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Unions Intend to Strong-Arm American Airlines

By: Ben Howe (Diary)  |  June 14th, 2012 at 02:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

With the events of Wisconsin still fresh in our minds, and the cost of public sector unions at the center of state budget debates, it’s easy to overlook how devastating big labor can be on the American worker as well as the companies that employ them.

For an example, look no further than American Airlines (AA). AA remained a profitable company in an industry full of bankruptcies for decades, finally succumbing to the increasingly unsustainable union costs and being forced into bankruptcy in 2011. The situation is eerily similar to the auto industry woes as the bill came in on cushy pensions & mandatory wage increases in 2008.

Just as the unions looked to continue their dreamy compensation packages in spite of fiscal realities (which the government was happy to secure for them) so now the unions are working to push off these issues at the cost of company health.

US Air (who continues to struggle to keep the doors open) wants to save their own butts with a merger and they are working together with the pilot and flight attendant unions to force AA’s hand.

As recently as this week, they’ve engaged in strong-arm tactics to force the issue:

American Airlines says it will reduce flights in July partly because of a shortage of pilots due to more of them calling in sick. … The 1 percent reduction in July’s schedule follows a 1.5 percent cutback in June, which was also blamed partly on higher usage of sick leave by pilots.

And of course there is some good old fashioned smearing as well:

As part of its effort to pressure American Airlines into allowing a union election for its passenger service agents, the Communications Workers of America launched an online and print ad campaign today arguing that the airline is acting “unAmerican” by trying to prevent the election.

This video explains the issue better than I can:

Also, check out this infographic which lays out the ridiculous labor costs incurred as a result of union negotiation:

You read that right. Out of 100 filled seats on a flight, the airline profits off of just 1. And now the unions intend to sit in it.

COMMENTS

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  • davesinsanantonio

    But, unions live in Alice’s insane fantasy world, along with all the other liberals who laughingly call themselves progressives. Some progress–making the company that pays your wages so unprofitable that they close the doors and then you get nothing. Real smart that! Let us hope more union members wake up as did so many in Wisconsin.
    Dear Union members, remember that if you demand too much for too long you end up with nothing. Greed loses out in the long run every time.

  • jiminga

    The unions killed it and are about to do the same with AA. I knew EA pilots that became house painters after the fall because no other airline would hire them. I suppose that’s what unions call “winning”.

  • http://MichaelHarrington.org Michael Harrington

    The one that stands out the most was a trucking firm where a single person was assigned to open bay doors.

    If he was sick, on vacation, or otherwise gone a manager had to open the doors.

    The Union there killed that company via microsizing everyones jobs to ‘increase the workforce’.

    Unions are really crappy when they go for more money… for their leaders that is.

    Well won’t be to long before more States take on the Unions, we can always hope they collapse in the next decade.

  • siquijorisland

    there should be a law against stupid

  • timchgo9

    So, we have this street, actually, a state route, that is the northern border of the town I live in. The south side of the this busy state route is a suburban, middle class neighborhood. The north side, is a county-administered Forest Preserve. Now, this preserve is used by bike riders, picnicers and kids, to just play, it has a large picnic area great for football, soccer etc.

    Problem: State route is busy, and it’s a danger too cross. So, neighborhood lobbies state for a pedestrian cross walk, with red flashing lights, to protect people walking across the street to the forest preserve. State says “Okay” but we need a traffic study..a 12 month traffic study. State says, after study is done: “Wow, it is a busy road, but since it’s across from County controlled land, we have to defer it to them. County says… “Hmmm let us think about this”. So, another six months goes by while the County Board thinks about it. Then, they need a six month traffic study. Finally after a year and ahalf the job is done. Nice neat lines, mark a convenient pedestrian crosswalk. Nice, bright yellow signs, and warnings are in place starting at 500 feet from the crossing. And two bright yellow signs indicating “Pedestrian Crosswalk” mark where the crosswalk is, and bright, solar powered LED flashers are put in place..

