Originally Posted by
eaglefly
I'm not going to comment on the "leverage" aspects of the AA union/U labor agreements, but regardless of any TA with AMR management, it will NOT negate the desire to merge with U. You see, 7500+ AA pilots (out of under 8,000) believe that AMR's stand alone business plan as-is, which is basically amounting to shifting a lot of AA domestic to RJ's at the tombstones and thus increasing flying by 20% there (most of it NOT AA) and adding lie-back seats in 777 first-class in 2 years (others already have this now), isn't going to provide a future for AA employees and is still simply limping along due to exessive kicking-the-can.
A viable business plan by a management team that has demonstrated they can actually execute success is what's needed. Most pilots here would rather NOT merge with U, but most anaysts believe it necessary. It's clear to me even AMR management has no problem with a U merger, they just want to exit BK FIRST (in control), get beaucoup stock shares and THEN do the merger so THEY can ca$h-in. A FAT exit payoff and mucho stock and off they go.....happy as clams. Only one place to get that money though and that's from the employees (again).
The bottom line, is that this whole U merger business is FAR from simple negotiation sabre-rattling.
AMR hasn't unveiled their so called "plan", they have shared bits and pieces of what AA will look moving forward, I can't find the fact quote but even Horton stated it on a Jetwire a few weeks back. The other thing is that the pieces they have put out there can also be adjusted, look at the pensions- first they were going to be terminated and now they will be frozen, next was the early out first they said no and now my understanding is the agreement with the TWU has some type of early out in place. Truth is, we don't know what the outcome will be, remember on Nov 2011 when AA management offered all airplanes over 50 seats to AA pilots, we know there were devils in the details, but they saw no need in outsourcing larger RJ that the flying should be done with smaller narrow bodies. Right now we don't know what's happening behind those closed doors but one thing is certain, if the APA says we are making progress history tells us that management has likely changed the terms, but again SCOPE will be the deciding factor. As far as Wall street, they want consolidation and less competition, they don't like the current plan that AA has brought to the table but the plan is likely to change as we get closer to contract issues being ratified. US Airways wants this merger to happens because if not they know they will be in a works of trouble.