In 2001, the FAA created the created the prestigious Charles E. Taylor Master Mechanic Award to honor AMTs, who had served at least 50 years in aircraft maintenance. The following year, California Senator Knight introduced a resolution honoring Aviation Maintenance Technicians annually in honor of Charles Taylor’s birthday. Charles Taylor was the machinist who built the engine to turn the Wright Glider into the first powered aircraft.
Thursday, May 24th is AMT Day – a day we honor the AMTs who ensure we have a safe aircraft for us to fly on, for our family and friends to travel on and for some of our members work on. Without the skills and dedication of our AMT brothers and sisters, the log books are not signed off and the aircraft don’t fly. We thank all our AMTs for doing their job, to the highest level of integrity, to keep us safe!
Unfortunately, at American Airlines, they don’t believe you deserve an agreement that properly compensates you for your skills and dedication! Many of you sacrificed through past bankruptcies to get them to be the largest and most profitable airline in the world! Now, they want to take benefits and job protections we had in bankruptcy away from us! To add to this insult, on AMT Day, in DCA, they intend on having a town hall meeting for all IAM members, to “educate” the AMTs on how much better their AA medical plan is over the LUS medical plan we currently have – which was forced on us in bankruptcy! If the company really wants to “honor the AMT”, they need to take their sales pitch to the table – where Steven Johnson said he would show our negotiating team the benefits of the AA medical.
American Airlines will be trying to show their appreciation through gifts and food – tell the company to keep their tokens and do the right thing – bring us a contract we deserve, and they have promised! They don’t get to pick one day to show appreciation while disrespecting us the other 364 days of the year with a concessionary offer!
In closing, to all our AMTs in the IAM, thank you for everything you do every day to keep us safe! Don’t let the distractions of the company, who is hell-bent on taking your hard-earned benefits and job protections from you, keep you from doing your job and making sure every job, every day, is done to the highest standards we are all held to!
Happy AMT Day!
Fraternally,
Dave Supplee
PRESIDENT & DIRECTING
GENERAL CHAIR
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