American Airlines, in a contract dispute with their mechanics that has lasted years, has decided not only to sue mechanics for a work slowdown but is seeking penalties in a judgment from the courts. But that’s not helping contract negotiations at all.
If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please click here. Both support LiveAndLetsFly.com.
If you haven’t followed us on Facebook or Instagram, add us today.
Mechanics Contract Remains Unresolved
Surprising absolutely no one, the mechanics and American Airlines management have yet to reach a resolution in negotiations that have spanned several years. American maintains that raises given outside of their contract several years ago should have more or less “counted” as a raise for this round of negotiation.
American Airlines management has proposed not replacing jobs lost through normal attrition though not necessarily moving jobs away from the States. The labor unions believe that as many as 5,000 jobs may be outsourced off-shore as a result of American’s proposal. Mechanics also want a “best-in-class” contract that beats Delta’s current contract.
American Won a Toothless Judgement
I called the judgment American won against Mechanics toothless. The reason I find the verdict to be toothless is that it demands mechanics that are out of contract already to work overtime which is largely unenforceable and what’s more, how does any judge or jury rule which safety issues should require further work and which should not. The fact that mechanics may now notice more safety concerns that need to be addressed by maintenance does not, in fact, change the existence of those issues.
American Airlines Management Seeks Damages from Judgement
The judgment won by American Airlines could result in damages due to the carrier in the millions of dollars if mechanics failed to comply. The numbers show that the mechanical issues remained elevated the week of June 7-13 and delays were more prevalent than normal (58% late departures), though the bar wasn’t set very high (64%).
American Airlines management asked for damages in the millions of dollars. has not yet asked for the judge to order remuneration.
How Is This Going to Help Contract Negotiations?
American Airlines management may believe that securing a judgment against the mechanics would stop the hemorrhaging and perhaps it will. However, I don’t believe that it makes sense if the goal is to reach an agreement. An already hostile environment is only going to become more contentious if American collects on the potential damages.
Perhaps management is trying to show their teeth to match the tone of some mechanics but in fairness, American Airlines executives have their agreements in place, mechanics can’t say the same. In my opinion, if mechanics can’t strike, can’t legally slow work down, they are backed into a corner and penalizing the unions further isn’t going to help.
Conclusion
American Airlines is playing hardball with the very employees that keep airplanes flying. Mechanics have been without a contract for years and while both sides could suggest that it’s because the other is being unreasonable, management seems more determined than ever to drag mechanics to the table to negotiate and I don’t think that’s likely to be effective.
What do you think? Should American Airlines management seek the award of their judgment to offset damages by mechanics slowdown? Can management get out of their own way?
If this brings AA closer to breaking free from the unions, I support it.
In a perfect world, every union member would be have their employment terminated and AA would be able to source the labor freely from those who will do it best and at the lowest cost. This may mean they re-hire some of the union members but I imagine most would find themselves in early retirement.
Stephen W
Disgusting you’d say that. If it was up to Management they would outsource all maintenance to third world countries for the cheapest price.
Let’s not forget, your asses fly in OUR birds. We’re the ones working every hour of the day to keep the public safe. I stand with my fellow Mechanics.
-Disgruntled Mechanic.
Stephen W. — in a perfect world there would be no need for a union. Management and labor would reach fair and equitable agreements, and then both sides would honor them. Sadly, that is not the case at American. AA has a senior management team that is obsessed with short-term cost reductions, regardless of the long-term consequences. (In this case, a verifiable reduction in safety due to offshoring maintenance jobs to El Salvador and Brazil).
This contract dispute is nothing new at AA. It’s merely becoming more visible this summer because a plethora of other management mistakes (shortage of pilots, overutilization of crews and aircraft, and too little time built into the schedule for recovery operations) have compounded the problem.
As a Captain for American, I am affected (and aggravated) by these actions as much as (or more than) the average traveler. However, I also recognize that AA’s problems are a lot more than just a maintenance slow-down. And, those problems all start at the top.
