Mission Statement
Audio Audio Audio
What is AA management hiding?  
PBGC asks court to order AMR to produce documents, testimony about American Airlines pensions

The federal agency that safeguards pension is seeking to compel AMR Corp. to provide testimony and documents connected to the four major American Airlines Inc. employee pension plans.
Attorneys for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. filed a motion in a New York federal bankruptcy court Thursday asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane to order AMR, American and other affiliates to produce documents and to issue subpoenas requiring company officials to testify.
"It is evident that the treatment of AMR's pension plans requires consideration of extensive financial and actuarial information," the PGBC said in its filing. "PBGC has sought this information directly from AMR, but AMR has refused to provide it, forcing PBGC to seek relief from the Bankruptcy Court."

What is management hiding?
Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2012
 

The junk Eagle 401(k) Plan  
Now that American Eagle Airlines will not be divested, will the Eagle pilot's 401(k) Plan be transferred back to Super Saver, and will the pilots be re-imbursed for the losses they suffered when their funds were illegally transferred to the J.P. Morgan trash funds?

ALPA and management will try and use the AMR bankruptcy to exonerate their actions regarding the illegal transfer of pilot's Super Saver 401(k)Plan funds to the Eagle 401(k) Plan.

Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2011
 

The Eagle Junk 401(k) Plan  
The AEPA is still waiting for information regarding the junk Eagle 401(k) Plan. Pilots are requested to keep sending information regarding the losses they suffered when ALPA allowed management to transfer the pilot's retirement funds from the Super Saver 401(k) Plan to the junk Eagle 401(k) Plan. Many pilots suffered significant loss of retirement funds.It has become very evident that ALPA and management are trying to "run out the clock" on this issue. That will not occur, Do not be distracted by the next ALPA/management manufactured "crisis".
Posted on Friday, October 07, 2011
 

2013...are you ready  
Remember this?
Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2011
 

The 401(k) Settlement  
The American Eagle Airlines MEC dated August 26, 2011, which contained 8 topics, failed to mention that management and ALPA have changed tactics in their joint effort to hide their knowing and willful violation of the Pilot Agreement when ALPA gave approval for management to transfer pilots retirement account funds from the Super Saver Plan to the junk fund American Eagle 401(k) Plan.

There is no doubt that ALPA gave management approval to transfer the pilot's retirement funds. There is also no doubt that pilots lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in their retirement funds. Those "lost" funds ended up somewhere.

The problem facing ALPA and management is how to cover-up their collusion in taking thousand of dollars from the American Eagle pilots and transferring that money to J.P. Morgan. Who knows in whose bank account that money or some of that money will eventually mysteriously appear? It most definitely will not be the pilot's bank accounts or pockets.

So how do ALPA and management hide their collusion? Simple - management violates the Pilot Agreement and ALPA acts surprised and angry and "files" a fake grievance to convince the pilots that ALPA is vigorously representing the pilots.

Management and ALPA now have two avenues open to hide their collusion.
1. Try and find a friendly arbitrator that will rule for management
2. Reach a "grievance settlement".

If a friendly management arbitrator cannot be found then the arbitration is postponed time and time again. ALPA and management hope that during these postponements the pilots begin to forget about the grievance and/or some other crisis develops to distract the pilot's attention. This was the avenue the AEPA thought that ALPA and management would take - the delay tactic.

The AEPA was wrong. ALPA and management have chosen avenue 2, a "negotiated settlement" in the grievance has been reached. The terms of this "settlement" are secret and will be discussed at the MEC Meeting this week in Dallas.

Not only are the terms of this "negotiated settlement" not disclosed to the pilots but the fact that a "negotiated settlement" has been reached was not disclosed to the pilots.

Read the American Eagle ALPA Hotline of August 26, 2011 - there is no mention of the "settlement" in the 401(k) Grievance. An issue that is of extreme importance to the pilots and ALPA does not advise the pilots that it has "negotiated" a settlement with management.

Why not? ALPA has to hide the fact that it granted management the concession to strip the pilot's retirement funds from the Super Save Plan and illegally transfer that money to the J.P. Morgan Junk Fund Eagle 401(k).

The AEPA sincerely trusts that Anthony Gutierrez, Dave Ryter, Brian Sweep, Andrew Nordgren and the MEC members (The Local Domicile Pilot Representatives) who granted the concession to management to illegally transfer the pilot's retirement funds have sufficient personal funds, collectively, to compensate the pilots for the losses in their retirement accounts. The Pilot Agreement is unequivocal, unambiguous and definitive - the pilot's retirement funds were to be invested in the Super Saver Plan.

