is just a symbolic tactic.
The Allied Pilots Association is protesting American's impending cancellation of the pilots' labor agreement.
On Monday, the union board approved sending out strike-authorization ballots, which will be counted Oct. 3, said spokesman Tom Hoban.
American, which is in bankruptcy protection, responded by warning that even the union's lawyers say pilots can't legally strike over the company's cancellation of the contract.
Federal law makes it illegal for airline workers to strike without permission from federal labor-relations officials, which hasn't happened. The union's acting president has said that pilots won't strike illegally.
Also on Monday, a union disclosed American's plans to eliminate 1,090 jobs when it shuts down a Fort Worth maintenance facility in December, and that flight attendants signed up to get $40,000 severance payments.
The airline announced plans to close the maintenance facility several months ago. It gave details on the timing and job losses to the Transport Workers Union on Friday, and the union posted the document on its website.
American plans to shut down four maintenance lines at Alliance Airport in November and begin layoffs on Dec. 15, according to the document. AMR Corp.-owned American, which filed for bankruptcy protection in November, plans to outsource the work done at Alliance or shift it to facilities at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Tulsa, Okla.
The airline plans to eliminate 993 out of 5,150 maintenance jobs in Tulsa. The airline closed a Kansas City, Mo., maintenance facility in 2010.
Separately, the union for American Airlines flight attendants said 901 of its members have signed up so far to get payments of $40,000 apiece for quitting their jobs at the financially troubled company. Sign-ups end Sept. 20.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants said briefings on the buyouts have been standing-room only.
The payments were part of a concessionary contract that flight attendants approved with the airline, which is trying to cut its workforce and labor costs while it's under bankruptcy protection. The buyouts are designed to reduce the need for layoffs at American, which wants to cut about 2,000 flight-attendant jobs.
 
$40k would be enough to go go school and train to do something different - not a bad offer. Particularly since I've never met a happy AA FA
 
I'd love to see a major airline pilot group strike once in my life in the US...I think I'll be waiting a while.
 
Assuming a "legal" strike, I'd bet they'd be allowed to strike now... the airline world has changed a lot since 1997. With mega airlines United and Delta, a more mature Southwest and US Airways doing ok, a struck American would not have nearly the impact on the US system as it would have in 1997 and therefore much more difficult for a president to justify halting it.
 
I'll stand there with them when they strike.

A court throwing out an airline pilot group's contract is absolute horse •.
 
So if they contract is thrown out does that mean the AA can just make up what they are willing to pay? Or do they throw out this new contract and revert to an older one?

Either way a strike would be justified, and if Obama wants the union vote in November.......
 
I'll stand there with them when they strike.

A court throwing out an airline pilot group's contract is absolute horse .

Let's not forget that AA pilots voted down what the judge and every other analyst coined as a "pretty good contract" first. Hard to gain public support when all the newspaper articles are making the pilots look not to intelligent. That being said, there is no way they will be released to strike. AA is still a huge airline despite that fact that UA and DL are "mega" carriers - a strike would definitely be a "disruption" I would believe.
 
Let's not forget that AA pilots voted down what the judge and every other analyst coined as a "pretty good contract" first. Hard to gain public support when all the newspaper articles are making the pilots look not to intelligent. That being said, there is no way they will be released to strike. AA is still a huge airline despite that fact that UA and DL are "mega" carriers - a strike would definitely be a "disruption" I would believe.

A pretty good contract?

Did you read the TA?
 
A pretty good contract?

Did you read the TA?

At what point in my post did I say it was a good TA?

You are missing the point...all public media says it was a good contract that the pilots voted down. That is what John Q Public is going to use when the make a judgement to support the pilots or not.
 
At what point in my post did I say it was a good TA?

You are missing the point...all public media says it was a good contract that the pilots voted down. That is what John Q Public are going to use when the make a judgement to support the pilots or not.

Does John Q Public have a seat on the bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York?

I'm not sure much else matters.

EDIT: I should clarify. Commonly, we as pilots seem to think that what the public thinks of what we do or how much we make matters. It doesn't. It doesn't matter when we're negotiating a new contract, or when our companies are attempting to abrogate our contracts in bankruptcy court, or when we're involved in arbitration. What matters is what the law says, and what a judge or arbitrator interprets as the appropriate ruling.

Anything other discussion is, in my mind, superfluous and thus not helpful to the situation at hand.
 
How does anyone think that they will let a major like American strike, when they even deny strikes to regionals that truly wouldn't have a big impact?
 
Well it was under bankruptcy proceedings, so not to be entirely unexpected.

Not entirely unexpected doesn't mean it's right. That's whats wrong with the airlines and their deregulated nature. Not making enough money because of the contracts of union employees that they worked hard to get so they could have better QOL and provide their families with a good life? Declare bankruptcy, strip the employees contracts (and so they start from square 1 again), "restructure" a little and we'll have BIIIG profits later. Absolutely ridiculous.

With a contract, the pilots had a structure that they could count on for a schedule, pay, benefits, etc.

Now the company can do basically whatever it pleases within the FAA regs, which are not restrictive at all.
If the AA pilots strike I will walk there with them. Striping the pilots of their contract just because some people in Fort Worth screwed the pooch and don't know how to manage an airline really pisses me off. I don't even work there.
 
How does anyone think that they will let a major like American strike, when they even deny strikes to regionals that truly wouldn't have a big impact?

While I'm not the biggest Union guru on this site or within my airline, I do know that Spirit was able to strike back in 2010.
 
I'd love to see a major airline pilot group strike once in my life in the US...I think I'll be waiting a while.

Off the top of my head, there was NWA not that many years ago, Spirit last year, also Skyway in 1998 (guilty! :))
 
Not entirely unexpected doesn't mean it's right. That's whats wrong with the airlines and their deregulated nature. Not making enough money because of the contracts of union employees that they worked hard to get so they could have better QOL and provide their families with a good life? Declare bankruptcy, strip the employees contracts (and so they start from square 1 again), "restructure" a little and we'll have BIIIG profits later. Absolutely ridiculous.

With a contract, the pilots had a structure that they could count on for a schedule, pay, benefits, etc.

Now the company can do basically whatever it pleases within the FAA regs, which are not restrictive at all.
If the AA pilots strike I will walk there with them. Striping the pilots of their contract just because some people in Fort Worth screwed the pooch and don't know how to manage an airline really pisses me off. I don't even work there.

To play devil's advocate here, AA's labor costs are far and beyond those of their competitors. There's certainly something to be said for poor management decisions and executive salaries ,but at the end of the day, AA just couldn't compete under their existing labor structure. I mean the airline lost $1.7-billion last quarter. It's just as reasonable to blame low fair competitors that pay a fraction of the cost for labor. Or the crews who take those jobs.

I definitely understand the frustration of AA employees, but sadly they work for a dinosaur that could no longer compete in an evolving marketplace. Time to scrap everything and start over - probably with fewer employees, fewer planes and fewer routes.
 
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