American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey concluded his latest series of employee conferences Friday in Dallas while members of the airline's pilots union picketed and expressed dissatisfaction with management.
Responding to increasing criticism of management compensation at a time of wage and benefit cuts for employees, Arpey began a series of a half-dozen President's Conferences with employees last month.
Two of the conferences were held in Tulsa two weeks ago.
Arpey spoke at the Hyatt Regency DFW Hotel at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
At the same time, members of the 12,000-member Allied Pilots Association conducted informational picketing at Terminal C of DFW International Airport.
American management and representatives of the airline's unionized pilots and mechanics have begun negotiations on new contracts.
Greg Overman, spokesman for the pilots, said pamphlets were distributed to passengers expressing concern about American's poor operational performance and customer service.
"We thought it was a good opportunity to get the message out that management cost-cutting has resulted in an understaffed airline that can't dependably serve its passengers," Overman said in a telephone interview.
"We wanted to highlight the disparity between management compensation, which leads the industry, and American's operational performance."
In the U.S. Transportation Department's latest "Air Travel Consumer Report," which measures airline operational performance in September, American's on-time arrival percentage of 78.5 ranked second lowest in the industry. Only United Airlines, with 78.2 percent of flights arriving on time, ranked lower.
In the 2007 Zagat survey of U.S. airlines, American also slipped to one of the lower scores in the industry. Zagat Survey LLC is based in New York.
The Zagat survey said American "used to be an industry leader" but now is viewed as "very hit-and-miss . . . drawing gripes about "snarly" staff, "pitiful" food and "seats the size of Kate Moss' backside in coach."
American executives said they recognize the rights of organized labor to distribute information to the public.
"We respect that employees took time out of their personal schedules to gather and express their viewpoints regarding labor relations and negotiations," Jeff Brundage, American's senior vice president of human resources, said in a prepared statement.
"American has created a number of channels for employees to have a meaningful voice in the company, which has led to employees having unprecedented influence and input into operational decisions and workplace issues at American.
"American remains dedicated to the collaborative processes that have benefited the airline and its employees in so many ways. We continue to believe that meaningful employee involvement and dialogue provides far more benefits than less collaborative models -- and our track record proves it."
D.R. Stewart 581-8451 [email protected]
