Howdy All,

If you look at page two of this pdf from IRRC (page "196") you'll see a short article published on shareholder activism at the AAG.

The Investor Responsibility Research Center is one of two big outfits that service needs (like proxy voting) of large institutional investors who mainly invest pension money (the other big one is ISS--Institutional Shareholder Services.) Remember that around 95% of AAG stock is owned by institutional investors.

IRRC, ISS and the companies that invest pension monies are anxious to communicate with the strategic stakeholder groups of workers and customers at the AAG and other companies they invest in. I have long advocated that our unions communicate in an organized and frequent way with our owners.

Remember--management are not the owners. They are agents hired by the board whose members are elected by the owners--the stockholders. True, management owns stock, but mostly through grants and stock options that they in effect "give" to themselves. Workers, on the other hand, buy all their stock shares through cash contributions they make to their 401(k) accounts (which is matched by ALK stock up to certain limits) and through cash outlays to buy through the AAG's Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

Making a corporation work deals with bringing together the various groups that make up a corporation. You've heard the corporate tripartite group mentioned often by management--workers, customers and stockholders. But when you carefully watch the actions of those in power whether they be in management or union--you see just the opposite. They RESIST efforts to bring the constituents together. What you get then is what we have now--CONFLICT!

Staying competitive in a free market is very challenging--tough! When you throw in the mix that we are all fighting INTERNALLY--that's when the obituaries start to get written, which some are doing now.

I advocate more OWNERSHIP for the strategic stakeholders of workers and customers (we share about only 5% of the stock now).

You can't vote greenbacks. As a worker, if you get a dollar more an hour--that does not equate to one more vote to determine who is in power over you (plus it just raised our fixed costs, money which has to come from somewhere). If you become an owner of one more share--it represents capital that is VOTEABLE. It guarantees your participation in how our companies are managed--plus, if done right, share distribution REDUCES our fixed costs so we can compete with the Southwests and JetBlues of the world, and truly move toward job security.

Never stop! approaching our agents--management and challenging them why they don't promote more ownership as a viable solution to what ails us in this crazy airline marketplace. Also, never stop! approaching union leadership and challenging them why they don't promote that their members become bigger owners of securities in our companies that transcends a mere hourly wage! If dues to fund the union are taken only from hourly wages, doesn't that ensure unions will ALWAYS be seeking ways to raise our fixed costs! dooming us?! How about hooking some of that dues' stream from worker profit sharing to relieve some of that pressure? Plus, it makes the union a legitimate stakeholder, and not some independent agent hypocritically isolated from an everyday reality--RISK!

Until we get the players on the same page and pulling in the same direction, we are in for nothing but trouble as we have witnessed in this 2005 Summer of Hell at Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, these houses we all call home!~~Steve