About 200 American Airlines pilots demonstrated in front of Terminal D at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport on Wednesday, expressing unity for an industry-leading contract with the carrier.
They walked in front of four different areas of the terminal by the arrival entrances, holding signs that said "Treat employees as allies...not adversaries" and "Take care of your employees, we'll take care of our airline."
The Allied Pilots Association has been in intense negotiations for the past couple of weeks with American trying to negotiate a new contract after a bankruptcy judge allowed the carrier to reject its old contract and impose new work rules that American says is necessary to restructure successfully.
"This is a unity march to show the public and the management that we are unified in achieving an industry-standard contract that we know we deserve," said APA president Keith Wilson.
Wilson said progress has been made at the bargaining table but there are still several contentious issues such as code-sharing, regional jet flying and wage rates that have not been agreed upon.
Both sides have said recently they are hoping to reach a new contract deal within the next few days, possibly by Thursday so the APA board of directors, who will be meeting Wednesday afternoon through Friday, can decide if it will send a tentative agreement on to its members for a ratification vote.
-Andrea Ahles
A couple hundred pilots picketing is not going to put much pressure on AA's management to budge. And I'm a little sick of seeing these pilots who make well into the six figure range acting like they are poverty stricken.
Posted by: airlinerealist | November 01, 2012 at 06:42 PM
Enlighten me what "well into the six figure range" is to you? I want to know what these rich pilots make.
Posted by: chris | November 06, 2012 at 08:18 AM