As you're no doubt aware, American Airlines' flight attendants and service workers have long been at odds with the Fort Worth-based carrier over new contracts, leading to an endless parade of protests -- including ones at Dallas-Fort Worth International during Super Bowl week and one on Wednesday at JFK in New York. This won't help: In a proxy statement filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, parent company revealed that CEO Gerard Arpey pocketed more than $5.2 million in compensation last year. As the Associated Press notes today, "The increase came during a year in which AMR lost $471 million and was the only major U.S. airline company to lose money."
Hence the statement that just landed in the Unfair Park in-box from Garry Drummond, Director of the Air Transport Division of the Transport Workers Union of America. Long story short: You want protests, American? You got 'em.
It's almost beyond belief and certainly shameless that Arpey's compensation grew 11 percent over the previous year and AMR President Tom Horton saw an increase of 45 percent. Along with their announcement yesterday, AMR's leadership should have stuck a red-hot poker in the eye of every employee, it would have had the same effect as this proxy statement.
Our members sacrificed to keep this airline out of bankruptcy eight years ago, we have boosted productivity and brought in new revenue, yet only the top managers receive rewards. I could use a lot of four letter words to describe what our members think of this behavior, to be civil, let me use five letters, this is G-R-E-E-D.
It is very telling that the company released the proxy at night, the evening before what is a long weekend for many. Despite their every attempt to hide, we will shine a spotlight on this and we will continue to fight for fairness and economic justice for everyone at American and American Eagle. Expect to see protests from our members across the country.
