APC225

"As part of the “TA Ground School” taking place this week, your representatives have spent the last two days learning about the “work rules” cornerstone of the TA. Thursday's joint session with our UAL counterparts was a great opportunity to compare notes with them and a chance for us to entertain (and forewarn) our UAL brothers with stories of how a contract that was negotiated by former pilots who are now in management can be creatively reinterpreted using the language they wrote.

While there definitely are some gains in the quality-of-life department, the overall impression we took away from those sessions was that, unlike the philosophy the company supposedly embraces of retaining the “best practices” when combining the two operations, they seem to have not done the same when picking between the two pilot contracts. (Or perhaps they have—by taking the “best practices” that suits them.) The resulting mix is a combination of the current UAL contract, our current contract, the new flight-time/duty-time rules, and a few things that we're not sure where they came from.

As we are all painfully aware, it's the fine print (or what's not explicitly stated) that matters. We are scrutinizing the language with a fine-tooth comb and will continue our “ground school” through the weekend. Barring any delays (yeah, right!), we could potentially vote early next week. (Note: We’ve been wrong before.)"

APC225

APA AND AMR MANAGEMENT REACH AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE: This afternoon the APA Board of Directors voted to present AMR management with a comprehensive counter-proposal. Management responded by agreeing to APA’s proposal. The APA Board of Directors will proceed in compliance with policy-manual requirements and vote to send the agreement-in-principle to the membership as a tentative agreement for a ratification vote.

APA designed our comprehensive counter-proposal to provide our pilots with an industry-standard contract while enabling American Airlines to complete a successful restructuring and compete on a level playing field with its network-carrier peers. The Board’s vote on the motion to present the comprehensive counter-proposal was 13 for, two against and one absent.

We will provide details of the new agreement-in-principle shortly.

Also today, the Board received a closed-session briefing from Jack Butler, who serves as the lead counsel for the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee. In addition, Andrew Yearley of Lazard, APA’s financial adviser, addressed the Board.

As of this recording, the Board remained in session. Thanks for checking this hotline.

texaspilot76

They look pretty good to me. It's a huge raise over what you're making now. It's only a few dollars off Delta. If I were there, I'd be excited.

ewr756drive

^^^^ Ha! Texas.... CRJ FO??? Comments like that show people how little you know about this industry. You want a future, that doesn't end at the left seat of that RJ. You should care!

cal73

Pay no mind 756drive. It's always better to starve a troll.

texaspilot76

Troll?

The leaked rates that were posted, if they are correct, represent a huge raise over what the current rates are, plus they are within only a few dollars of delta, which is the highest. How can people complain about that? If everyone shoots the TA down, you'll lose more money in the time spent trying to get those few extra dollars while living under a rock bottom concessionary contract that you currently have.

No wonder the public thinks we are all greedy.

thor2j

Huge raise for who?.?
Cal 75 guys don't even get a cost of inflation raise since contract expired 4 years ago!!! Delta is not the highest, SwA, FedEx, UPS. Everyone else including Delta is operating off of concessionairy contracts. Pay rates are a small piece of this entire sh^% sandwich, just one of the many reasons to vote no.

texaspilot76

If I'm not mistaken, delta 737 rates are on par with Southwest's. As far as FedEx and UPS, you can't compare them to passenger airlines. It is a totally different operation. They get paid more because those companies make more, plus the type of operation they do commands more pay (night flying, weeks away from home, etc.)

thor2j

Wrong, SWA rates are way higher. As for cargo, yes the companies make more more, but your reason for the rest is backwards. In the 70,80,90 pax airlines were paid more because they carried pax not boxes.

texaspilot76

Unfortunately, this isn't the 70s, 80s, or 90s. People will pay more for boxes than for an airline ticket.