Just realized, if this is Tool of the Day, we need to be more current. For Today, I nominate Mr. "I make over $500,000 a year but we need to save money by replacing union workers" and his host of so called "Experts." For starters, his resume is the destruction of our profession:
Mr. Gallagher has served as Special Labor Counsel on behalf of the debtor in Delta Air Lines (S.D.N.Y. 2005); Northwest Airlines (S.D.N.Y. 2005); and Comair Airlines (S.D.N.Y. 2005); ATA Airlines (D. Ind. 2004); United Airlines (N.D. Ill. 2002); Continental Airlines II (D. Del. 1991); Eastern Airlines (Ionosphere) (S.D.N.Y. 1991); and Continental Airlines I (S.D. Tex.1983). He has also represented other major air carriers in preparing for bankruptcy proceedings which were avoided by settlement with the unions involved.
Here is the recap of his work to make the World a better place today. He might have the physique of Winnie the Pooh, but he's more stuff than fluff.
Jack Gallagher, an attorney for AMR, said the company needs 20 percent across-the-board reductions in employee costs, half of which must come from employee benefits.
"It's not the unions' fault we're in bankruptcy, but it's not about whose fault it is," Gallagher said. "It's about the facts of our business."
AMR spends three times as much annually on medical benefits as the average lower-cost carrier, like Southwest Airlines, Gallagher said.
Hundreds of people, including lawyers and airline workers, filled a courtroom and two overflow rooms in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, while outside, hundreds of members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and Transport Workers Union, which represent AMR's flight attendants and ground workers, respectively, held a spirited rally.
Cordoned off by police, workers held signs and chanted for fairer work terms and against AMR's plan to cut about 13,000 union jobs.
EXPERT TESTIMONY
The airline brought two of its expert witnesses to the stand on Monday, with more slated to testify later in the week.
Daniel Kasper, a Boston-based airline economics consultant, testified that deregulation in the airline industry has tied airlines' economic viability to a strong cost-structure.
Jerrold Glass, president of airline labor relations consultant F&H Solutions Group, said AMR's labor contracts are not as cost-effective as those of other major airlines.