American Airlines Public Relations contacted me to correct a previous article stating that the carrier was not going after employees directly. Now, there are two examples that this isn’t the case.
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Labor
I have been chronicling the issues between labor and management at American Airlines for months. Hundreds of flight attendants, mechanics, ramp workers, reservation agents and even contract workers have reached out to me to share their stories. A whole lot of people seem to be very unhappy, some are suing the carrier, union leaders are threatening the bloodiest battle in the history of unions.
TWU President Samuelsen Takes Contract Fight to AA President Isom’s Face from TWU International on Vimeo.
American Airlines Public Relations Asked For a Correction
A couple of weeks ago I wrote that American Airlines asked for millions in damages from American Airlines Mechanics and received the following email from Public Relations at American:
Hi Kyle — I handle labor communications for American Airlines. I was just reading your post about the dispute with our mechanics. It says “American Airlines management has asked for damages in the millions of dollars.” That isn’t true. We’ve asked for a court order directing the union to make sure its members know they should work under the status quo as required by the Railway Labor Act. We have not asked for financial damages. Could you correct that in your post?
I made the correction without further question because I intend to offer the most factual information possible. I also appreciate that American Airlines PR reached out.
Then American Airlines Asked for Workers to be Fined
Just a couple of weeks after that was posted, however, light was shed about exactly what the order looked like. I had a post on the matter ready, but Gary Leff did such a great job with his that I didn’t feel I could add anything new. He posted the actual order signed by the judge. To be 100% clear, the document itself was written by American Airlines representation and the word “proposed” was stricken from the top of the order and it was signed by the judge.
In said order, American Airlines had specific action items for union representatives including penalizing offending mechanics by the “imposition of fines or discipline” on workers who fail to comply. How would they fail to comply? Refusal “to accept overtime” which apparently is not optional in the eyes of American Airlines management.
That order was rubber stamped on July 10th.
American Airlines Penalizing Sick Workers
As if it that wasn’t enough, the state of New York brought a lawsuit against American Airlines for violations of state sick leave policies. The carrier is accused of retaliating against workers who take sick leave or not letting them take sick leave. I don’t have any information separate from what has been reported in the media, however, if true, I wouldn’t be surprised if additional suits were brought forward as a result.
The problem American Airlines management has created is that a former long term loyalist like myself finds this to be completely plausible and incredibly disappointing. As a manager with direct reports, I understand that sometimes employees take sick leave when they may not be sick. My personal policy has always been one to err on the side of the employee needing to take the day regardless and that a happy worker is a more productive worker, even if they aren’t unwell. I also don’t want them to come in when they are sick or feel that they have to – why get everyone sick?
Conclusion
I’d really like to write my last article about the mess that has become the world’s largest carrier-ish. I’d like to end it on the note: Labor and American Airlines have reached an agreement, both sides content. But these posts just keep popping up and ignoring them is to ignore the hundreds who have reached out to me and the tens of thousands of workers who feel the same way but have not contacted me. American Airlines is directly penalizing workers who do not work overtime or at a station for which is contractually optional, or take sick days. That’s absurd, when will the circus end?
What do you think? Is American penalizing workers directly or calling for it through the judge orders and alleged sick day treatement? Will they ever sign an amicable deal with mechanics? What about the other work groups?
it’s always tough to read behind the haze of both sides publicity machines. But in general, AA should be working double, triple, quadruple overtime to solve this and make their employees want to come to work and perform exemplary work for the carrier.
I worked for that who’s this company for 30 years which made billions of dollars off the back of their employees and now have the gall to try to penalize them and not compensate them for their hard work. Such a Pity and the unions are in their back pocket.
If these are American Airlines conditions, don’t even get me started on the way that AA regionals get treated. Underpaid and overworked employees, working with unrealistic expectations from hostile management and having to rely on food stamps, even though they might work 6 days a week. Employees cannot call in sick, as they get penalized with a point system and some days FA’s work 12 hrs between countless turns without having a meal break because the schedule doesn’t allow it. Their health insurance is triple the price from AA employees even though they get paid 60 percent less….American has become a deplorable company to work for that only cares about profits and thrives on screwing employees any way it can just to make a penny
As a person seeking employment in the market, I shall mark them off my list.
When talking about forcing people to take OT it is a process called junior manning. The company needs X amount of workers per shift and if they don’t have it they offer OT. If nobody takes it then they force it on the junior person. As far as I know this is an industry standard procedure not unique to AA. You cannot refuse a JM shift.
