If he is management then it’s all the more reason to engage with him. No need for mud slinging. I legitimately want to know why it’s reasonable for 50-76 seat RJ pilots at our WO carriers to make 500K plus massive bonuses, and it’s not for us?

 

Right on, man. Absolutely 1000% agree.

 

From Ed Sicher:

"By now, you’ve probably heard that our recent attempts to improve our pay and work rules over what was previously offered at the negotiating table was met with total disdain by Robert Isom and his negotiators. With respect to pay, we received a pass back from management that has been whittled down to a 10/5/3, with the 5 percent being offered at date of signing plus one, and a cap on the snap-ups of 2.5 percent that may require us to arbitrate if Delta and United ink deals that significantly exceed ours. This almost ensures that we will lag our peers in pay.And remember, this take-it-or-leave-it pay offer is being made at a time when railway workers are receiving a 14 percent pay raise, with a retro pay of 14 percent back 2.5 years, and a 24 percent pay increase over the life of their contract. Robert Isom must think that we are either completely ignorant of the profitability of our company, or so beaten down that we are willing to negotiate a contract that leaves us behind inflation at a time when we enjoy our greatest leverage.

Remember also that the 10/5/3 on the table is really a 0/0/10/5/3/0/0, since we have already worked two years without pay increases, and if history is any indicator, we may have to work for another two years after this contract has expired in order to secure future pay raises. I expect that you share my view that this is completely unacceptable.

Make no mistake about it – this contract is not only about pay. It is also about quality-of-life improvements, especially with respect to scheduling. The scheduling crisis of this past summer is simply a result of mismanagement. We can no longer tolerate an abrogation of our seniority to rescue their flailing operation. Forced productivity without contractual safeguards must be addressed in this contract. We would be remiss to pass up this opportunity to improve our scheduling rules in this Section 6, and currently there are no safeguards in the proposal that management has presented.

The Negotiating Committee recently tried to secure a guarantee of the distribution of trip lengths that would put a floor under the number of one- and two-day trips and cap the number of four- and five-day trips. Remember, this is after a summer in which they have locked us out from our ability to trade trips, in some cases for entire months. Then, they constructed narrowbody sequences primarily of four- and five-day trips bound to fall apart. That’s left us in onerous recovery obligation and made our senior lineholders into junior reserves. What was management’s response to our proposal? They gave us the hand. They won’t even entertain these protections.

I’ve relayed our message to David Seymour and Robert Isom. If they wanted to further anger our pilots over scheduling abuses, they couldn’t have done a better job! I’ve repeatedly emphasized that the integrity of the schedule will best be improved by incentives instead of force.

I recognize the fact that, at the end of the day, the Negotiating Committee gets their direction from the Board of Directors, but I also know for certain that the Board of Directors takes their direction from you, the members.

For that reason, I need you to stay focused, stay informed, and remember what you’ve earned and what you’re worth. At this critical juncture in time, we need to stay unified and stand strong on this assault on our profession and our quality of life by this hapless management team.

I will continue to take the fight to management and carry our message to Capitol Hill, to our investors, and to our sister unions who are engaged in similar struggles.

Please stay informed, remain engaged, and keep the faith.

Fly safe, and thanks for listening."

 

Pretty much everyone agrees that bringing regional flying in-house is a good thing.

You had this same bizarre argument a few months ago, trying to blame APA as the sole obstacle towards bringing regional flying in-house. It still doesn’t make sense- AA could merge its whole owneds tomorrow and start flowing en masse to mainline, getting them a mainline seniority number, bringing CRJs and ERJs in-house at mainline rates, having a massive vacancy bid for these new airplanes, increase their capacity beyond 76 seats, etc. They don’t need permission from APA. It’s not like AA’s incompetent management listens to APA anyway. It’s also not like AA was on board with all this but APA objected and they decided “oh well, APA doesn’t want to play, let’s outsource to Air Wisconsin instead”.

Bringing everything in-house would certainly have consequences, one of which would be essentially eliminating AA as a desireable destination for any military/OTS applicant for years. Not the end of the world, but definitely something to consider.

I’m not saying APA isn’t dysfunctional. It absolutely is. But this “if only APA worked with the regional ALPA MECs!” thing is just bizarre.

 

Without going into things I can’t/won’t… There was more buy-in than you may think. And it was the more cost-effective solution for AAG that would have resulted in more money for APA pilots. It was made clear to us that APA itself would be the road block and that was correct.

 

Ok. “I have insider knowledge but I can’t share it so you’ll just have to believe me”. Yawn.

AA hates APA and its pilots. I find it really hard to believe that AA was all about bringing the regionals in-house, but APA’s supposed objections brought it to a halt. That makes zero sense.

 

Uh, I mean I do. Or at least I did. I’m not in the loop anymore. It’s really no secret though if you dig through my posts if you’re really that interested. I wouldn’t be personally, but you do you.

Overall my prediction earlier this year that no legacy airline would achieve a contract before we hit a recession will likely hold true. Pilot expectations won’t align with what management can justify to their Boards, especially with the uncertainties of a recession looming. So we’ll all likely deal with making the same or less than regional pilots until we either agree to less than we deserve or don’t agree and keep negotiating until we hit more favorable conditions.

 

Yet they authorized insane pay rates and bonuses for their regional pilots. Crazy.

I'm guessing that none of the major pilot groups will cave. We’ve all had it up to here with our ever decreasing QOL and relative pay. If it takes years, so be it.

 

How is some (supposed) failure of APA leadership to jump enthusiastically at a WO merger the fault of “toxic” AA line pilots???

A - I don’t believe you.

B - There are only about 4000 LAA “toxic” pilots left at a 15,000 pilot airline.
things are changing here…

C - Why would AA need APA’s blessing to do it??

AAG is already the largest in house work force in the industry. It makes zero sense to merge the WO’s into mainline. The ramifications go beyond just pilots. Every other work group is unionized and has their own scope rules and higher expense contracts.

 

Yea he lost me as well.