(The Transport Workers Union issued the following news release on May 21.)
FORT WORTH, TX — Angry American Airlines mechanics and fleet clerks confronted company officials at the AMR Annual Meeting and demanded a full report to shareholders and the public on executive compensation, claiming the company’s compensation committee has provided “far less than full disclosure” in its most recent proxy statement and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
The workers, members of the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO (TWU), recently joined other unionized employees in agreeing to $1.6 billion in concessions to save AMR subsidiary American Airlines from bankruptcy, but were outraged at learning about a secret pension and bonus plan for company executives. The exposure of this package resulted in the resignation of AA CEO Donald Carty.
“This is absurd,” observed TWU International Representative Robert Gless. “Our compensation and sacrifices are plastered across every newspaper in America, but you’d need a pack of bloodhounds to track down what these executives are making. And what are they giving back?”
TWU members also voiced opposition to movement of aircraft maintenance work overseas and called upon new AMR CEO Gerald Arpey to support legislation sponsored by the AFL-CIO to restrict such outsourcing.
The TWU members were joined at the meeting by representatives of the national AFL-CIO, which has long been conducting a campaign against excessive executive company compensation. The giant labor federation maintains an “Executive Paywatch” website that expose management pay scales and regularly sponsors resolutions at annual meetings to force corporations into more transparency.
Gless said that in the company’s most recent proxy statement, the compensation committee failed to disclose the amount of the company’s contribution to its supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP), nor the amount paid to top executives as “retention” bonuses.
“These contributions amounted to $421 million and up to twice the value of some executive s base salaries,” Gless said. “These amounts are substantial and clearly belong in the Compensation Committee’s report.”