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Old 05-11-2019, 02:32 PM
  #29  
Cyio
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Joined APC: Mar 2017
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Originally Posted by E190 Driver View Post
From: Xxxxx [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: '[email protected]'

Subject: Your "What's next" letter of February 20, 2014

Jim,

In your latest February 20, 2014 letter “What’s next?” addressed to “Attention all American Eagle Pilots” you concluded with “Please feel free to email or call with any questions or comments”. I have accepted your offer.

What you failed to address in your “What’s next” letter is the lack of trust and confidence the American Eagle pilots have in the former and current American Eagle Airlines management team.

A significant factor in the pilot’s vocal rejection of management’s latest 10-year demands is that lack of trust and confidence the majority of the pilots have in management.

In the second paragraph of your letter you state “While I don’t agree with the concept that 5 members of the MEC can make the determination of what is best for the entire pilot group, the company respects their decision to do so”. I found your statement to be ludicrous.

If you review the corporate governance of the American Airlines Group (AAG) you will find that eight (8) individuals, Douglas Parker, Scott Kirby, Robert Isom, Elise Eberwein, Beverley Goulet, Stephan Johnson, Derek Kerr, Maya Leibman and William Ris daily make the determination of what is best for the entire AAG employee group, more than one hundred thousand (100,000) individuals, as well as thousands of investors.

If you found fault with five (5) pilot elected members of the MEC, keeping within the by-laws of the Air Line Pilots Association, making the determination for 2800 pilots, I presume you similarly do not agree with the concept that 8 management individuals can make the determination of what is best for the entire employee group, as well as every investor.

The five (5) members of the MEC who made the determination for 2800 pilots had a legitimate reason for voting as they did; besides the unacceptability of management’s latest demands, they clearly recognized that management was engaged in a fear, uncertainty and doubt campaign and management, to force its demands on the pilots through coercion, was fomenting discord between the Eagle employee groups and creating a hostile work environment for the pilots.

The majority of the MEC were correct in rejecting management’s demands and repudiating management’s underhanded actions.

Notwithstanding the above I have attached two documents authored by you. The first is an undated letter “To All American Eagle and Executive Airlines Pilots”. As a rough guess as to the date you wrote the letter, I filed the letter on September 28, 2012.

The second document is a HI6 message from you dated October 11, 2012 similarly addressed to the “Attention All American Eagle and Executive Airlines Pilots”.

The first document, the letter (attached), was written by you when you were attempting to coerce the American Eagle pilots to vote for the bankruptcy restructuring Eight (8) Year Tentative Agreement and threatening a Section 1113 filing if the pilots did not agree to the eight-year concessionary bankruptcy tentative agreement.

On the first page, fourth paragraph, you stated “Each one of you needs to carefully examine the facts, and make your decision based off of what is best for you, and determine what is the best path to save jobs and increase flying opportunities for American Eagle”.

On the second page, first paragraph, you stated “American has already begun to diversify their regional feed, as they have repeatedly stated. We must be in a position to competitively bid for this flying, and we need to do this through a timely, consensual agreement. I don’t believe any of us wants a judge determining our fate”.

You cannot deny that when you said save jobs and increase flying opportunities for American Eagle and to competitively bid for this flying you were referring to GROWTH at American Eagle Airlines and the deployment of large regional jets.

At the time you were actively selling the Eight (8) Year Tentative Agreement, September 2012, American Airlines was not planning on the future deployment of small regional jets, so the flying to which you were referring when you said “increase flying opportunities” could only be referring to large regional jets.

Your reference to a judge determining the fate of the American Eagle pilots was a direct obtuse reference to the threatened Section 1113 filing.

The American Eagle pilots unfortunately, trusting in management, ratified the Eight (8) Year bankruptcy restructuring Agreement. Part of that agreement was the assurance, by you and other management personnel, of the deployment of large regional jets at American Eagle Airlines. Dan Garton, on March 21, 2012 stated, “But achieving competitive costs is absolutely necessary in order for us to justify American’s investment in new aircraft for Eagle to operate on its behalf” and on January 23, 2013, Dan Garton stated the following “Eagle is on track to achieve our own business plan, which projects the replacement of our smaller jets with larger equipment.”

Motions filed in bankruptcy court included affidavits by management personnel (Beverley Goulet and Cathy McCann) of the importance of American Eagle Airlines to the restructuring of American Airlines and why achieving the concessions contained in the management term sheets was imperative for the continued viability and increased growth of American Eagle Airlines. The Eight (8) Year Tentative Agreement ratified by the pilots was one of the concessionary agreements demanded by management for the successful restructuring of American Airlines.