ALPA had many legal options at its disposal to restrain management from transferring the pilot's retirement funds from the Super Saver Plan but ALPA did not raise a finger - why not?

Because Gutierrez, Ryter, Sweep, Nordgren and the MEC Members gave management the "go-ahead" to transfer the pilot's retirement funds from the Super Saver Plan to the American Eagle 401(k) Plan.

The truth will only be known when a Court of Law allows discovery to commence. In the meantime the pilots will have to be patient while ALPA and management try to hide their collusion in "settlement" talks and arbitration "postponements" and whatever other "administrative remedies" can be manufactured by management and ALPA to delay a lawsuit being filed to uncover the truth of what occurred and to recompense the American Eagle pilots for their losses.
Posted on Monday, August 29, 2011
 

The "Eagle" 401(k) arbitration  
The "Eagle" 401(k) Arbitration "can of worms" is kicked down the road.

The AEPA informed the American Eagle pilots on August 16, 2011 in the article
"The inferior junk fund Eagle 401(k)" (see last article) that Management and ALPA will drag out the arbitration for years, similar to their actions in the Letter 3 arbitrations (LaRocco Arbitration lasted 5 years) in an attempt to keep their illegal actions out of the Courts.

Once again the AEPA has been proven to be correct.

The Chicago ALPA Council 133 Newsletter dated August 2011 and titled O'Hare 133 Departure Volume 1, Issue 2 included the following on page 7 under Contract Compliance:

"At the recent MEC Meeting Chairman Brian Sweep offered to attempt to re-schedule the agenda for the upcoming August arbitration to address the 401(k) issue (The next available date would be January.) The MEC instructed him to use his best efforts to do so."


Who knows what the above really means but you can rest assured it is kicking the can down the road. ALPA and management cannot afford to have the 401(k) grievance heard by an Arbitrator. Once the arbitration begins, the information becomes public knowledge and ALPA and management need to keep what they have done hidden from the American Eagle pilots.

The 401(k) issue, as ALPA calls it, is of vital importance to the American Eagle pilots - it is their retirement savings account - and ALPA once again cannot represent the American Eagle pilots and calls it a mere issue.

As the AEPA has previously stated, ALPA agreed to allow management to violate the contractual provisions of the Pilot Agreement and transfer the pilot's retirement savings from the Super Saver 401(k) Retirement Account to the inferior J.P. Morgan "Eagle" 401(k) junk fund and ALPA is now subjugated to the wishes of management.

The ALPA Eagle MEC has never informed the American Eagle pilots that the arbitration to address management's willful violation of the Pilot Agreement has been postponed as ALPA has been too busy campaigning to ratify management's Letter of Agreement (Scope LOA) to allow management to transfer American Eagle Operating Assets away from American Eagle Airlines and eventually furlough junior pilots as those flying jobs disappear, when the assets are transferred to other regional/commuter air carriers.
Posted on Monday, August 22, 2011
 

The inferior junk fund Eagle 401(K)  
The inferior Eagle "Junk Fund" 401(K)

Numerous pilots have advised the AEPA that their 401(K) retirement savings accounts lost significant funds when American Eagle Airlines' management and ALPA unilaterally and arbitrarily transferred pilot's Super Saver Retirement Account funds into the J.P. Morgan junk funds in the inferior Eagle 401(K) Plan.
 
What is undeniable is that pilots lost money, but you can rest assured, someone made money in these illegal transactions.

That is theft.

Management and ALPA have scheduled another sham arbitration, similar to the sham Letter 3 arbitrations conducted by George Nicolau. Management and ALPA will once again ask the arbitrator to codify their illegal actions in an Arbitration Remedy or reach a "settlement" and claim that it was a "grievance settlement" and then ALPA will advise the pilots, as it is currently doing in the "Scop" LOA ratification vote, that the settlement is a great benefit to the "Eagle" pilots and furthermore, as it is a grievance settlement, there is nothing the pilots can do about the arbitrary transfer of their Super Saver Retirement Account funds into the J.P. Morgan junk funds in the inferior Eagle 401(K) Plan. 

Management and ALPA know that legally, before the pilots can seek redress in a Court of Law, all administrative remedies have to be exhausted.
 
An arbitration is an administrative remedy.