It depends on what the contract says. On the Legacy American Airlines side they do have mandatory overtime, but on Legacy US Airways it is entirely up to the individual. My understanding is that on the Legacy Americans side a manager has to give out letters stating mandatory overtime is required.
Now ultimately, when mechanics get fed up with not having a contract that guarantees a minimum headcount, lowers healthcare coverage (that was given in a bankruptcy contract), and can’t match retirement with their peers at the same company, they get fed up and don’t work overtime, the airplanes don’t get fixed in an appropriate timeframe, and then the snowball starts. This has ended where the company is now…. In a legal battle against the union.
Re: mandatory OT – Certain work groups on the LUS side had mando long before the merger. It may have been more prominent for LAA, but it definitely existed in both companies. What may be different is that LUS employees could choose their mando schedule within the applicable window rather than have it dictated by management.
What I can’t believe is that AA is making senior flight attendants to go on RESERVE 4 times a year. When U started with America West back in 1987 I learned pretty fast that seniority is a very important issue to a flight attendant. Now flight attendants that have been with the company 35 years plus are forced to go on reserve. I retired from US Airways back in 2003 and I feel deep sympathy for a lot of my friends that are currently working for American Airlines. Guess they are trying to force the senior people (who by the way are paid more that the junior ones) out to save money. How sad is that!!!!
I did Reserve in January- I have just completed 31 years at AA.
That’s not exactly how our Rotating Reserve system works. It takes a larger pool of flight attendants to man the 3 months off reserve/1 month on. So, yes, some senior FAs will be back on reserve —- 3 times a year. Many of us find this more humane than the meat grinder that is straight reserve until you can hold it off. The old “We had to suffer so you should too” is out of date, out of touch, and more than a little cruel.
Many state and city sick laws don’t require the employee to be sick. It could be a well visit or a sick child or parent or spouse or one of those needing assistance getting to a well visit.
Your point about a employee taking a sick day when they are not sick is behind the times and the law.
Truth is, AA doesn’t care about it’s employees. Our CEO has been quoted saying we’re bricks in a backpack. Nothing will change until the top leadership start accepting responsibility for their decision making. Until then, labor will continue to be the scapegoat. Injuries, death and sickness will continue to plague until they stop treating us as adversaries.
I agree with you 100 percent! The problem begins with Doug Parker! Isom came from Northwest Airlines and is Parker’s lackey! Parker got rid of most if not all loyal America West personnel to suit his purpose!
It sounds like you think “imposition of fines or discipline on workers” is the same as monetary damages (“millions in damages”). It isn’t. Monetary damages means the union cuts the company a check for losses suffered by the company. That isn’t what the judge ordered. The union isn’t going to be required under any circumstances based on the current proceedings. So what the AA PR rep told you is accurate, and what you said in your initial post was factually incorrect, and it isn’t clear to me why you think you had it right the first time. It also sounds like you think forced overtime is unusual. It isn’t. It’s common in many industries.
There were three components of my statement in the previous post: 1) damages (financial penalty), 2) millions, 3) individual employees.
I corrected the original post to eliminate much of this. The reason why I bring it up here is because some of it American reversed in the July 10th judge order that they wrote.
1) American is now calling for financial penalties levied though they have not stated where such penalties would be paid, just that they should be levied. This is in direct contradiction to the statement American PR made (though chronologically could have been true at the time I was contacted.)
2) The amount of financial levies against individual employees is yet to be seen. While I am sure the unions will put out this number at some point, it would be impossible to place a figure on it (mainstream media put out that number, I re-posted it but have since stricken it because I can’t verify it.) That being said, it’s also possible that number reaches such a total so it’s also not necessarily false – simply unknown.
3) American stated it was not seeking this from individual employees, rather simply that they are made aware of the original order and work to the status quo. But in the order, it specifically calls out fines or discipline against the workers themselves and not the collective such as the union.
So to your point, the only portion I had wrong in the first instance was the number of dollars which may still turn out to be accurate – there’s no way to know at this time.
TCW is correct. Damages and financial penalties are NOT the same thing. You should use google to look it up.
Kyle, I’d recommend reading the source document, i.e. the modified order. It calls for the union to impose fines and discipline on its members–not AA. Of course, this is at the behest of AA.
