American Airlines Still Doesn't Understand

I have to wonder about the leadership at American Airlines. Do they not understand the rank-and-file employees are the backbone of the company, or do they just not care as long as they can feed millions of dollars into their own bank accounts. Maybe it's both.

Back in 2003, the airline was in trouble and the employees came to its rescue. They agreed to take paycuts to keep the airline afloat. They thought these cuts would just be temporary, and once the airline was again making money their salaries would be reinstated. They were wrong.

It seems the airline's top management had a different idea. The airline has made hundreds of millions of dollars the last couple of years, but there has not even been a discussion of whether to restore the paycuts of line employees.

Meanwhile, top management has rewarded themselves handsomely. Here is the compensation given to the airline's top five leaders:

Gerard Arpey, CEO, $6.6 million
Tom Horton, CFO, $2.8 million
Dan Garton, executive vice president of marketing, $2.8 million
Robert Reding, senior vice president of technical operations, $2.6 million
Gary Kennedy, general counsel, $1.7 million

In addition, this last week over $38 million in bonuses was given out to the airline's top executive and managers. Last year, even larger bonuses were awarded to these same people. It seems strange that while workers are still working for partial salaries, the management are rewarding themselves with millions in bonuses.

Evidently, the management thinks they are the only important people in the company -- the only ones worthy of sharing in the companies good fortunes. Someone needs to remind them that there wouldn't even be a company except for the sacrifice in pay by the employees. And there wouldn't be any profit except for the hard work and dedication of the employees.

Hard-working and dedicated employees could help the company turn a profit even with second-rate management. But the best managers in the world could not turn a profit with poorly performing employees. The airline's leaders need to understand who's doing the hard work that earns profits and repeat customers (and it isn't management).

Not a single dollar in management bonuses should have been awarded until the salaries of employees had been fully restored. These management bonuses were a slap in the face to the employees.