Describe how 5 (five) years without a raise or improvements in our contract have affected you personally.
Jeff: My name is Jeff and I've been flying with American Airlines for 10 years. I'm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our contract expired about five years ago. Our pay rates have been fixed ever since then. I went on the BLS website just to compare some very popular items and see how they've changed since when our pay rates stopped going up to what they are now. And the most recent data we have is in October of this year. The chicken was 147. Now, it's dollar 92 a pound. That's a 31% increase. Eggs used to be a dollar 56 for a dozen. Now, it's $2.07. That's a 33% increase. Bread was a dollar 27 a pound and now it is $2. That's a 57% increase. Rice, 73 cents a pound. Now, it's 96 that's 32% increase. Coffee, $4.17 a pound. Now it's $6.18. It's a 48% increase gasoline at the end of our contract. $2.29 a gallon. Now it's $3.78. It's a 65% increase, motor vehicle repairs. This is an index number. It's gone up 62% motor vehicle insurance. Another index sets up 83% housing 22% increase. We can't afford to keep coming to work here.
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