Originally Posted by
alfaromeo
The only people who think that bankruptcy will somehow be better off are people that have never been through it. I doubt you will find even a small fraction of Delta pilots that went through (DAL/NWA) bankruptcy and said "Hey that was much better for us, glad that happened."
No one here (to my knowledge) is confused that AA (or AA pilots) will be better off in BK. It's just that at this point, it matters little what pilots agree to or not. A good contract (especially on scope) wont be the final straw for BK and rolling over and spreading our butt cheeks won't prevent it. Most have no more interest in ASSISTING this management team in ANYTHING anymore if you ask me.
It's actually THAT BAD now.
Originally Posted by
alfaromeo
For the APA the one warning I would give is to protect your work rules. Both US Air and United went into bankruptcy with not much of a plan on how to work the contract. They ended up with terrible work rules that made people's lives miserable, especially domestic narrow body pilots. At Delta we did the pre-bankruptcy restructuring and were able to control, for the most part, how the work rules came out. We kept the most important duty rigs and avoided the 20 hour unpaid layovers in the airport hotels. We did improve productivity for the company, but did it in a way that preserved the essential quality of life for our pilots. If you decimate your work rules, they take forever to get back.
Some things to think about;
A judge will look over the competitive landscape to determine what is an acceptable change to either the last offer (which he/she may impose) or what he/she comes up with based on the arguments by both management and labor. AMR may ask for a blank check, but that doesn't mean they'll get it.
In fact, if a judge DID give AMR HUGE concessions, that would only destabilize the industry by THEN putting UAL and DAL at serious disadvantage and what may that ultimately result in ?
Both of those carriers possibly going back (again) to BK themselves to "level the field". If a judge is TOO gracious to managements whims, they can actually cause more damage then harm (wiping out a whole group of new shareholders and damaging creditors at other carriers). Yes, their primary responsibility is to creditors, but there DOES have to be a balance. AA's pilot pay is ALREADY competitive with DAL and UAL (in between, I think) and scheduling issues have already been agreed to for the most part providing the needed efficiency. My guess is scope would be loosened to approximate what UAL and DAL already have and of course, the A-fund would be mailed to the taxpayers, while virtually ALL of their debt is eliminated. To be honest and blunt, the employees at UAL and DAL should loathe an AA BK as much as anyone, for once that happens, NO WAY will their managements agree to contracts that accelerate above and beyond AA's. A new, LOWER bar will exist and you'll be lucky to keep what you have. It will likely be a case of one BK changing the ENTIRE industry compensation-wise.
Oh....and forget about strikes. The current big-business sympathetic congress will never allow a major carrier to be shut down by labor ever again (I say that with confidence). FAR too many excuses of the damage that would cause and quite frankly, thr unsympathic public would go right along with that.
Originally Posted by
alfaromeo
In bankruptcy, you will find out how out of control you are. You think that management will get smacked around and they will leave you alone but I assure you the opposite is true. I hope the APA is planning well on how to handle a potential bankruptcy. If you compare the four carriers that went in during the last round, you will see vastly different outcomes. What you do does make a difference.
So I appreciate your forum bluster, you seem full of bluster lately. Let me know how that works out for you.
Again, no one here has any illusions of the lack of control. Quite frankly, you're "over there" and I'm "here" on this one, but thanks for a reminder of the obvious (lack of control, different outcomes, different situations), but this BK might not be what YOU apparently believe it to ultimately be either.