Management and ALPA will drag out the arbitration for years, similar to their actions in the Letter 3 arbitrations (LaRocco Arbitration lasted 5 years) in an attempt to keep their illegal actions out of the Courts.

When ALPA and management's arbitrary and capricious actions in this matter are eventually reviewed by a Court of Law it would not surprise the AEPA if, in defense of their illegal actions, management and ALPA claim the J.P.Morgan junk funds were "Qualified Default Investment Alternatives".

One of the most stunning and mind-numbing actions by J.P. Morgan is the following; many pilots had invested their retirement funds in the Super Saver American Airlines Federal Credit Union Fund. The inferior Eagle 401(K) Plan also has, as an investment option, an American Airlines Federal Credit Union Fund. When the pilot's retirement funds were forcibly transferred from the Super Saver Plan to the inferior and costly Eagle 401(K) Plan, J.P. Morgan did not transfer the pilot's retirement funds from the Super Saver Credit Union Fund to the Eagle 401(K) Credit Union Fund, instead J. P. Morgan transferred the pilot's retirement funds into worthless J.P. Morgan junk funds that immediately lost value.
 
Every American Eagle pilot should understand and realize one undeniable fact - ALPA allowed management to violate the Pilot Agreement, Section 28 and that is why ALPA and management have agreed to the sham arbitration. ALPA failed in its legal duty to represent the American Eagle pilots and management is forced to defend its puppet "union".

The illegal transfer of the pilots retirement funds from the Super Saver 401(K$ Plan to the inferior Eagle 401(K) Plan is just one of the concessions ALPA will "gift" management in the current concessionary "negotiations".

The loss of job security and scope protections in the "Scope" Letter of Agreement is another concession ALPA has "gifted" to management.
 
Many more management-demanded concessions will be forced on the pilots by ALPA in the coming months. Management and ALPA will create false "contractual disputes" as they did in the "transfer of equipment grievance" to achieve their joint aim of gutting the Pilot Agreement before 2013. The concessions will be masked as "grievance settlements" or sham "arbitration remedies".
 
The losers will be the American Eagle  pilots, the winners will be ALPA and management. 
Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
 

ALPA Eagle MEC Officers leaving  

The ALPA Eagle MEC Officers leaving the sinking SS Eagle after launching the management torpedo called the Scope Letter of Agreement.
Posted on Friday, August 12, 2011
 

The Circus is back in Town  
When will Bain, management and ALPA begin to tell the truth.


According to Dan Garton, American Eagle Airlines is too expensive to feed AA but an independent Eagle will bid on flying for other major airlines. So, I guess, AA will get cheap feed from the other regional airlines, and Garton will sell expensive Eagle feed to the other major airlines. Makes perfect sense, what a mind-boggling strategy!

Garton is meeting with ALPA to negotiate concessions. That what he says in the article.

Open the link below in your internet browser.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=45&articleid=20110527_45_E1_ULNSnA284002

Open the link below in your internet browser and read how much money Peter Bowler claims American Eagle Airlines shoveled across to AA in addition to passenger connection revenue when he was President of American Eagle Airlines, while at the same time he was at Eagle he claimed to the pilots that Eagle was making an "onboard" loss and the need for concessions.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AISystems-Appoints-Major-pz-3017577527.html?x=0&.v=1

ALPA maintains that the much respected ALPA Economic and Financial Analysis Department has audited the American Eagle Airlines financial statements (which do not exist) and agrees that the American Eagle pilots are overpaid.

Somebody is lying but that is not deterring ALPA from discussing concessions with management.
Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2011
 

ALPA Eagle MEC Resolution on Pilot Ratification  


From the American Eagle Airlines MEC Hotline of April 1, 2011 posted on April 3, 2011:

The MEC has also studied a number of cost savings ideas such as pilot placement initiatives, preferential bidding, longevity or block pay systems. We have done this so that we can present viable options to the pilots in the event the pilots believe that achieving cost savings is necessary. The pilots may decide that cost savings is unnecessary or can be achieved via a mixture of options, that includes all, some, or none of the options presented. But we can tell you with confidence that this decision will be the pilots' and the pilots' alone.

Really, this is from Tony Gutierrez, Davie Ryter, Brian Sweep, Andy Nordgren and the MEC who have already given away the store to American Eagle management in exchange for an AA seniority number for themselves.

You do not believe the AEPA?

