AA Pilots: Bankruptcy is YOUR Fault

From Paris —

There’s no small amount of irony that AMR, parent of American Airlines and American Eagle, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — a move certain to save the carrier millions over the next few years — only a day before 2,000,000 million British public sector workers walked off the job to protest pension cuts in the UK.

Gerald Arpey stepping down as American’s CEO is just a tad late though since the airline lost billions in six of the eight years he ran the place. The union’s hated him so it was no surprise management told everyone that the straw that pushed the carrier over the edge was the inability of AA’s 11,000+ pilots to agree on productivity cuts in the upcoming contract.

You bad pilots.

The greedy Allied Pilots Association’s Master Executive Council, in fact, reportedly refused to even present management’s last offer to the rank and file. Clearly, just as in Britain, fault clearly rests with labor. Here we are in the worst recession/depression in a century and these damned pilots still want stuff. The nerve of these pilots trying to outmaneuver management.

Now American’s filed bankruptcy because those greedy employees went out and blew their huge bonuses again with no thought for tomorrow. Oh wait a minute … that’s right … it was just management who picked up those bonuses wasn’t it.  Oh whatever.

Obviously those stupid pilots don’t realize the corner they’ve put management in. Those poor fat cats are down to their last $4.1 B in cash too. That doesn’t leave much for anyone else for god’s sake.

C’mon you American pilots. Times really are tough. Can’t you just take one more for the team … just once more? Management’s got your back this time … really.

“Oh Paaaleazzzze!” But a common philosophy that labor and management are natural enemies is also ridiculous. That antagonism was born from too many layers of airline management losing touch with the pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and ground personnel who actually perform the work.

American employees — like the rank and file at most of the other airlines in the US — have spent most of the last decade giving back to their airline when times are hard, only to be stalled by management waiting for a payback when times improved. In fact, quite a few other airlines became successful, can you say Delta/Northwest and United, because employees pretty much always rolled over when times were tough.

I’d never sit here and arrogantly tell another labor group what to do, like the pilots at AA for instance. As the pilot of a failed airline, I know how bad things can become. No one wants to see another Eastern Airlines fiasco.

But from where I sit, American doesn’t have employees over a barrel. It’s the other way around. I just hope employees realize it. Just like the debt crisis that’s sweeping here through Europe, everyone is going to need to be responsible for their actions …in this case  labor AND management. But if Boeing can make a deal with the IAM, there’s hope for everyone, isn’t there?

Not surprisingly, pundits around the world have already taken great creative pains to poke at AA management. The nerve of these people too. Here’s a look at AA’s bankruptcy from Taiwan.

Rob Mark, Publisher & AA Advantage member

PS to Tom Horton — might want to rethink that scope clause thing you were hoping the pilots were going to go along with.