The premise of your editorial”The AMR Union Warning” (Dec. 1) about AMR’s bankruptcy filing—that workers and unions are unwilling to address changing circumstances—is simply false.
In 2003, responding to industry challenges following 9/11, members of our union and other workers at American Airlines and American Eagle agreed to reduce our compensation by billions of dollars. These concessions, we reasoned, would help management put the business on a sustainable path.
We, the Transport Workers Union of America members lived up to our end of the bargain, actually boosting AMR’s bottom line by bringing in substantial new business due to the quality of our repair and maintenance work. But management failed to execute. It didn’t upgrade the fleet, missed merger opportunities and lost money year after year. While our members were living with reduced incomes, management rewarded its losing strategy by taking hundreds of millions in executive bonuses. Now it’s declared bankruptcy, while sitting on a $4 billion cash hoard.
If you’re wondering why people are fed up with Wall Street, it might be because we’re tired of seeing wealthy elites blame ordinary citizens for all the world’s financial problems. And we’re mad as hell that no matter what the problem, a reduced standard of living for the middle class is always offered as the solution.
James C. Little
International President
TWUA
Washington
The reasons for AMR’s bankruptcy are manifold, but greatest among them is the loss of management’s moral authority to lead. Contrary to your editorial, AMR’s bankruptcy is not due to “numbers [that] simply don’t add up,” but more importantly to a failure of leadership principles so basic you would have to be blind not to see them.
Steve Borgess
Captain, American Airlines (Ret.)
Wachapreague, Va.
There used to be a sense of shame directed toward companies that used bankruptcy to zero out shareholder value, rip up contracts with their employees and dodge legally enforceable debt obligations. Apparently that’s been replaced by a new and enlightened view: strategic bankruptcy. It’s too bad that a once great company has stooped to this.
John R. Fitzgerald
First Officer, American Airlines
Burlington, Wis.