I have written previously about dissatisfied American Airlines employees, recently the mechanics have made the most noise. Now, the results of their actions have begun to show.
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American Airlines Management Doesn’t Like Delays
A target for American Airlines management has been a policy called “D0” for Departure “0” meaning on-time no matter what. This is in direct contradiction to United’s new strategy of intentionally delaying some flights in an attempt to avoid missed connections. According to United, 90% of those flights delayed for connecting passengers arrive on-time which is what most customers really care about.
Mechanics have indicated that after years of working without a contract as negotiations have further stalled, they will utilize worker slowdowns through fixing safety issues at inopportune times. This has been mostly informal as opposed to an in-your-face strike.
Preliminary Data Reflects Abnormal Delays
Last week I mentioned that we would have to wait through the end of June to see the real effects of the slowdown. I’d postulate that the lasting effects will come at the close of the quarter on the earnings call with investors when the costs of delays are evident.
Gary Leff from View From The Wing found a preliminary report which shows that the airline is already feeling the effect with substandard departures and delays across the system. On-time departures are down 8% to just over half (57.2%) and turn time is down 6% from target.
Think about that for a moment… American Airlines customers could flip a coin June 7-13th on whether their American Airlines flight would depart on time. That’s a pretty damning effect, especially when the mechanics aren’t even on a formal strike.
Why The Court Ordered Injunction Means Nothing
Some have commented that a court order against the Mechanics will end the delays. This is toothless, to say the least. One of the court orders includes mechanics not turning down overtime hours. Unfortunately, it is impossible to enforce workers accepting overtime work because, by its very nature, it has not been agreed.
Additionally, mechanics that find genuine safety issues have a duty to report them. They could be small issues that only taken an extra 20 minutes to resolve or larger issues that take hours. Compound that with workers declining overtime and the problem is exacerbated.
American Airlines Management Needs A Solution
Despite American Airlines CEO, Doug Parker, stating that the carrier will never again be unprofitable again, he might be forced to once again eat his words. It’s not just pride on the line for Parker and co. The entire management team has dug their heels in against their customers with a lack of award space and variable pricing – unofficial as it may be – and against their mechanics, citing an out-of-contract, no strings attached raise given years ago (which apparently, in fact, had strings.)
During the first quarter of the year, the airline lost money flying passengers; the sale of points to banking clients made them profitable ($300 million.) Flight attendants aren’t happy, litigation is already in the works for union negotiation wrangling outside of the official merger talks and the airline hasn’t been run well. The public is starting to notice and so will investors.
Conclusion
While I am sure that Parker and his team believe they are doing what is best for the long term viability of the airline, workers are rising up, subtle as it may seem. Management has tabled the issue for far too long and will need to focus on making employees and customers happy. That could take a long time to rebuild, time that may be running out for Doug Parker and his executive team.
What do you think about the mechanics’ action at American Airlines? Will it get worse before it gets better? When will they get a contract? Is there something more to the story that I am missing?
How can a judge order mechanics to work overtime? Forcing someone to work against their will? That is laughable. Maybe last year I worked overtime because I needed money for a bill. Now this year I don’t need to work OT.
I would hope that mechanics do the work to the best of their ability. If not the FAA can revoke their license. A judge cannot grant or revoke a license, only the FAA.
Parker thinks that he is going to force his employees into submission with a concessionary contract but that will not ever happen.
Parker will only agree to a raise in salary if it comes with thousands of job cuts and scope loss.
Eventually Parker might need to be replaced.
I’m not an airline employee but I am someone that flys on American. I always wondered why things were slowing down and this helps me understand. I will say that the CEO and Board of Directors need to wake up!! They need to make concessions. In a service business a happy employee can make a happy customer. A happy customers stays with the business were as an unhappy customer looks at other businesses that will make them happy. That’s why I’ve been looking at Delta and hurrying to use up my point so I don’t loose all that much when I move.
