No Shame, No Gain

When in doubt, take the money and run.

I am no friend of the airline industry in this country - I think it is ill-run, unsafe and a general pain in my ass. I also think that since the days of deregulation the airline industry has been constantly sucking at the government tit (yes, America, that's why you're nipples are so sore in the morning) just to stay afloat in the manner to which they accustomed themselves. The airline industry also received a fat arrangement whereby the passenger railroad would be held to very different standards as a nationally run quasi-business, and that has resulted in its slow demise. I could go into the enormous giveaways here, but suffice to say that it has cost the taxpayer far more to "deregulate" the airlines than Amtrak has cost outright since its inception in 1977. In other words, those cheap fares you get from CA to DC aren't really *that* cheap.

In the end, those who are meant to make the money (are) always due, and that was never more clear than yesterday. American Airlines has been threatening to seek bankruptcy protection for months now as their ridership is down along with their profits. In a move all too common these days, the three major industry unions voted to cut their members pay and benefits, and eliminate thousands of jobs voluntarily so American can keep flying.

So much for the greedy union stereotype. The overall loss in pay is close to 2 billion dollars spread over the next five years, and the unions only agreed to this in exchange for a guarantee that the airline would avoid bankruptcy and make the good faith effort to keep the airline viable.

Hehehe....

...HAHAHAHAHA....

What the airline failed to tell the unions prior to the cost cutting and job destroying vote was that certain executives would still be receiving undisclosed bonuses between now and 2005, on the order of twice their normal salaries, which, by the way, were unaffected by the cost cutting measures. These are called "retention" bonuses, and basically they are bribes to keep fat execs fat and lazy enough not to look for another corporation to exploit. American even went so far as to delay their quarterly earnings filing by two weeks so all three union votes would have taken place before the existence of these bonuses would become evident. Once the votes were in, American filed, and buried in the fine print were these bonuses, proof that well paid execs, who are also the only few people in the entire company who would still have a retirement plan protected in the event of bankruptcy filings, are willing to lie, cheat and steal when the jobs of the "little people" are on the line. This is what the corporate culture has come to in America. This is what we export under the guise of "freedom and democracy."

The reason for the bonuses given is to retain these executives, less they move on to other companies, where their earnings potential is said to be so miuch higher than at troubled American. Frankly, given how poorly American is performing and how well Southwestern is doing at the same time, I don't believe a fucking word of it. Let them go. Offer the job to someone who has something to prove other than how much they can take shareholders and taxpayers for, and see if they can make the airline fly again.

Those fucking guys.....