It seems like the same thing. American wrote the order (I included it in my post) and called for the specific action against those workers. If I Doug Parker makes a manager fire an employee, is that really any different than Doug Parker firing the employee himself? Feels the same to me if not a little snarkier because of the auspices that the union is the one choosing targets.
39 years never late for work two traffic jams in 3 months late no more than 10 minutes. Next occurance time off no pay. Great company.
Hey dumb [redacted by admin] that’s next step they have to get the order first then they claim we were breaking it. That’s when they ask for millions in damages trying to get union to except there piece of [redacted by admin] contract to avoid the paying.
Thanks for your enthusiasm, Robert. I had to edit out some of the words you used but I think your message still comes through loud and clear.
AA just plain straight out SUCKS. Let’s ALL quit using them for our transportation needs. Then, hopefully they will be nothing but an unpleasant memory.
Better yet let’s get the feds to encourage and reward competition and new startup airlines. When the country is down to essentially two, maybe three carriers service, quality, and price all suffer. Allow competition and we the people can vote with our wallets. Until then it’s a choice between two evils.
In addition to the active employees being penalized by American Airlines please add the retirees. I was a 40+ year employee and within 6 months of Parker arriving at American he downgraded our promised retiree travel benefits.
You are a lunatic. Your pass benefits are now in line with everyone else in the industry. You’re a retire, not an active employee. You don’t deserve D1 travel ability. As someone who flies on a retiree pass for another major rest assured I fly below employees also
During my 40+ year career we respected retirees and boarded on equal bases. Most retirees don’t have parents, dependents, spouses etc. Our retiree contract clearly stated we will continue as D2 pass travelers. We also have hotel reservations, weddings,funerals, etc. which is time sensitive. This was also American Airlines policy for over 50 years! P.S. there is no need for name calling. Some day you will be a retiree and a party of 5 with the employee having 2 weeks seniority will bump you!
I am 40+ year active employee and I am mixed on the retiree travel. Unless there is a way to prioritize by tenure and not DOH then the D3 is correct. Quite frankly as a D1/D2 rider, I would be quite aggrivated to be “bumped” by a retiree with less tenure just because they started at a date before me. My or your 40 years should trump 20 years regardless of DOH. Just my opinion.
This is BS, I have worked for AA 40+ years. Our sick leave is very generous and as long as you don’t abuse it, it is not punitive. Sick time is an insurance policy to be used when needed. Yes, there is a point system applied for absences which equates to 4 calls per calendar year. Each call -out is the same regardless if you use one day or multiple days. The company encourages the use of FMLA if any employee feels they will be out for a substantial amount of time to circumvent the attendance point policy. Bottom line if you are sick, absolutey use your sick time but if you are a pattern abuser the company is going to dicipline you. After all, it is a business and you are expected to be at work when you are healthy not playing golf or fishing.
It’s a little complex. The injunction will in fact require employees to work OT. The issue is mechanics that historically have accepted OT are now refusing with the contract issue. So although it sucks, they will be ordered to keep “status quo”. The unions are likely to face massive fines and if they can identify individuals contributing to the slowdown they will also be subject to fines and discipline.
The airline has seen a GREAT DECLINE in Customer Service and Satisfaction over PROFITS ! I am the product of a 42 year employee before my father’s earthly transition. I have traveled both as a passenger of extended company employee benefits and non benefits for over the last 66years. It has only been the last 5years that I have observed the following;
1. In-flight reception has reached a standard of “I am here for the check”.
2. Desk and gate workers are short and impatient with passengers.
3. Subcontractors handling your bags have NO RESPECT for a person’s luggage while has resulted in cracks,tares,wheels missing and etc. resulting with the company assuming little to no responsibility. Company sky caps nipped that issue!
3. Attire expectations should be a requirement for ALL passengers. It is apparent that some passengers do not know. So make it clear when purchasing a ticket and post it
at the gates.
4. Why are you sacrificing passenger space in the air craft allowing to place luggage inside the over head bends avoiding the luggage fee?
5. The seats are increasingly becoming smaller allowing for greater profit. American Airlines has always been a premier company.
6. Bring back the pride!
I’m confused because your coverage of American borders on hate of management. Hey I’m a Union supporter but your coverage is extremely biased. We’re not stupid we can read the anti-AAL bias in each piece you publish and I think it damages the reason I come to this site which is to find credit card and travel deals.
Susan – We don’t sell credit cards and rarely publish travel deals. We are almost exclusively editorial, news and events and reviews.
