American Airlines Flight Attendants "Narrowly Reject" Concessions

Please forgive my short verbage and tone, but why do you find any part of this situation, funny?

Good point. At least in the airline industry, some of the executives are just as much to blame as the unions.

flight attendants vote themselves out of a job...

I think they can probably thank these "fine people"...

http://www.apfa.org/public/AboutAPFA/index.html

Good luck to you. I can't imagine American not coming out of bankruptcy later, but it's still going to be a rough time.

The WNBA's Player's Association has rejected the latest collective bargaining agreement, and there is a possibility that they will be "locked out" by the owners.

It's kind of funny because if the WNBA went on strike, who'd notice?

And the owners of the WNBA teams are all owners of NBA teams. They'd probably welcome the chance to get rid of this drag on their revenues, especially now that the NBA's popularity is somewhat down.

It's like "go ahead and strike; make my day!"

Wonder if Hooters Airlines will be expanding?

I know a couple of senior flight attendants (one Delta, one AA). Considering their main skills are similar to those of Denny's and Waffle House waitresses, they make A LOT of money (the senior ones do, anyway--$45k-$50k per year). When you consider that they only work 12-15 days per month and have SPECTACULAR free/low cost travel perks, they're downright overpaid.

I have a feeling these flight attendants are going to be very sorry about the way they voted.

Wonder if Hooters Airlines will be expanding?

More like 'swelling.'

Can the union hold another vote? If it was a narrow margin, maybe some folks would now be willing to vote for the concessions.


April 15, 2003 3:41 p.m. EDT

U.S. BUSINESS NEWS

American Attendants Vote
To Reject Wage Concessions

By SCOTT MCCARTNEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The flight attendants union at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines narrowly rejected $340 million of contract concessions by only a few hundred votes, people familiar with the situation said, but the company and union are discussing whether to hold a new vote because of problems in balloting.

The board of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants is meeting to discuss the results. People familiar with the matter say there have been discussions between the union and AMR management on the possibility of allowing a new vote, perhaps in as short a time as 24 hours, because flight attendants weren't allowed to change their vote even as contract terms changed last week.

Unions representing pilots and ground workers approved concessions earlier today. Without ratification by all three unions of the plan to slash $1.8 billion in annual labor costs, American has said it will file for bankruptcy reorganization.

Late Monday, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants asked senior executives at American for an extension on the company's self-imposed noon EDT deadline today because of ``problems with the balloting process, including the delay in the delivery of the contract language to the APFA membership." American rejected that request, but people familiar with the matter said the company left open the possibility that if the vote was close, and only the flight attendants union rejected the deal, another vote would be allowed. Such a move would have to be approved by the union board, which last week had made the decision not to allow members to change their votes.

Leaders of both the Allied Pilots Association and the Transport Workers Union allowed their members to change votes in the Internet and telephone balloting supervised by the American Arbitration Association. That proved critical when American agreed to several contract enhancements late last week, including shortening the duration of concessionary contracts for pilots and flight attendants by four months and adding a wage bonus plan of up to 4.5% annually if AMR regains an investment-grade credit rating.

The flight attendants union, however, didn't allow members to change votes because of a requirement in the union's constitution. Many flight attendants voted early, union officials said earlier, when anger over the contract cuts was running deep and the company's offer to sweeten the pot wasn't yet known.

Flight attendants have been asked to cut their wages by 15.6% and reduce other benefits to save American $340 million a year in labor costs. The company has asked its workers for a total of $1.8 billion in annual savings over the next six years.

American has said it will seek reorganization under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code if the tentative agreements aren't all ratified.

Pilots voted 69% in favor of the contract concessions, which will cut their pay 23% on May 1 and improve productivity. The pay cut will revert to 17% after one year.

Mechanics at American voted 52.6% in favor, and baggage handlers and other ground workers passed their concessions with 54.1% of the vote. Overall, the Transport Workers Union voted 53.3% to 46.7% in favor of the concessions.

Separately, AMR's auditor, Ernst & Young LLP, raised doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern in its report on the company's financial statements.

The report, included in the company's annual report filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said the auditor issued the going concern doubt because of the company's recent history of "significant losses," negative cash flows from operations, uncertainty regarding its ability to reduce operating costs, the potential failure to satisfy the liquidity requirements in certain credit agreements, and its diminishing financial resources.

--Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report.

Write to Scott McCartney at scott.mccartney@wsj.com¹.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10504146904685400,00.html

Fort Worth, Texas (March 19, 2003) -

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants today asked its 26,000 members to contact their representatives in Congress to urge them to enact immediate relief measures to help the nation's ailing airline industry. "The time is now for Congress to provide airlines with critical financial relief in the way of reduced fees and taxes," said John Ward, President of the APFA, the union representing the Flight Attendants of American Airlines.

"Without relief from the government, the airline industry and airline employees are facing an extremely uncertain future," said Ward.

APFA's campaign to get Congress to act on a relief package for airlines compliments recent events held by the Coalition of Unions at AMR. The APFA, APA, TWU, ALPA, and AFA conducted informational picketing at major airports to heighten the flying public's awareness of the need for Congressional intervention.

On March 25th and March 26th, APFA members will lobby members of Congress in Washington, D.C. "We are going to take our message directly to lawmakers and their staff through face-to-face lobby efforts," said John Ward. He continued by saying, "We feel it is essential that Congress meet those being negatively impacted by the excessive taxes and fees and hear their concerns."

Yep the pre-deregulation monsters are finally dying and freeing up some quality routes. It won't take a year for those pilots and aircraft to change bages and compensation packages.

It will be ugly until then...but better for everyone.

Thanks. I'm just concerned about some friends of mine that are not that senior and will probably lose their jobs for a longer period of time than if we all had passed the concessions.

Excellent point & fact. Where are the numbers that bankruptcy will be the worst of two evils? USAir unions gave to avoid bankruptcy, and the corporation went there anyway.

IMO, Don Carty could care less about anyone, but himself. The game is Survivor to him, and so what about the little people. What is the little ditty...Outsmart-Outwit-Outlast-Outofajob-Outofapaycheck? Lying is the name of the game.

Makes me sick.

"STEWARDESSES"

The Waitress In the Sky.

The probable is that the company may file bankruptcy today because some large payments are due in a day or so.

"Without relief from the government, the airline industry and airline employees are facing an extremely uncertain future," said Ward.

Thanks for the info. Yes, I seem to recall that the WNBA was nothing more than some (failed) PC experiment. You're right, the owners are probably hoping to have an excuse to pull the plug.