Union Encourages Flyers To Tell Their AA Horror Stories

Pilots at American Airlines Tuesday staged a "National Day of Action," a multi-city protest to focus blame for recent operational problems on management.

Dow Jones Newswire reports the airline said it was "disappointed," saying the protest was driven by pilots' efforts to bring attention to stalled contract talks. The union paints it instead as outrage among employees who used to be proud to work for American.

The carrier is already reeling from over 3,300 cancelled flights over the weekend, prompted by an FAA crackdown on questionable maintenance records for American's MD-80 fleet.

That issue drew attention... but the protest, organized by the Allied Pilots Association, also highlighted the airline's poor on-time record in 2007, when the union says a quarter-million flights ran late or were cancelled. Low customer satisfaction survey scores and shortages of maintenance workers and spare parts also came in for criticism.

The union conducted the protest in nine US cities and in London, England, and positioned protestors with signs and leaflets near the headquarters of some of American Airlines' biggest corporate clients, including Anheuser Busch, Wells Fargo, Carnival Cruise Line, Citigroup and Taco Bell.

The National Day of Action is over now, but the APA shows no sign of easing the pressure on management at American. The union has even created a website for disgruntled customers, available at the FMI link below, to rally the flying public to its cause.

FMI: www.tellyouraastory.com, www.alliedpilots.org