In regards to my “bias” that’s totally fair. I am not a union guy, but I think the mechanics are getting railroaded. I don’t think management has done a good job and neither do the shareholders (stock has been stagnant while United and Delta are up almost double). Nor do their employees (see numerous previously published posts here and… well… any Boarding Area blog), nor their customers (who have diminished in number and are less likely to recommend them than before).
I try to be fair and let the evidence or documentation do the talking and have cited my opinions with supporting documentation. Management has not run a good airline (all performance metrics were close to last in the US before the mechanics contract started), and Muñoz and Bastian have just run better carriers. If something was once good and no longer is, it doesn’t mean I have an ax to grind (especially if I supply evidence) it means that something just isn’t good anymore. Keep in mind that up through early this year I was ready to switch back to American for my flight loyalty. I was with them for more than 15 years and accrued about 600,000 lifetime miles with the carrier.
But if you can find a metric by which American Airlines management has moved the carrier forward, I’ll give you a guest post slot to make your case.
Kyle – The ads that populate the site are often credit card offers my mistake. The dispute with the mechanics can be tied to management giving substantial pay raises without obtaining a contract. AAL suffers from high unit costs which is tied to have too many employees compared to their peers. Mechanics are asking that work not be outsourced yet AAL is at a huge cost disadvantage because their peer outsource more than AAL. If you think posting the video of John Samuelsen is helping the union in the eyes of the traveling public you are grossly mistaken. He’s angry, rude, speaks incorrect English and is disrespectful. Doug Parker is a big problem but your posts lack credibility due to extreme overt bias. Less than 24 months ago ppl were calling for Muñoz to be fired and the stock was a disaster. I think people were being dragged off aircraft and increased capacity was going to hinder margins. Things can change pretty quickly.
Susan – No worries, those come from Google Adsense and probably populate credit card ads because that’s what travelers are interested in, but it’s also based on your own click history.
I agree that management gave the mechanics a raise outside of their contractual obligation (cited here: http://bit.ly/2JJ1Kuh). The union representative is frustrated and I think justifiably so. The contract negotiations have been dragging on for more than three years at this point – that’s ridiculous and some outrage is in order. I also mentioned that perhaps they have not been as reasonable as they could be.
I have already addressed my bias. I am not generally a union fan, but I feel they are getting railroaded and don’t trust any American Airlines management so I am absolutely siding with the mechanics on this. To be clear, I am not a journalist and don’t claim to be. I am a blogger and interject my own opinions on these issues (not that journalists don’t do the same, however.) That being said, I also cite sources from independent journalists that support the conclusions I reached.
I also asked you to cite ANY metric that demonstrates how American Airlines management has moved the carrier forward. I offered you a guest slot to make your case. You’ve not done anything to that effect in this reply, but the door remains open.
Morale is down all over the company. It’s not just above and below the wing. It’s everywhere, and level 6 management & above are not listening. We get nothing but lip service. I don’t know what is going on behind closed doors, but as an LUS employee who was once very proud to work for Doug Parker, I’m baffled by what has happened with this merger. This is not the company I loved, even if our management stayed the same. And please don’t get me wrong – I enjoy working with my LAA counterparts. I just feel like management looked at the label “largest airline in the world” and didn’t understand how much of an undertaking it would be.
What did AA management expect when they walked in and told the LAA mechanics that you do too much maintenance on your aircraft and we’re going to fix that. That was also when they declared in November 2014 that they were going to break the unions. Doug Parker has also made many promises on video that he or his management team have never kept or had any intention of honoring.
The AA that I started with 30 years ago would have fired any member of management for making promises and lying to their subordinates.
hi kyle
i happen to work for the company. i’d love to give you some insight on what’s going on with aa’s outstations. i think you’d really like to hear this. thanks.
I’d be happy to hear about it at sherpa@thetripsherpa.com.
I’ve worked here for 31 years. I’ve never seen it in the state it is in now. Parker had the perfect opportunity coming out of bankruptcy to mold this into THE premier airline, one that leads in customer satisfaction and one that is ranked best place to work. But instead his and Isoms decisions have driven this airline along with employee morale down to the bottom.
I honestly hope that the Board of Directors will start looking at these two men and their performance or Parker himself will have an awakening and see that the direction that this company is going, he isn’t getting the results he was lead to believe would happen and reverses course and try and straighten out this mess before it’s gone too far.