Sorry Mr Parker your stubbornness is going to hurt your reputation and pocket book. ☹️
I recently flew on AA & will never use them again. I saw what impact mechanics have on flights when they were able to delay my flight by almost two hours in Phoenix by fixing what was called a minor mechanical problem. Every 15 minutes the pilot would announce..” just a few more minutes folks, and we will be on our way.” I had the opportunity during this delay to observe the baggage handling procedures by AA which basically consisted of “ toss and drag”. When I finally received my bags, I found a six month old bag that looked like it had been attacked with a hatchet. I took pictures but was informed by AA customer service that they had no responsibility as it looked like “ normal wear and tear.” I have flown on many airlines from Frontier to Saudi. AA is truly the worst!
The mechanics at American are doing the job that they were hired to do ; they have that obligation to the public and to themself . When it comes to aircraft maintenance the first priority is safety ; if it takes having a slight delay to fix a problem or having to take an aircraft out of service ; we’ll thats what has to be done . You only get one time to get it right, when I last checked there isn’t any place in the sky to just pull over and wait for help I think American is trying cover up there short comings by blaming the employees for their bad management. I do know one thing that’s always said ;( the fish stinks from the head).
I’m a mechanic for AA in Miami and there’s no slow down here. We regularly accept overtime and go above and beyond to get airplanes back in service. We as a grass roots work group have decided to try and beat Deltas performance. If we manage that, what excuse will management use to not give us a contract? They won’t have one.
Kudos to Bull, I wish his counterparts at DCA, PHL, and ORD among others shared his attitude.
This article is complete BS. The mechanics are told what to fix and what to “defer” from DFW management. Being the the Omni was out of commission earlier, then the grounding of the Max, (Boeing products), the airbus and 737, not affected by Boeing mishaps, are being beat up and not receiving the consistency of maintenance, being pushed to lessen the cancellation of flights. The management needs to take responsibility, not the work force. A line mechanic must follow FAA requirements, and if they sign off on an aircraft issue and it becomes a violation of the FAA, they loose their license, and are subject to fines from their personal pocket, AA has the money to cover the fines they are subject to as a corporation. There is no slow down, only individuals not risking their career. Maybe as a reporter, you should understand what you are writing about!
@Sam – Always nice to meet a fan.
A few clarifications though to your critique. First, I do not purport to be a reporter, this website is a blog, I am a blogger. That’s not to say we do not thoroughly cite sources (sometimes more than mainstream media) as you will have found in this post and others linked to it. I have also received dozens and dozens of emails from employees that counter your assessment. Further, I would suggest to you that, in fact, traditional reporters are even less connected to stories like this one because there is simply not enough aviation news to cover. You may find a business reporter writing about the American Airlines mechanics contract issue when they know very little of how the industry works – I would suggest that this makes them less qualified to speak to the issue, not more so.
Lastly, if you’re not seeing these slowdowns at your airport, great. The approach that a mechanic at AA’s Miami hub said that they were trying to beat Delta’s performance instead of a slowdown to demonstrate the justification for industry-leading wages, there’s no better way to do that than to show that your performance is industry-leading which Delta’s has been for some time.
One more thing, the word you’re looking for is *lose not “loose.”
From the Fleet Serrvice side,we are facing more gates and more flights(DFW900) without a proportionate increase in manpower. Management is robbing Peter to pay for Paul. We are forced to use a baggage scanning system that is poorly designed and does not allow the clerk to insert common sense into the plan. Can you say 45,000 + mis-handled bags this month so far ? BIG STRINGS ATTACHED TO THAT BIG RAISE! DFW MANAGEMENT will never admit this system is failing because they have the unions to blame and a Judge in the pocket. THERE IS NO SLOW DOWN,WE ARE WORKING WITH THE HAND WE HAVE BEEN DEALT !
The only slowdown is manufactured by American Airlines, 2003 AA got concessions from Ground Workgroups to prevent bankruptcy filing only to pass the 2008 Amendable date with NO new contract. Concession Contract talks stalled until November 2011 AA Bankruptcy Filing with Billions on hand and largest aircraft order in history.
