The Final Straw: Board Representing AA Pilots Votes “No Confidence” in CEO Doug Parker
Jeff Edwards February 15, 2017
The labor union’s executive board took the unusual step of officially and publicly rebuking the American Airlines management team in a resolution announced on Monday.
Representatives of the Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents nearly 15,000 American Airlines pilots, say that CEO Doug Parker’s decision to skip a White House meeting with airline industry leaders hosted by President Donald Trump last week was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” On Monday, the Union’s Board of Directors and National Officers passed a resolution declaring that the labor leaders “have lost confidence in Doug Parker and his management team’s ability to successfully lead American Airlines.”
In the resolution, the APA cited AA management’s seeming unwillingness to follow the collective bargaining agreement that is currently in place and Parker’s failure to deliver on a promise to make a “positive cultural change at the company.” The resolution noted that these promises were made in part to gain the union’s support for the largest airline merger in US history. Now that the merger is complete, the APA claims that under Parker’s leadership, these good-faith agreements have mostly been ignored.
“Since the merger closed over three years ago, we have witnessed questionable economic and strategic decisions that have created gaps in the areas of customer satisfaction, operational performance, and revenue when compared to industry leader Delta,” APA President Captain Dan Carey said in a statement announcing the resolution. “These gaps may have a lasting negative impact on the future profitability and success of American Airlines.”
APA officials insist that while the merger is paying huge dividends for shareholders and management, American Airlines employees seem to be falling further and further behind the rest of the airline industry. The statement announcing the resolution laments the fact that at the very moment Delta Airlines employees are set to earn profit sharing from a pool of nearly $1.1billion, American Airlines flight attendants are left to picket at AA hubs over serious workplace safety concerns.
The airline largely dismissed Monday’s vote as an unnecessary distraction. “We have a solid foundation in place upon which to build and are pleased with the progress thus far,” the airline said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Therefore, further public dialogue serves no purpose.”
[Photo: Shutterstock]
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So the Pilots have only Just learned something AAdvantage Members have known for years.
After I got off an AA flight rom DFW to DCA on a beat up old USAir A321 with no powe outletsr, broken wifi, no coat closet and full overheads for F class passengers, I have no confidence in AA management either. These guys think is is perfectly OK for paid F class and then have the nerve to complain about ME3 airlines that fly new planes with great service. SMH....
I understand and recognize that all AA management is only good for themselves. But the refusal to go to the meeting with the Russian agent was the only sign of sanity. Those meeting are only photo ops for the doritto dusted man and only have Goebels propaganda value to him. Unions - wake up - Trump will destroy you.
What is with the shutterstock image? Why is the plane flying at a low altitude toward the Empire State Building?
A perfect illustration of the old adage "Be careful what you ask for because you might get it." Well, you knew his record at US Airways and you still picked him, Einsteins ...