Bucking Bar

So, what's left of Northwest? Minneapolis, Detroit and the parts of LAX and SEA not full of Alaska tails?

What are our options, other than the retreat across the Pacific that Richard Branson told us was going to happen two years ago?

nwaf16dude

AA just imposed work rules on the APA. Anyone have any details?

slowplay

Nope.

First, this is an anonymous webboard. A couple of years ago I got a timeout when I indicated that I knew who a poster was and got suitably piled on. Now it seems that certain moderators enjoy nibbling around the edges of ID'ing these anonymous webboard pseudonyms, and there are many other posts that link "real world" ID's to screen names. Have the rules changed?

Your post goes to the root of my question. ACL has "screen cred." FtB was extolled for his excel spreadsheet analysis during the TA. There are several other posters on here that asserted what would and would not happen should we vote in the agreement. The agreement is in force now, and the company is publicly disclosing their business plan we can look back and see who was more correct with the information available at that time.

Wilbur Wright

American Airlines Pilots Feel Painful Cuts

The airline started imposing new terms Wednesday night

| Friday, Sep 14, 2012 | Updated 5:11 AM CDT

American Airlines Pilots Feel Painful Cuts

American Airlines pilots knew the cuts were coming, but the union calls the new terms “atomic.” A company spokesperson tells NBC 5 that there’s no joy in making the cuts, but claims it has to be done for the airline to survive.

“What they’ve elected to do is really kick the hornet’s nest. They told us they were going to go slow, that they’d like to get back to the bargaining table, but they’ve chosen the nuclear option here,” said First Officer Tom Hoban with the Allied Pilots Association.

Hoban said the cuts coming from American Airlines are just fueling pilots frustrations. The company got the green light last week from a judge to start slashing $370 million in pilot costs. The airline isn’t wasting any time.

“We’re going to be working more days with less pay, under some pretty significant, onerous conditions,” said Hoban.

American plans to increase the pilots maximum work time to 90 hours per month. Hoban said that’s up from an average of 83 hours per month now and that 90 hours equates to about 20 days away from home every month.

The company is also planning to freeze pensions and immediately ease code-sharing restrictions. That allows American to use smaller, regional planes like SkyWest and Express Jet. Pilots fear it will mean outsourcing their jobs and could impact passengers.

“When you buy a ticket on American Airlines, you expect to get on American Airlines. With code-share, you could be on ‘XYZ’ and not know when you purchase a ticket,” said Hoban.

American said it tried to reach an agreement with the pilots, just like it did with the flight attendants and ground workers. Right now, talks are at a standstill, which could increase the odds of a US Airways takeover.

“If they don’t have a pilot contract in place, there’s a great deal of financial uncertainty and operational uncertainty,” Hoban said.

The pilots are now voting whether to strike. The outcome of that vote is expected by Oct. 3. The union said it will be up to a judge to decide if a strike is legal.

“This is more about federal law, which makes it really tough for a union to go on strike, and American and the APA haven’t reached the point where a job action (a strike) or other “self-help” would be allowed," according to an American Airlines spokesperson. "The APA’s own general counsel reminded the union in a memorandum to its national officers and board of directors that any job action would be unlawful."

Airline labor relations are governed by the Railway Labor Act, which lays out a process for handling contract negotiations and labor disputes. Key to the RLA is the National Mediation Board, which steps into contract talks if the union and management cannot reach an agreement.

Under the RLA, a union cannot strike until a) the NMB has concluded that talks have come to an impasse; b) the NMB has proffered binding arbitration to the two sides; c) one party has declined the proffer; d) the board calls for a 30-day, cooling-off period; and e) the 30 days expires without a deal.”

slowplay

Send your check to the Delta Pilots Charitable fund. If you'd like you can add a zero from the payraise that you got that you don't want... ; (your contribution goes to help really sick and disadvantaged kids).

CAAC ATP

With this AA news, bankruptcy needs to be redefined

bank-rupt-cy

noun

1. a legal tool used with the cooperation of the judicial system to abrogate organized labor

Bucking Bar

Amazingly, those who had seen non disclosed information from management knew more about management's plans than those who had to do their own analysis

Of course, one potential take away from this blinding flash of the obvious is to dissuade people from even trying to perform their own analysis, think critically, and put their thoughts out for others to comment on.

Speaking up for the underdog in this furball ... I like reading contrasting points of view. Management and ALPA have been singing in harmony, making beautiful music, which I enjoy seeing as how today is pay day. However, I am also a fan of the Dave Matthews and Carlos Santana's bands. Nothing wrong with a syncopated beat and occasional dissonance to let me know the band had to really try to pull off something interesting every now and then.

I would enjoy even more our labor union taking a contrasting view to management's outsourcing plans. Of course, I might as well wait for Mark Knofler to bring his band over to the house:

slowplay

AA imposed a mix of the April 19 term sheet (1113C proposal), the June 26 TA and their August 16 LBFO. It is ugly.

One modification...AMR capped their current scope implementation at 79 seats, not the 88 they were requesting. But they also completely opened up domestic code sharing.

http://www.restructuringamr.com/our-people-apa.asp

Bucking Bar

Well ... it is a good program ... and tax deductible.

slowplay

SEA has doubled in size. Unlike many other carriers, our pax counts in the LAX basin are stable (ALA shrank there).

As to the Pacific, Japan has made a governmental decision not to grow. There's another country just to the west that has 385 million middle class citizens and another 800+ million trying to get there.

There are plenty of options. North America is the world's number 2 aviation market. Asia is the growth market and number 1. NRT will be fine as long as the US and Japanese governments let it be fine. If and when we lose that battle there are plenty of options. The question is will it be a painful revolutionary change or a moderate evolutionary change.