    Problem: One uinon did the painting, and still another did the sign posts, followed by another that did the signs themselves. An eleictrician, hired by the state, did the electrical work, putting in the box,and wires. Another person did the solar panels. And now, none of it works, because while one contractor put in the box, and another the solar panels, they aren’t allowed to connect anything, because that is the job of yet another union member, who also is a County employee to do. This person can only do the connection to the lights, the control button has to be done by the state. (it’s a pedstrian controlled crosswalk, where the pedestrian pushes a button to control the lights) The state argues, however, that since the control button is on municipal property, it is our town’s responsibility to do the control button connecting. But, since our town’s electrician doesn’t belong to a union, he can’t do it. So, now, the county has been asked to “pretty please” do the connecting. Well, they can connect the control button the Forest Preserve side, but, work rules prohibit union members who are county employees from working on non-county property, which would violate someone else’s work rules. So, my town can contract with an electrical contractor that hires Union electricians, but when they did, they discovered that these Union electricians need special permission from someone to work on government projects. The Contractor won’t do the work, because it is, by definition a state project, but the state deferred to the local government because the request for the crosswalk came from the local citizens. The County won’t do it because of stupid union work rules. They cannot make the button connection on their side of the crosswalk, because no button is connected on the other side, and that’s not allowed. Oh, and how could I forget the environmental concern, when it was orginally suggested that electricity be run to the box as a back up. That took 30 days to settle. (No electricity, solar power only… got to keep ‘em green you know)

    So, the upshot is this: Almost 2 years ago, concerned citizens requested a crosswalk for the safety of people crossing the busy state route. It took, because of union work rules, 3 months to paint lines and put up signs. It has taken an additional 3 months to sort out who can finish the electrical work, and it’s not done yet. Meanwhile, while the crosswalk is marked, and signed, there are still no warning lights because of idiotic work rules.

    Last I heard, the lighting should be done before “the busy season”. whatever that is. A friend that works for the municipality says it could be another 60 days, because the work rules need to be amended to allow the work to be done.

    one last note: In lieu of the lights, there is a crossing guard, a County employee, and a union member, no doubt, who is taking care of making sure no one gets hurt, when, of course, she bothers to do her job. The crossing guard is there only 4 hours a day…. work rules, you know.

    • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

      no text

    • thethinman

      Should have built a cross over pass and avoided the probably snarl in traffic every time someone – less than one percent of the population I’d guess, wants to go to the other side. would have cost much less time AND money.

      Of course – it’s truly the citizens fault – they elected the dunderheads who are only looking to pave their own way.

    • acat

      Western suburbs. High-traffic train tracks separate a residential neighborhood from the middle school serving the same residential neighborhood.

      Kids, being kids, sometimes miss the school bus and run across the tracks. Kids, being kids, one ended up dead.

      The parents, and the whole community, were outraged and demanded a bridge connecting the school to the neighborhood.

      It took from 1993 until 2007 – longer than the kid was alive – to get the four or five government agencies involved (county, township, city, school district, state) to quit their brangling and get the overpass built.

      Mew

  • spolson

    of it’s own employees. The last time I flew AA it was flight attendants salary negotiation time. Throughout the flight all the attendants were in the galley talking about their benefits and how they would strike if they didn’t get what they wanted. They finally wheeled the cart down the aisle right before we landed and picked up the trash while we taxied to the gate. I wrote AA a letter about it and felt they should all have been fired.

    Instead they probably got raises and benefits. When people join unions they change and they no longer view their job as a contribution to the company but a right and one that has been abused. I asked a union negotiator once “If you could get any demands you wished for what would your job be like” He said ” we would get 10 times the pay we get now and not have to show up for work, ever”. He was an otherwise normal person.

  • ihateliberals

    They use all the same tactics that the old mafia use to do. The difference now is tht the governmnete has given then the ability to operate within teh law and with it’s protection.