Tony Gutierrez, the current MEC Chairman, is an Eagle Rights captain and who, according to Letter 3 III.F. elected to forfeit the opportunity to secure a position on the AA Pilot Seniority List and would hereinafter be referred to as an "Eagle Rights CJ Captain" was a member of the MEC Negotiating Committee during the negotiations to settle the Letter 3 Grievances before Arbitrator LaRocco (FLO-0903) and Arbitrator Nicolau (FLO-0108), and who negotiated an AA seniority number for himself, as well as an AA seniority number for Dave Ryter, Brian Sweep and Andy Nordgren, in exchange for agreeing to withhold the legitimate American Eagle "flow-through" pilots indefinitely from transferring to AA. American Eagle management and ALPA, in their collective stupidity, planned on violating Letter 3 to staff American Eagle Airlines. Gutierrez, Ryter, Sweep Nordgren and the MEC agreed to violating Letter 3 of the Pilot Agreement as long as management agreed to transfer them to AA. The 824 Preferential Hiring Agreement.

The 824 Preferential Hiring Agreement is a myth and will likely never be ratified by American Airlines or the APA, and if AA and/or the APA do sign an agreement, not a single American Eagle junior captain will transfer to AA. Gutierrez, Ryter, Sweep and Nordgren know this but it will not stop them from using the mythical 824 Letter of Agreement to convince junior American Eagle pilots to bend over and give management every concession management demands. Gutierrez, Ryter, Sweep and Nordgren do not care what concessions the American Eagle pilots give management, they will not have to work under the pilot agreement, they will never be junior-manned or extended and they will never take a pay cut. They will just award themselves a pay increase to maintain their current income with the necessary annual pay increases. They are currently paid 95 hours of CRJ Captain pay and flop-off in the MEC office, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. They are not concerned; the American Eagle pilots lack the collective balls to vote them out of office.

But we can tell you with confidence that this decision will be the pilots' and the pilots' alone.

Absolutely it will be the pilot's decision. Tony Gutierrez, Dave Ryter, Brian Sweep and Andy Nordgren have already agreed to every concession management has demanded; PBS ( preferential bidding) , 12-year maximum Captain pay, no pilot grievances, reduced 401K company contributions and many other concessions, all masquerading as pilot placement initiatives, preferential bidding, longevity or block pay systems [refer to the April 1 Hotline]

Gutierrez, Ryter, Sweep, Nordgren and the MEC have already agreed to numerous contractual concessions and that is why the desperate, continual and frantic, week after week, month after month, discussion of divestiture, loss of Eagle flying, AA contracting for outside feed, parking of worthless aircraft etc. etc. ALPA made management promises in exchange for transferring Gutierrez, Ryter, Sweep, Nordgren and the MEC to AA.

Management has now demanded that ALPA make good on those promises.

To avoid aggravating and increasing the evidence against ALPA in the DFR (Duty of Fair Representation ) lawsuit that will be filed against ALPA once the U.S. District Court renders a decision in the lawsuits filed to vacate the Nicolau Awards, ALPA will attempt to shield itself by claiming that the American Eagle pilots agreed to all the concessions.

This is a repeat of 1997. ALPA National, with the help of stupid and misguided domicile representatives and the MEC Negotiating Committee negotiated the current 16-year Pilot Agreement and when the American Eagle pilots rejected the 16-year agreement, ALPA National threatened the Eagle pilots with unemployment and the transfer of the regional jets to other regional airlines. Management did nothing but sit back and watch ALPA National coerce the American Eagle pilots into ratifying the 16-Year Pilot Agreement, after the pilots initially rejected the tentative agreement.

When ALPA National became the laughing stock of the aviation community, the architects of the 16-year Pilot Agreement disappeared. Some "retired" and two of them now work for American Airlines in the People Department.

How convenient to get a nice management job after agreeing to a 16-year labor contract.

At that time, August 1997, Duane Woerth was the Vice-President of ALPA.

Today, Duane Woerth is the U.S. Ambassador to the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The U.S. Ambassador to ICAO - what a nice government job to get after being the Vice-President and the President of ALPA.

When asked about the 16-year American Eagle Pilot Agreement Duane Woerth had the following to say when responding to an American Airlines' pilot who severely criticized the ALPA negotiated American Eagle contract.

'With Independence-Plus, the guys that make the decisions are the pilots there. Not the President. Not the staff, Not another airline ... We think signing a 16 year contract is a bunch of crap, it's too long...The American Eagle guys promoted that, nobody else did'...."