So, instead of wishing for the destruction of the only thing protecting the livelihood of our mechanics, hope for AA leadership to get its act together and learn to run a world class airline that employees are proud to work for, customers love to fly on, and investors can get a great return from…..
Stephen your an idiot. I know who you are .. You are the worst of the worst.
Your Ex Friend
Stephen, Delta is building a strong going concern with an eye on the long game. They treat their passengers and employees well, and their employees go the extra mile to make the operation work. The profit sharing for a Delta pilot is ten times that of an American pilot. Their pay rates are better, Their work rules are better. Their quality of life is better. They have more days off. Their product is better. When a Delta pilot comes to the end of his duty period and legally extends for two hours to get his passengers to their destination and an American pilot – also legally – goes to the hotel, well now you know why you won’t get to your destination till the next day.
American’s overstaffed, centralized management model is a classic case of management by memo to maximize quarterly profits and executive compensation. If the carrier ends up looking like Air Zimbabwe at the end of a decade as a result, so be it. In 2019, one such manager actually got paid to come up with this classic solution to American’s persistent status as the “not on time airline…”: Pilots shouldn’t use the lav to urinate within ten minutes of departure.
This place would work better if the C-suite fired half their managers, negotiated contracts in good faith, and let people just do their jobs.
Signed,
An AA pilot who supports our mechanics.
AA may at some point agree to the demands and accelerate offshoring of their mechanics to wherever. What else are they supposed to do? It´s what always happens once unions forget who pays their salary.
With having to face this kind of subterfuge with their union mechanics, can anybody blame American for looking for a better alternative?
I certainly couldn’t. I recently had an overseas flight cancelled at the last minute by a “maintenance” issue. And I’d wager a bet that this willful slowdown was the cause. This cancellation caused a problem for me — but that was probably the point, wasn’t it?
I don’t blame the airline. I blame the mechanics who are intentionally disrupting transport to create pain for American and their passengers. It’s counter-productive actions like this that have caused unions to lose so much public favor in the past few decades.
Good analysis. By showing such exceedingly bad faith with their people who were the ones that paid the price when things were bad, AA’s out of touch management team is showing their true colors. This will come back to bite them in the future.
The one point where I disagree is with you is where you say that AA wants to drag the mechanics to the table. I think nothing could be further from the truth. American just wants things back where they were a couple of years ago, where they were benefiting and the mechanics still didn’t have a new contract.
Idiotic.
AA has the largest and oldest fleet of any US LCC in the near future finally retiring the MD80 . Gee does anyone else think that having greatest number of old planes with the most flight hours and miles might need a little more PM and overall might get flagged for more issues.
Having owned a few high mileage Volvo’s and other rigs over the years while reliable, they did require more repairs and upkeep and overhauls than newer lower mile vehicles in general.
Sadly, last year AA was only able to return just under $1B to shareholder’s, Poor shareholder’s (BTW I do have AA in my portfolio in ETF).
Yet, it seems that AA get monoplostic attitude and feel that they only are accountable to shareholder’s and DGAF about employees or customers.
Who helped them do that.
/Rant off/
Christian…well said, but GREED rules all.
As an ex USAF flyer I am tell you doing away with the mechanics union is not such a good idea and frankly could lead to a lot of issues. I am a partner in a construction company who’s industry is severely short of trained personnel and while I am not a huge fan on unions they do provide trained workers for us, far superior to today’s non union construction workers. The same goes for the airlines do you Stephen W think you will get the same quality and experience in “off shore workers” ? Really? I have many friends still flying in the civilian world and can tell you some of the stories they tell are frightening to say the least.
No I am not a fan of Parker, nor the unions as a whole however in this case I support the mechanic’s union 100% And would not fly the Max either
There’s no such thing as an irreplaceable person — whether they’re a mechanic, a fitter, a millwright, a contractor, or an airline executive.
