AMR to Pay Millions Due to Vote Extension
Tuesday April 15, 5:06 pm ET
American, a division of AMR Corp. (NYSE:AMR - News). had asked all three of its major unions to ratify concession deals aimed at saving the world's largest carrier $1.8 billion in annual labor costs by Tuesday. It extended the voting until Wednesday for flight attendants, the only group that rejected the deals.
"In order to be able to extend the deadline, the company announced that it will immediately make millions of dollars in scheduled debt payments due today as part of its ongoing commitment to preserve jobs and avoid bankruptcy," it said in a statement.
"With almost 10,000 jobs hanging in the balance, and the future of 100,000 employees at stake, we agreed to take this risk and make this investment for our employees because we believe that all employees will be better off if we can save jobs and restructure our costs consensually rather than through the bankruptcy process," AMR Chairman Don Carty said.