Cost neutral or reduced. Motivation neutral
 

I can't wrap my head around our CEO's comments given he must know we read these transcripts and pay attention. He must not give a crap and wants us to know how little he thinks of us. He has no interest in taking care of us yet would ask that we go the extra mile to take care of the airline and the customers.

Bendo should seriously consider taking this high five program and shoving it up his johno.

I thought my morale had hit bottom after the "low tier" comments and the obvious stalling at the negotiations table. After this comment my morale has hit a new low.

The only thing that gives me any hope is the spark of unity that I am starting to see around campus. It's nice and I look forward to taking this thing all the way to what we deserve in our new contract.

I can't imagine the union giving us a contract to vote on that was cost neutral. This is going to be a long long process which will inevitably end with a strike. What worries me is we presented them with an industry average contract leaving us no room to negotiate except down and us ending up behind again. This makes me worry that the union thinks we have no chance of getting a similar contract to everyone else.

Ask needs to go up with AA getting mid cycle raises

It needs to go up from industry standard to industry leading so we can end up at industry standard. Right now.....who knows.

Strike vote now!

What did you expect him to say? to investors nonetheless," Geez I wanna add $200 million to the bottom line totaling, $800 over the next 4 years?? They WILL pay us because the market dictates it.. but if you think he's gonna tell wall street he wants to add $800 million to the bottom line just because he appreciates us and rather pay us than keep that as profit.... then its you that is detached from reality

A couple of points;

First, if you start at industry average being one of the most profitable airlines there's no rational reason to settle for lower. Period. End of discussion. And I believe that's our negotiating committees belief as well. And while I won't voice what I will vote for, the NC knows, their ask reflects it.

Secondly, you can't rationally demand in mediation a compensation package outside the "zone of agreeableness ".... It sounds asinine, but if we did that, we'd look the fool and damage our case for a release....

Thirdly, this isn't a car purchase where you ask low expecting to meet in the middle (as management is hoping with their offer). One must have a rational and justified case for their proposal and ALPA EFA has proven that our ask isn't only reasonable, it is sustainable. There is no reason to move off of it. If they do (which is entirely possible) other numbers will change as well. Don't get wrapped up around a singular number but rather look at the entire thing.

Hell ya it does

Being paid 7 million a year I would expect him to not step on his d*ck everytime he talks about his employees

Ok- so when our negotiators go to the NMB to give a status update on May 11 and Linda Puchala asks why we have taken a strike vote on the company's very first pass, what do you expect them to say? How do they justify it?

We'll look like a bunch of petulant children rather than professional aviators.

I have faith in my union, leadership, and negotiators. We need to be the adults in the room even when management isn't.

Let Bendover explain why he had a sudden case of Jury Duty at the last minute and couldn't attend bargaining on more than one occasion. For us, let's stay the course, focus, follow our union's lead and get the deal we all deserve. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And to get to the end game of a deal or a release, we have to play the game better, because it's rigged against us from the start.

I agree with this. We need to get behind our union. If we want clarification on what is happening we need to reach out to them directly. They do a good job of making themselves available

This guy gets it.

I expect him to be honest with analysts during an earnings Q&A, as both an employee and an investor. And by answering the way he did means one of two things: 1) He lied and he knows it in an attempt to paint a prettier CASM picture into the future, or 2) He actually believes himself, which means us and Wall Street should all be concerned for his mental capacity to run an airline.

How reasonable will it sound to not budge on a single point during negotiations? How is that going to look? What other airline in history has gotten the exact contract it put forth on its first ask?

I think it is reasonable for us to ask for a leading contract as we are the most profitable airline and we carry the most passengers for the planes we fly.

Come tell me this same story when we get the first contract to vote on. I hope you're right but I don't think it will pan out that way. I'd say there is a 70% chance the company will drag this out forever just like they did to the flight attendants (9 years) and eventually we will have to strike.

First pass? This has been going on for over 2 years, man. He could say this to the NMB; we had many of these sections completed with an AIP, but mgt decided to toss those out the window and drag this out. We arguably aren't even half way through with negotiations, because these sections take longer, and it's all because they slammed a torpedo in everything we'd already accomplished. This ain't the first pass.

It's actually good for us that he makes so much bank. It gives us a much better argument for industry average pay if our CEO is IA (or better). It's harder to argue for IA if Bob actually "Lead By Example" and was the Cost Nutral CEO.

It's not industry average!!! It's industry standard! Two different things

Not they're first pass. They sent us they're first piece of trash a year and a half ago and here we are 18 months later with more trash, CEO tells Wall Street he wants cost neutral. That isn't negotiating! COO gets jury duty with 24hr notice. Really??!!!

Strike vote now!!!