In your October 11, 2012 HI6 message (attached) to the pilots you stated “I want to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your support of the recent ratification of our Tentative Agreement. This is an important part of our restructuring process, and with this foundation in place, Eagle will continue to be a primary provider of feed to AA and allow us to participate in their regional flying transition, as well as it positions us for growth”.

You cannot deny that when you said Eagle will continue to be a primary provider of feed to AA and allow us to participate in their regional flying transition, as well as it positions us for growth you were referring to the transition to larger regional jet equipment and growth at American Eagle Airlines. The regional flying transition at AA was not to smaller regional jet equipment, the status quo or the shrinking of American Eagle Airlines, it was to larger regional jet equipment and growth.

This brings me back to your latest letter dated February 20, 2014.

On the second page of your letter you state “I think those of you who spoke with Dee Temples or myself, while we were doing road shows, will recall that we stated that the CRJ’s will probably go away with either a yes or no vote. With a yes vote they would have gone away to be replaced by EMB 175’s, however, there would have been a net gain of aircraft as we would have taken in more EMBs than CRJs leaving the airline.”

How do you now truthfully justify and defend your remarks above, which indicate the contraction (less aircraft = less flying) of American Eagle Airlines when you, in 2012, while actively selling the Eight (8) Year bankruptcy Agreement, actively assured the American Eagle pilots that if they ratified the eight-year agreement it would save jobs and increase flying opportunities, allow Eagle to competitively bid for AA flying, continue Eagle as a primary provider of regional feed to AA, as well as position Eagle for growth? Your words not mine.

One year six months later you are now singing a different tune and telling the pilots that American Eagle Airlines will “shrink” and there will be less aircraft which equates to less flying and less flying opportunities and American Airlines will now place the EMB 175’s at other regional airlines.

Not only did you assure the American Eagle pilots of the growth at the airline if they ratified the concessionary Eight (8) Year Tentative Agreement, numerous statements were made in the bankruptcy court assuring the judge that should all the unionized labor groups agree to the concessionary bankruptcy demands, American Eagle would retain much of its AA feed and also bid on new flying.

The mildest statement is from Docket 5336: “If restructuring is successful, however, Eagle will retain much of its AA flying and also intends to bid on new flying with more competitive costs. If it wins, it will help ensure the viability of the airline for the long haul and preserve jobs.”

There were numerous more forceful declarations made in the bankruptcy court. One year and six months later management has forgotten what it testified to in the Bankruptcy Court?

The excuses that there is a new management team at AAG and the regional airline industry is dynamic are weak and duplicitous and as such, intelligent people, such as the American Eagle pilots, will summarily reject those arguments, as was recently evidenced.

Management, you included, threatened the pilots and demanded they agree to the Eight (8) Year bankruptcy concessionary tentative agreement in exchange for the deployment of large regional jets and growth at American Eagle Airlines. Less than one year and six months later management is attempting to renege on its eight-year contractual commitments and assurances and because the pilots refuse to “buy” what they previously “bought” with the Eight (8) Year Agreement, management now adopts a pedantic, petulant and puerile attitude and finds fault with the majority of the pilots, and the majority of the elected members of the MEC for not casually discarding a signed eight-year contract and agreeing to a revised more concessionary ten-year contract.

If management wanted an eighteen (18) month or a two (2) year contract, management should have filed an eighteen (18) month or two (2) year term sheet in the bankruptcy court, and not demanded an eight (8) year contract because it suited management at the time. Collective Bargaining Agreements under the Railway Labor Act are a serious commitment and cannot be casually discarded at the whim of management.

Your contention, in your latest letter, “With a no vote, we do not expect to have the number of applicants we would have had with the EMB order and the enhanced flow-through to AA” is laughable. If pilots do not apply to work at American Eagle Airlines it has nothing to do with flying a shiny new tinny little jet or waiting for 10 years to flow-through to American Airlines, it is because they see no future at this airline, even in the short term, and that is a management failure, not a pilot failure. Even as a stepping stone, the uncertainty at American Eagle is not worth a new hire pilot wasting his or her time, in the event he or she is never hired at a major airline, when other regional airline managements are committed to running successful regional airlines for the long haul.

Until management works to restore the trust and confidence of the majority of the Eagle pilots, the continued threats of the demise of American Eagle Airlines will fall on deaf ears. The only pilots listening are new hire pilots looking for a flying career somewhere else. The majority of the Eagle pilots will gladly help management shut down American Eagle Airlines, if that is management’s goal.

Sincerely,

xxxxx xxxxxxxxx
Employee #xxxxxx
Damn near brought a tear to my eyes. Lol that was amazing.
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