Road Shows and Membership Ratification Vote on Hold

The announcement of the United Agreement in Principle rendered our current Tentative Agreement (TA) un-ratifiable. We know it, you know it, and management knows it, too.

During American Airlines’ second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Robert Isom and his team proudly touted our airline’s operational and financial performance and prospects for the future. Some of the journalists and analysts on hand asked Robert Isom about the status of our TA. His responses were very consistent – he reiterated his intention to “take care of our pilots” and “match the wages” in the United AIP. During his subsequent State of the Airline remarks, Robert Isom acknowledged his commitment to match wages including retroactive pay. Conspicuously absent from any of his comments: a commitment to adjust the work rules and quality-of-life provisions in the TA in a manner comparable to what Scott Kirby has committed to at United. Robert Isom confirmed his intentions with the proposal his team made and the video he issued to the membership on Friday afternoon.

We do not intend to move forward with a TA that simply adopts the economic aspects of the United AIP – and management’s proposal does not even do that in all respects. We have highlighted to management various quality-of-life and work-rule improvements that would bring us in line with our peers. Most of those items remain unaddressed in management’s most recent proposal. Apparently, Robert Isom’s idea of taking care of our pilots and ensuring parity with our peers at other airlines is that we will be paid comparably while working under more onerous work rules. That won’t fly.

Robert Isom said he wants pilots to “feel great about their jobs.” For that to happen, we need work rules that meaningfully improve our work-life balance and how we perform our job, and we want a management that recognizes our job is more than just the paycheck we receive for going to work. We firmly believe the time to fix our TA by including the necessary work-rule and quality-of-life enhancements is now. Your Board wants to get to a deal we can send to our membership for ratification. We believe management shares the same goal. Our Negotiating Committee is preparing to meet with its management counterparts in an effort to build on the proposal management offered on Friday to get it to the point where it can be approved and sent to the membership for a ratification vote. We believe there is a path to do that, one which should be accomplished in days, not weeks.

As you know, the ratification vote on the current TA is scheduled to open tomorrow, with Road Shows beginning on Tuesday. As noted above, all parties agree the current TA is not ratifiable. Consequently, we will not move forward with a ratification vote and Road Shows on the TA this week. We intend to continue our efforts to reach an amended TA that contains sufficient compensation, work rules, and quality-of-life enhancements comparable to those offered to our peers. Any modifications to the TA will not be done through a Letter of Agreement bypassing membership ratification. Every effort will be made to ensure the membership is the final authority.

We remain committed to delivering an amended TA that can be ratified by our membership. We call on management to join us in doing so as soon as possible.

In Unity,

CA Paul McFarland, BOS Domicile Chair
CA Gemma Meehan, BOS Domicile Vice Chair

CA Doug Hancock, CLT Domicile Chair
FO Erik DeWinne, CLT Domicile Vice Chair

CA Joe Collins, DCA Domicile Chair
CA Tim Doreen Jr., DCA Domicile Vice Chair

CA Jon Sherrell, DFW Domicile Chair
FO Jason Gustin, DFW Domicile Vice Chair

CA Bill Evans, LAX Domicile Chair
CA Tim Dick, LAX Domicile Vice Chair

CA Lawrence Cutler, LGA Domicile Chair
CA Jim Scanlan, LGA Domicile Vice Chair

CA Thomas Copeland, MIA Domicile Chair
CA Anne Witcher, MIA Domicile Vice Chair

CA Wes Smith, ORD Domicile Chair
FO Paul Meyers, ORD Domicile Vice Chair

FO Paul DiOrio, PHL Domicile Chair
CA Kevin Wilkes, PHL Domicile Vice Chair

CA David Duncan, PHX Domicile Chair
FO Brian Ellis, PHX Domicile Vice Chair