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Back in the earlier part of this decade, the airline industry was struggling, with many of the big airlines filing bankruptcy and some going under. With cut backs in worker pay, the airlines were able to keep afloat, and now many of them are flourishing. So, you'd think that the workers who sacrificed then would now get back some of that money now. Not so:

A recent industry recovery has helped trigger lucrative stock options and multimillion-dollar paydays for some airline executives. "For us, the conflict is in the rates of recovery (of executive compensation)," said Gregg Overman, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association (APA). The group represents American Airlines pilots, who gave up $660 million a year in 2003 through cuts in pay and benefits and changes to work rules. "Our pilots have not come close to recouping what they gave back in 2003," he said.

The APA takes exception to Chief Executive Gerard Arpey's 2006 stock award, which may be worth more than $7.5 million, based on AMR's current share price of more than $32, should the maximum be awarded when the shares vest later this month.

Over at United,

United's labor unions last week objected strongly to news that UAL Chief Executive Glenn Tilton earned almost $40 million in 2006, mostly from stock and options.

And at American:

When the airline industry went into a deep slump after the 2001 terrorist attacks, American Airlines' pilots, flight attendants and mechanics agreed to billions of dollars in cuts in wages and benefits to keep the carrier afloat.

Now AMR Corp., American's parent, is back in the black, so much so that 874 top executives will receive more than $150 million in stock bonuses next week.

As for the 57,000 rank-and-file employees, they're seeing red. "We made huge sacrifices," said Dana Davis, an 18-year American employee and spokeswoman for the Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants. The airline's 18,000 attendants took an across-the-board 16% pay cut and gave up vacation days. "We're not getting anything back for it," Davis said.

Of course this is just indicative of the greed of white-collar executives:

According to United for a Fair Economy (UFE), a group that studies social justice issues, the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay across all U.S. industries in 2005 was 411 to 1. That gap, wider than those of other countries, has been growing for decades.

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