Giving with One Hand, Taking with the Other

Apr 2, 2018 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association

Job security is the most important part of any collective bargaining agreement. And your negotiating committee is fighting to make sure it’s something you never have to worry about. But when we finally see a tentative agreement, we all know the first thing many of us will do is flip back to the wage schedule or look for a bonus. We’ll want to know if it will be any easier to make our rent or mortgage payment, to pay our kids’ tuition, or to put food on the table.

But wage increases mean nothing if that money goes to increased costs elsewhere. And what good are bonuses if our jobs are outsourced? Rest assured that your negotiating committee is cognizant of these facts, and fighting, not only to put Association members at the top of the industry in wages and job security, but to keep us there.

American Airlines, however, is looking to give with one hand and take with the other. The company, despite record profits and growth, wants to increase the cost of our health care, let us remain behind industry standards in profit sharing and retirement, and, in a particularly insulting proposal, outsource much of our work. Unacceptable.

The company claims their wage proposal is industry leading, but is it really industry leading if we have to pay more for health care? Is it industry leading if United wage rates eclipse ours after less than a year, as the company has proposed? Is it industry leading if our counterparts at other major airlines make thousands of dollars more in profit sharing every year? Of course not.

TWU-IAM Association members deserve truly industry-leading compensation, including industry-best wage rates throughout the life of the agreement. But our job security is not for sale, not at any price.

Fraternally,

Your Association Negotiating Committee

The Association Negotiation Update

Mar 30, 2018 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association

Brothers and Sisters,

The full M&R and Fleet Association Negotiating Committees met this week with the Association Executive Committee in Washington, D.C. Your Committees were fully briefed by the Executive Committee on the negotiation sessions that were held over the last month.

As you have seen in our communications over the last week, the company’s position at the bargaining table has been concessionary, woefully inadequate and, quite frankly, insulting.

Their desperate attempt to steer negotiations away from the negotiating table by releasing twisted half-truths and lame videos are sad ploys to try tricking the membership into believing their garbage. Your Committees, unlike American, know that you are too smart to fall for that.

American’s leadership should stop leaving negotiations because their feelings were hurt and give us the proposal they owe us NOW that doesn’t waste our time or disrespect you.

The TWU-IAM Association will not relent in obtaining the value that the industry’s best contract will provide. Association members deserve as much.

We thank Steve Johnsen for his behavior that has given the Association even greater UNITY and SOLIDARITY than ever before!

Tell the Company their offer is NOT ENOUGH!

Fraternally,

Your Association Negotiating Committee

American’s Risky Retirement Proposal

Mar 29, 2018 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association

The TWU-IAM Association bargaining committee is committed to fighting for industry-best retirement security. Aside from frozen pension and PBGC benefits that apply to pre-merger employees, today’s retirement benefits for Legacy American Airlines Association members come in the form of a 401(k) with company matching contributions while Legacy U.S. Airways Association members have a Defined Benefit Plan and a 401(k) with no matching contributions. Both retirement plans now lag behind industry standards and require improvement. The company’s proposal, however, fails to provide the retirement security that we deserve.

Steve Johnsen’s proposal falls short of industry-leading and even fails to reach its own internal standards. Currently, American Flight Attendants receive a maximum 401(k) company contribution of 9.9% while American Pilots receive 16%. In neither of these cases are employee contributions required. Brothers and Sisters, we deserve better than the company’s inadequate proposal.

Ultimately, retirement plans are about risk. American Airlines is attempting to shift as much retirement risk away from the company and to the employee as they can get away with. Your negotiating committee rejects company proposals that unnecessarily shift retirement risk to the membership and will not allow American Airlines to treat our members like second-class citizens. We are committed to fighting for and winning the retirement security we deserve.

Fraternally,

Your Association Negotiating Committee

American’s Profit HOARDING Plan

Mar 28, 2018 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association

Brothers and Sisters,

The TWU-IAM Association is fighting for the industry’s best profit sharing plan. The current American Airlines profit sharing plan is simply inadequate. Even American’s CEO admitted that other airlines have better profit sharing plans. He recognized that those better plans have created a “compensation differential” for Association members that would be addressed in contract negotiations stating, “we’ll [American] need to close that [compensation differential].”

Did Steve Johnsen get the memo from his boss? Or is he freelancing, undercutting what his CEO has publicly stated?

Steve refuses to improve your profit sharing plan. He also demanded in his infamous “take it or leave it” style that we should stop making such reasonable proposals. He does not think American should fairly share the industry-leading profits that Association members created.

The TWU-IAM Association will not relent in obtaining the value that the industry’s best profit sharing plan will provide. Association members deserve that.

Fraternally,

Your Association Negotiating Committee

The Truth About American’s Medical Proposal

Mar 27, 2018 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association

Brothers and Sisters,

Your bargaining committee has chosen to fight for affordable health care. Therefore, we have demanded that American Airlines, the largest and most profitable airline in the world, offer the richer Legacy U.S. Airways plans to all Association members.

Under the Association proposal, the company may offer other plans at their discretion. If the company plans are as “competitive” as the company says they are, Association members will choose them. However, we won’t let the company eliminate the LUS plans that for years members have fought and sacrificed for.

In yet another assault on this membership, the company proposed to eliminate the LUS plans and offer only more expensive company plans to all Association members with no limits on future cost increases.

Comparison of 80/20 plans LAA/LUS

For some Association members, a move to the company plans means an increase in annual premiums that you will never recoup –more than $6,500 per year for many employees with families (see comparison above). And for every other Association member, it means yearly cost increases that, at best, will offset any wage increases, and even erode your compensation to the point of going backward.

This, brothers and sisters, is simply unacceptable. This health insurance was not forfeited during a time of bankruptcy and sacrifice. And during this time of record profits, billion dollar stock buy backs, and multi-million dollar executive salaries, all Association members should have access to the best health insurance plans.

Fraternally,

Your Association Negotiating Committee

The Truth About American’s FAKE SCOPE Proposal

Mar 26, 2018 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association

Brothers and Sisters,

The TWU/IAM Association seeks to protect your jobs and the WORK you do. Without protecting your work, your job is at risk; and without a job, every other benefit in a contract is meaningless.

Steve Johnsen and American are proposing FAKE SCOPE. In their most recent and insulting offer, Steve and company want to outsource at least 5,000 (a whopping 17 percent) Association jobs, across all classifications. This is not our number, it’s theirs, and it’s wholly unacceptable.

American Airlines should be ashamed of their cowardly attempt to bypass the negotiating committee by trying to fool us into believing how great their “take it or leave it” scope/job protection, medical insurance, wages and retirement security proposals are.

Without the 30,000 dedicated, hardworking Association members, there is no American Airlines, there are no profits that enrich the top executives and there is definitely no Steve Johnsen. If Steve Johnsen and American’s corporate leadership want a bargain, they should go shop at Walmart, not at the doorstep of the TWU-IAM Association.

Fraternally,

Your Association Negotiating Committee