American Airlines continues positioning itself to walk away from its
pension, dumping its obligations on the government and leaving 130,000 people short of the pensions they earned, and pushing its unions to accept
13,000 layoffs, 20 percent wage and benefit cuts, and pension termination for the tens of thousands of people still working for the airline. At the same time, its American Eagle subsidiary is paying Bain & Company $525,000 a month to help it squeeze its workers.
American's workers are fighting back; Tuesday, about 200 protested at the Dallas airport. Protesters have stories of going without a raise for more than a decade, and:
Retired crew chief Dave Walter said he spent 36 years of his life working for American Airlines only to be faced now with losing his pension and his health care. He said social security alone is not enough to pay the bills. He said he is in the picket line "fighting for his life."
A spokesman for the airline says that "Every employee group-unionized, independent, support staff and management will be affected" by restructuring. But in 2010, as American lost money, its
CEO's total compensation rose by 11 percent, to $5.2 million, while its president's compensation rose by 45 percent, to $3.1 million.
Tell American Airlines to save good American jobs—don't send maintenance jobs overseas looking for cheap labor, don't walk away from retirees or strip workers with decades of service of their pensions.