http://www.star-telegram.com/news/busin ... 92477.html

"The 30,000 ground workers, who are represented by the TWU-IAM Association, will also receive a lump sum payment and retirement improvements as part of the deal. Pay raises range from 15 to 36 percent for mechanics, 24 percent for ground workers, 31 percent for tower planners and 55 percent for weight and balance planners, the Fort Worth-based carrier said."

The TWU-IAM alliance and the company has agreed to release the pay scale before the full contract since they have agreed on it already and don't want to delay any further. The pay is effective today August 5, but it will be paid out on November 1, a lump sum check for hours worked August 5-Nov 1, and then regular pay on Nov 1.

The unions are boasting that they now become the highest paid employees in the industry in their respective categories. This should help build morale amongst rampers and mechanics which has been low lately as their negotiations are ongoing.

Congrats to these AA workgroups!

Direct from the Star-Telegram story, and noted in an SEC filing:

'In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made Friday, American told investors the new pay rates will increase its operating costs by $75 million in the third quarter and $120 million in the fourth quarter. The pay rates are comparable to those at Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, the carrier said.'

Get it while you can folks. Nothing is forever.
This is shades of the US merger in 1989 when the PS and PI employees merged to date of hire and advanced to the US "A" payscale in August, 1989. Increases of up to 50% were common, and unsurprising the Company reported a 22%+ increase in employee wage costs for the 4th quarter of 1989 alone, which continued for months and years on end in conjunction with other merger-related expenses. We subsequently implemented across-the-board expense cuts that included a hiring freeze, furloughs, wage reductions and freezes and increased benefit costs. The wage freeze $ was not re-paid to the employees.
The Company did not post an operating or net profit for years thereafter, and not until Stephen Wolf had come aboard to restructure the airline.
I wish the best for all AA employees, but it remains to be seen if these "happier" employees translate to better service standards, increased productivity and customer business and revenue for AA.
Just today I called AA reservations and was informed by an agent they could not book a passenger on AA and JL via NRT to Guam because the JL flight was not an AA code-share and therefore "we don't fly to Guam." The agent added "I don't even know the code for Guam. Sorry, I can't help you."
He turned down $2200 in revenue. Come on AA. How can you be the "greatest airline in the world" with one of your own partner airlines and your employees refuse or don't know how to generate revenue. Remember the old saying. "A butt in every seat and a smile in every window."
Some Special in the Air? Never was, and apparently never will be! Good Luck Folks. Get it while you can.

PI4EVER wrote:

Get it while you can folks. Nothing is forever.
This is shades of the US merger in 1989 when the PS and PI employees merged to date of hire and advanced to the US "A" payscale in August, 1989. Increases of up to 50% were common, and unsurprising the Company reported a 22%+ increase in employee wage costs for the 4th quarter of 1989 alone, which continued for months and years on end in conjunction with other merger-related expenses. We subsequently implemented across-the-board expense cuts that included a hiring freeze, furloughs, wage reductions and freezes and increased benefit costs. The wage freeze $ was not re-paid to the employees.
The Company did not post an operating or net profit for years thereafter, and not until Stephen Wolf had come aboard to restructure the airline.
I wish the best for all AA employees, but it remains to be seen if these "happier" employees translate to better service standards, increased productivity and customer business and revenue for AA.
Just today I called AA reservations and was informed by an agent they could not book a passenger on AA and JL via NRT to Guam because the JL flight was not an AA code-share and therefore "we don't fly to Guam." The agent added "I don't even know the code for Guam. Sorry, I can't help you."
He turned down $2200 in revenue. Come on AA. How can you be the "greatest airline in the world" with one of your own partner airlines and your employees refuse or don't know how to generate revenue. Remember the old saying. "A butt in every seat and a smile in every window."
Some Special in the Air? Never was, and apparently never will be! Good Luck Folks. Get it while you can.

I get it, you're angry people other than you are getting raises. It's the American way these days.

On a somewhat different but somewhat related note, where in the process are the pilots, in terms of unifying the seniority lists of AA, US East, and US West. I know the arbitration hearings were several months ago.

PI4EVER:

I just tried to book ORD-GUM on AA.Com. Unless you set the website for all carriers, it comes up with the error code of destination out of network. Granted, the agent should have found the JL flights between NRT and GUM. I remember back in the 1990s having vouchers, and the AA agent first tried to book me between ORD and YHZ via YUL, but the CP flight between YUL and YHZ wasn't a code share. So, she routed me via BOS on BEX.

That said, I remember my father having to rebook a BN flight between DFW and ORD, back in the 1970s, because of a change in plans. The BN flights were either full or didn't work with his schedule. So, the BN agent gave him AA's phone number and wished him a nice day.

And he was flying first class, because of his pay grade with his employer!

ckfred wrote:

On a somewhat different but somewhat related note, where in the process are the pilots, in terms of unifying the seniority lists of AA, US East, and US West. I know the arbitration hearings were several months ago.

I believe they are waiting for the merging of their FOS system, both airlines used Sabre DECS (lucky for them) so it's not going to require much cross training, but they are on different partitions. An October date for crossover has been set, which is when the US operated flights will be migrated to the AA side of Sabre DECS, this should not affect any day to day operations since all employees should have access to both systems now and they both work the same way. After this occurs, cross-fleeting and merging of the seniority lists for Flight and Flight Service will be possible. However, there hasn't been much public news on what the current situation of merging those lists is, so nothing can be said concretely about that. The company is focusing on the cutover first, so it may be 2017 or so before the public hears anything concrete and not just rumours regarding the lists (but at least they have joined contracts!).

I have heard that the bickering between US East and West is resolved, so there is that to look forward to...

FOS Cutover should also help with on-time performance and completion numbers.

Kudos to our AMT's and related . As far as pilots go . A merged seniority list is expected sometime this month . FOS is expected to take place in October . FOI for the Flight Attendants is expected to take place in April 2017 .