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American Airline flight attendants vote NO 9842 to 9309 - Dallas Buisiness Journal - 4/15/03 |
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Wednesday, 17 January 2007 |
On April 15, 2003, the flight attendants at American vote NO to the company's restrucuring plan 9842 to 9309.
American's flight attendants get voting extension
Dallas Business Journal - April 15, 2003
American Airline's pilots union and groundworkers and mechanics union on Tuesday approved wage concession agreements the airline says it needs to avoid a bankruptcy. But the airline's flight attendants have been given one more day to recast their votes, after union members Tuesday afternoon narrowly rejected its deal, leaving the future of the world's largest airline uncertain.
Fort Worth-based American said its three major unions have endorsed an agreement between the company and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants that would allow flight attendants to continue voting until 5 p.m. CDT Wednesday.
APFA's 26,000 members also will be able to change their votes until balloting closes, while any votes not changed will be counted as they currently stand. The union said 9,842 members on Tuesday voted to reject the concessions deal, with 9,309 votes for the deal.
The union Monday night had asked for an extension on its voting because of technical problems with the balloting and a "delay in the delivery of the contract language to the APFA membership." American rejected the request but left open the possibility that if the vote was close, and only the flight attendants union rejected the deal, another vote would be allowed, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The APFA's board last week decided not to allow members to change their votes because of a requirement in the union's constitution. But 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.
"There were several reasons for our extending the balloting process, not the least of which involve the substantive changes made to the original agreement as late as last night; changes we feel our membership deserves to consider before casting a final vote on something this important," said APFA President John Ward in a statement. "We feel the company made the correct decision to delay filing in order to determine the true will of the membership."
Without ratification by its three major unions of a plan to slash $1.8 billion in annual labor costs, American has said it will be forced to file for bankruptcy. It has already sought $1.5 billion in debtor-in-possession financing in case of a bankruptcy filing.
American parent AMR Corp. said it set the April 15 deadline for ratification of the agreements because it had a substantial amount of loan repayments due. To extend the deadline for APFA members, the company said it will immediately make millions of dollars in scheduled debt payments due Tuesday as part of an "ongoing commitment to preserve jobs and avoid bankruptcy."
"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 in a statement. "This is our last chance to avoid bankruptcy."
Carty said, with another round of loan payments due Wednesday, the company must have consensual agreements in place.
"So that there is absolutely no confusion or uncertainty, I must make completely clear that if we fail to secure flight attendant ratification by tomorrow, we are - regrettably - left with no alternative but to immediately file for bankruptcy," Carty said.
If it is forced to file for Chapter 11 protection, AMR said it would need to secure an additional $500 million in employee cost savings and further reduce capacity, costing thousands of additional jobs.
AMR's New York Stock Exchange-listed shares closed at $3.40 Tuesday, up 10 percent from Monday's close. Earlier in the day, the stock rose as high as 37 percent after the airline's other two major unions ratified their concession agreements.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 20 January 2007 )
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