Very biased article. Disappointing.. I don’t feel punished by the sick policy. If you can not show up for work, and causing other people to carry your mistake then you are wrong.
If you can’t show up on time and causing a delay then you’re wrong.
If you call out sick to avoid flying with certain people, or certain holidays, then you’re wrong.
The point system created for more of a preventive action than punishment. Yet we have too many senior whiners and stubborn campaigners.
Chris, I’m a 29yr employee and have to disagree with you. Thankfully, I am very healthy and I can’t remember the last time I called out sick. I don’t allow an unnecessary minor ailment to keep me out.
That being said, I feel the very restrictive point system is punative. If one were to call out sick with the flu, for example, and be out more than five days, they require doctor or urgent care visits and jumping through hoops to get cleared by a member of the time and attendance management before one can return to work. Before the merger, if one had “self management” meaning you did not have a pattern of sick call abuse or excessive calling out, you were treated like an adult and could go back to work without having to be cleared by a member of management. As an adult employee with EXCELLENT attendance and no history of sick policy abuse, I feel disrespected by our new management and their micro management of my sick hours. Btw, this is my 42nd year in the business as I worked for EA in my youth. The stress caused by this management is palpable and I lived through Frank Lorenzo and Charlie Bryant!!
It is absolutely punishment. Some times you are just sick. That’s it. Not some diabolical plan to miss work, but you just caught the flu. Maybe one day you were late. It all ads up and it keeps people worried that they can’t actually call in anymore without being punished. Sometimes things happen. Your spouse gets sick and can’t watch the kids or you need to take a child to the urgent care for sticking a pea in their ear. Shit happens.
As a former union rep, I have always disliked the abusive sick policy at AAL. My question is “how can you give someone a benefit and then punish them for using it ?” They are worse over holidays, as they call it a critical period, Calling out sick then gets you punished double. If they offered extra pay for holidays, f/as would be fighting to get trips. Its just corporate greed at its finest.
Insourcing is the term AA is using to divide and conquer. They have the unions in bed with corporate. As a matter of fact the very same union who is supposed to be fighting for long time employees was recently used to draw up a new contract which pays workers 1/3 of those whom have built the company. They claim all the subdivisions are “one team” when really they divide divide divide with the union’s help. No they’re not replacing you … Just insourcing. Greed at the top is off the charts and they punish loyal workers for staying loyal.
Insourcing is the term AA is using to divide and conquer. They have the unions in bed with corporate. As a matter of fact the very same union who is supposed to be fighting for long time employees was recently used to draw up a new contract which pays a fully owned subsidiary workers 1/3 of those whom have built the company. They claim all the subdivisions are “one team” when really they divide divide divide with the union’s help. No they’re not replacing you … Just insourcing. Greed at the top is off the charts and they punish loyal workers for staying loyal.
Instead of just New York….This needs to be an class action lawsuit! If you’re sick..and you call out…(and you have sick time) you should be able to use it without being penalized!! PERIOD!!
I completely agree!
Fleet, get your heads out of your rears… IAM looks to you as dues generators. MX is their only concern, you have the most physically demanding job in the company, and the union and company could care less about you.
This management at AA is squeezing the employees as much as they are squeezing the passengers. Literally. They are not only greedy to the point of sickness, they are a bunch of hypocrites. They have Cancer Awareness Month. “Wear pink! Make all these announcements on the flights to get passengers to give money for cancer research!” Make AA look good to the public as if they care. But when one of their employees gets cancer, they don’t send get well cards, flowers to the hospital..a call from a supervisor yo see how we are doing? No, no, no! We get points!! Points leading to termination!! Same if you have a baby..that will earn you 3 points in their punitive system…which 10 points in one year leads to termination…even if for 30 years you’ve had nothing. AA management is inhumane
People who have cancer and on leave for a year are coming back with points on their records. People who are having to have surgery due to freak accidents and calling out are getting points. People who have ear infections and doctors tell them DO NOT fly until it’s better or you could destroy your hearing are getting points. And doctor notes wont take those points away. It’s insanity.
To make matters worse in terms of the mandatory overtime is that they can call you on your day off and if they are able to reach you then they can mandate you work on your day off for up to 12 hours. I can also confirm as an employee that we are penalized through a point system for taking sick time that we have accumulated. I had multiple occasions where my sick child was in an intensive care unit and I received points when needing to be out for her care. I used to take pride in saying that I worked for AA, but not so much these days.