Anybody — and I mean anybody — who thinks they’re irreplaceable will ultimately get a rude awakening.
No offense but you literally don’t have a clue about you are saying. Initially the mechanics are legally obligated to follow their contract until they are given authorization by the NMB to strike.
The court issued a temporary injunction finding that the unions had violated their legal obligations – and in reaching its decision specifically found that AA you s substantially likely to win on the merits.
The last hearing was over wether the injunction will become permanent. At this point damages are not even being sought. If the union continues their actions they can be held in contempt and will have some damages issued against them.
Your article takes the position that this is AA’s problem – it isnt – it’s the unions problem and if they don’t change their tactics it will get worse for them – not AA
Also your statement that the union has been working without a contract is just wrong – there is a contract in place – and it remains in place until it is amended – ie it never expires.
None taken.
If AA wins a pyrrhic victory, are they gonna celebrate? Sometimes it’s just not worth it, and this is exactly one such case. American has other union contracts coming up. If American shows that all they’ll do is play hardball, this will go really poorly in other negotiations. Meanwhile, they’re going to war with their own people, never a good idea. In short, this ivory tower bunch of yahoos are collectively shooting themselves in the foot. It’s like they can’t find their asses with both hands.
It’s a circular firing squad. TWU the IAM and the company all shooting each other. This management team has reaked havoic on multiple airlines and seem content to flush AA down the tubes as well. The board needs to realize this and make changes before it’s to late.
This management group is only concerned with profits. Greed is prevalent at this airline. Look at their resume, America West, US Air, and others that are nonexistent. Every idea for customers has been a negative. Less legroom, small bathrooms, less seat pitch. If they don’t care about the customer imagine how employees feel.
First…Delta’s current contract?
Delta maintainers are not unionized, so there is no “contract”.
Mike, it is American’s problem. If flights are delayed or cancelled for any reason, it is American’s problem.
I don’t have a dog in this hunt. I’m not affiliated with any airline in any way other than as a customer.
And, as somebody who had to suffer some real consequences from a recent flight cancelled by “maintenance”, I can tell you that my ire is squarely aimed at the mechanics who apparently took actions to ensure my flight was cancelled. I’m not mad at the airline — I’m mad at the specific nameless people, whoever they are, who refused to do their jobs so as to ensure my flight never departed.
Can anyone have a look at what happened to northwest, TWA, and US airways. It’s the same group that try to get rid of the airline in general and still get away with millions in their pockets. They need to go. Employ real hearted people
American Airlines made 3 billion in profits in 2018. Why must 5,000 addition union jobs be out sourced (done by contractors or overseas)? GREED!
Maybe those foreign workers wouldn’t intentionally disrupt millions of passengers lives in order to get what they want?
If this kind of nonsense is what AA has to deal with just to operate, I wouldn’t blame them a bit for looking at alternative solutions. That’s what I would do. That’s what any rational person would do.
It’s not as if this is an unusual practice – Southwest took their mechanics to court during their negotiations as well.
$3B in profit is nothing – American needs to cut labor costs to match it’s competitors in profit margin. DL had what, $7B? AA proportional to size should have profits $8-10B.
AA needs to continue to seek damages to break the union.
I am one of the hard working customer service agents trying to rebook the passengers when flights are delayed or cancelled. It is so difficult because the summer is so busy and most of the flights are overbooked. It is not unusual to be forced to rebook passengers a day or two later. If the delay/cancellation is caused by something other than weather, American Airlines pays for the hotels and meals.
I know personally that as an employee with USAir I had a fantastic insurance plan. The American insurance plan is literally costing my family $6,000 more a year. I buy the most expensive option, but it still costs me $6,000 more than what I had as an employee with USAir. We received a raise when we merged with American, but it was not even close to the increase in medical coverage.
The pilots were smart, because they put in their contract that if any work group has a better insurance plan than the one that they have, they will be provided the better policy.
The mechanic have a lot to fight for, their future and for the future of future mechanics. I hope they win this fight!!