In a major development on the AA front and its rocky labor relations, management has reached an agreement with negotiators in the Transport Workers Union of America who represents the mechanics and other related workers, the largest labor group at the airline.
This agreement with 13,500 American ground workers, including mechanics, removes much of the threatened labor action this summer. Part of the contract includes profit-sharing equal to 15 percent of all pre-tax earnings. Pilots and flight attendants, however, are still at odds with the company.
The proposed three-year contract with mechanics calls for a signing bonus of 6%, to be paid in a lump sum, and structural pay increases of 3% in 2010, 1.5% in 2011 and 1.5% in 2012.
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) is also in negotiations with American for 11,500 dispatchers, technical specialists and fleet service clerks, stores clerks, ground school instructors and simulator technicians. The success with the mechanics has improved these other negotiations with TWU.
In the meantime pilots and flight attendants are hopping mad at the recent executive payments of bonuses and are demanding much larger wage increases.
American executives note that their airline already has higher personnel costs than any of their competitors because other large airlines cut their salaries through the bankruptcy provisions. American is the only major airline that has not declared bankruptcy.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