AA used Bankruptcy law as a business plan to destroy aviation careers with the loss of benefits, jobs , and outsourcing. Now with the Bankruptcy Contract past it’s Amendable date of September 2018, Here the Ground Workgroups of AA sit with broken promises, uncertainty and more disappointments. AA Executives have enriched themselves, AA has bought Billions in stock buybacks, building a hotel in the amount of 250 million or more, building of maintenance hangars in Chile and Brazil, and the tight lip budget of the New Headquarters building in Dallas.
But the AA Executives have a difficult time getting a Contract for the Complex Ground Workgroups. It is hard to get a Contract for Ground Workgroups if AA Executive Leadership doesn’t schedule talks. No urgency by AA to show fairness to Ground Workgroups speaks volumes. Ground Workgroups deserves better, ALL Workgroups deserves better!!
The slowdown or work action is coming from American Airlines Executives Leadership-Unacceptable by any measure of fairness….
✈️✈️
That’s great that there is a guy in Miami that is going all out to help his airline. We at Southwest did that for 6.5 years and it got us nothing! The new management style of corporate greed fully intended on busting our union. They were quoted as going for the head shot! Good job Landon Nitchke didnt work this time did it?
Soooo, I have been traveling every two months over the last serveral years to LAX and DEN.
I have had pretty reliable flights with no problems over that time. However, my most recent flights
starting June 6th to LAX: made reservations in April. Got an alert the night before telling me my flight was
cancelled BUT they rebooked me. WOW you might say. I was to arrive on a Thursday at 1:00pm but my
rebooking had me coming in on Friday at 11:30pm – losing 1 1/2 days. I had to rebook myself.
Then continuing on my journey on June 13th…..had to make a connection in PHX to DEN. When I arrived
in PHX was told that there would be a delay (there was already a 4 hour wait for my original connection but
I had already made plans for my time). The plane was coming in from BOS and had a mechanical problem we
were told. For the next four hours we were given various updates. We departed 8 hours later.
Then on June 18th – not by my choice – I was to leave DEN on an all-nighter leaving at 1:05 am and arriving
home at 6:45 am. Needless to say, that flight had a one hour delay. It seems that I was traveling during that 50% “on time frame”.
You know what? When I heard about the mechanics’ negotiations over all these years……with AA making a $3 BILLION in profits last year (yes, billion)….and then they try to rob these hard working people (who keep the planes I travel on SAFE)….I had no problem with these delays. I know first hand during the aftermath of 9/11 – to prevent AA from going into bankruptcy as many airlines did – the employees gave up one of their most successful contracts in 2001 to give back to AA to help them keep flying……with the “stipulation” when AA was back on their feet – the company would honor their sacrifice and re-instate the ‘give backs’……obviously this never happened. The employees acted in good faith and management does what it always does….take.
Great points taken
I’m a 33 year Line mechanic,
We have given and given,
Our families have endured hardships as we struggle to make ends meet in a career that has few other aviation jobs in the shrinking commercial airline business
And a lot of us have health issues related to years of service you’ll never hear about.
You are one of the few who understand our plight.
Thank you
Who cares about AA mechanics being under a 2003 concessionary contract?! That contract is as gone and we are in a new age of aviation. Delta and United are financially outperforming AA due to a lower amount of insourced ground staff and thus lower operating costs. AA has to reduce headcount and control wages to beat the competitor margins.
We’re probably 10-15 years away from single pilot airplanes, from ground equipment being autonomous, from mechanics using augmented reality kits to work on aircraft and from the aviation industry being upended by services like Uber Air.
Existing mechanics aren’t going to lose their job with the new contract; it’s just that their roles won’t be backfilled. The unions will either lose membership tomorrow due to that or they will impose wages and benefits that cause AA to financially lose out to competitors and new entrants.