American Airlines Group Inc (AAL)

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http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/12/apfa-doug-parker-will-talk-to-us-about-giving-us-the-money.html/

APFA: American Airlines may give flight attendants the pay raises they turned down

The flight attendants of American Airlines may wind up getting the bigger pay raises they turned down Nov. 9 after all.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants said Monday that American Airlines chairman and CEO Doug Parker “has expressed a willingness to put wages back” into the union’s new joint collective bargaining agreement.

He’ll meet with the APFA board of directors Thursday to talk about it, the union said in a special hotline Monday.

UPDATE, 2:45 p.m.: American spokesman Paul Flaningan declined to comment on whether AA was prepared to grant the higher value.

Union members on Nov. 9 turned down a tentative contract that would have added $193 million in value to the flight attendant contract. On Saturday, an arbitration board handed down a binding decision that put the value of the contract at $112 million.

Last week, APFA president Laura Glading sent a letter to Parker asking him to talk to the union about giving the flight attendants the full $193 million, despite the attendants’ rejection of the contract.

On Monday, the union posted this message:

“Yesterday, Doug Parker responded to APFA President Laura Glading’s December 8th letter requesting a meeting to discuss the possibility of restoring wages beyond the arbitrated award. APFA is pleased to report that Parker has expressed a willingness to put wages back into our JCBA and has agreed to meet with the APFA Board of Directors and the Joint Negotiating Committee to discuss the details in a Board Briefing being scheduled for Thursday.”

The union and US Airways management had agreed, prior to the US Airways and American merger, to a process on how the AA and US Airways flight attendant contracts would be combined into a joint contract.

That process stated that the joint contract would bring the value of the flight attendants’ contract on part with comparable airlines in the industry standard. The total value going to US Airways flight attendants and to American flight attendants in the joint contract would not be less than in their separate contracts.

That additional value to be in the joint contract was calculated at $112 million.

APFA and AA negotiators in September agreed to a tentative agreement that put the total value at $193 million, or $81 million more than the $112 million minimum required. However, APFA members turned it down by 16 votes, 8,196 to 8,180.

As provided in the 2012 protocol, the contract went to binding arbitration. The union, faced with the task of deciding where to take $82 million out of the contract, reduced the size of pay increases.

By the time of the arbitration hearings Dec. 3-4, the only question as whether flight attendants could have “me-too” clauses that would give them profit sharing or better health insurance plans if other unions secured the same gains. In addition, the union wanted any pay increases retroactive to Dec. 2, the day before the arbitration began.

The board ruled against the union on all three items. The contract went into force on Saturday after the decision, and the new pay scales go into effect Jan. 1.

Flaningan, the AA spokesman, reiterated his comment from Saturday, after the arbitration board decision. “We respect the arbitrators’ decision and will work with the APFA to implement the new joint contract that provides wage increases and other improvements to the existing contract,” he said.