The above statement by Woerth is evidence presented in a Civil Lawsuit filed by the TWA pilots in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and supplied by Lee Seehan, the attorney who recently successfully represented the US Airways pilots against the seniority grab by ALPA, the America West pilots and Arbitrator George Nicolau, in the merger of US Airways and America West Airlines.

"Duane Woerth justified the existence of the inferior 16-year agreement on the grounds that ALPA National had to respect even the bad decisions of its autonomous pilot groups".

If ALPA National believed the American Eagle pilots were making a mistake ratifying a 16-year Pilot Agreement why did ALPA National not advise the American Eagle pilots of its concern. Pilots pay ALPA dues to receive decent representation and proper legal advice.

It should be very interesting to every American Eagle pilot that the 16-Year American Eagle Pilot Agreement, that then Vice-President of ALPA, Duane Woerth called a "bunch of crap", and denied any ALPA National involvement, was signed by none other than J. Randolph Babbitt, then President of the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), his boss at that time, and now the Administrator of the FAA.

The FAA Administrator - nice government job to get after being the President of ALPA.

So, after determining that We think signing a 16 year contract is a bunch of crap, it's too long...The American Eagle guys promoted that, nobody else did'...." ALPA President J. Randolph Babbitt nevertheless signed the 16-year agreement.

The 16-year Agreement will become amendable under Section 6 of the Railway Labor Act on January 1, 2013. After years of agreeing to every management demand and signing every Letter of Agreement or Letter of Understanding that management wanted, the ALPA Eagle MEC has now decided that decisions regarding pilot placement initiatives, preferential bidding, longevity or block pay systems will be the decision of the pilots' and the pilots' alone.

After years of colluding with management to strip away nearly every "quality of life" provision in the Pilot Agreement, the ALPA Eagle MEC has determined that the pilots need to decide on pilot placement initiatives, preferential bidding, longevity or block pay systems.

If the pilots are to decide on the above initiatives, why did ALPA not consult the pilots BEFORE beginning discussions with management on these initiatives?

The 16-year, no strike, arbitrator amended, IAI pay indexed Pilot Agreement was an ALPA National initiative. In 1997 when the American Eagle pilots uncovered the truth about the 16-year Agreement the pilots demanded pilot ratification. ALPA was forced to agree to pilot ratification and when the pilots rejected the agreement, management (Dan Garton was President and CEO of AE) and ALPA National began a fear, uncertainty, and doubt campaign to coerce the American Eagle pilots into ratifying the 16-year Agreement at the hastily arranged "second vote" conducted in the domicile crew lounges.

The American Eagle pilots were threatened with "American Eagle Airlines would be shutdown, Mesa Airlines would be contracted to fly the regional jets and there would be no "flow-through" to AA." Ask the pilots who witnessed the management/ALPA fear, uncertainty, and doubt campaign of 1997.

Nothing has changed except Dan Garton and ALPA have decided to be proactive and begin the fear, uncertainty and doubt campaign early to terrorize the American Eagle pilots into voting for a long term, no strike, 12-year longevity pay capped, reduced 401(k), all reserve, preferential bidding, re-assignment at will, no grievance contract.

What management and ALPA are hoping for is that the American Eagle pilots are so intimidated and terrorized that they will just agree to extend the 16-year Pilot Agreement for another 16 years.

No Section 6 negotiations, just a nice long extension that saves the Company and ALPA millions.

Divestiture, or spin-off, or whatever management and ALPA will call the paper shuffle they are still trying to decide on, the transfer of the CRJ aircraft to AA, the transfer of Eagle flying to BummFuk Airlines are all re-inventions of the 1997 threats.

As in 1997, ALPA, after agreeing to every contractual concession management has asked for, will take a cowards step back and agree to pilot ratification thereby establishing the Duane Woerth defense, We think signing a 16 year contract is a bunch of crap, it's too long...The American Eagle guys promoted that, nobody else did'...."

Pilot ratification is an ongoing process and it BEGINS with the pilots deciding what to negotiate and what not to negotiate. It does not begin after ALPA has decided to preemptively grant management concessions regarding contractual changes.

Before the ALPA Eagle MEC decided to negotiate with management over pilot placement initiatives, preferential bidding, longevity or block pay systems, the American Eagle pilots should have been polled by referendum.

Good Luck in 2013.
Posted on Saturday, March 12, 2011
 

View All Comments
Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register