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Associated Press
American Adds to Its Work Force in Mexico
Friday February 27, 5:19 pm ET
By Brad Foss, AP Business Writer
American Airline's Customer Service Work Force Grows in Mexico, Shrinks in U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- American Airlines is adding to its work force in Mexico and rerouting calls there that were formerly handled by domestic customer service representatives -- even as it has been cutting similar jobs in the United States.
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Since last spring, AMR Corp., the carrier's parent company, has hired about 130 reservation agents in Mexico to handle calls from Spanish-speaking customers in the United States and Latin America, the company acknowledged Friday.
Meanwhile, AMR recently informed about 100 workers at a call center in Puerto Rico that the San Juan office would be shut down this spring. In the past year, AMR also has closed reservation offices in Las Vegas, Norfolk, Va., and St. Louis, which together had employed about 1,400 people.
Contacted by The Associated Press earlier in the week about a general increase in industry jobs being sent overseas, AMR said calls from the United States were not being rerouted to other countries.
AMR said Friday that it unintentionally misspoke at the time, but that the growth of its Mexico operations has not come at the expense of U.S. workers.
United Airlines said this week it had signed a contract with Electronic Data Systems to open a customer call center in Nova Scotia that will eventually employ 200. A spokeswoman said it was the first time United would outsource such work. Travelocity, the online travel site owned by Sabre Inc., said this month that it will outsource about 300 jobs to India over the next year. Delta Air Lines outsourced nearly 1,000 jobs last year to call centers in India.
AMR's decision to hire more Mexican workers is one example of how the world's largest carrier is cutting costs at a time when the industry is losing money. The Fort Worth, Texas-based airline lost $111 million in the last three months of 2003.
A full-time worker in Mexico gets paid about $400 a month, about one quarter what new hires in the United States would make, said Mike Lo Vuolo, an official with the Fort Worth, Texas, office of the Communications Workers of America.
The CWA is trying to unionize AMR's reservation agents, one of only two groups of AMR workers not represented by organized labor.
By rerouting calls once handled by Spanish-speaking and bilingual Americans to Mexico, AMR is turning its back on the domestic work force, particularly people who were furloughed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Lo Vuolo said.
"They've still got American employees that were furloughed and have recall rights," Lo Vuolo said. "There are still people here that could be handling calls that they're rerouting elsewhere."
AMR spokesman Carlo Bertolini, however, said the newly hired bilingual Mexican workers are not replacing actual jobs. Instead, employees who worked for AMR's now-defunct U.S.-based "Spanish desk" have merely seen their job responsibilities change.
"The people who did handle (Spanish language) calls in the U.S. were already doing other functions as well," Bertolini said. "That wasn't their sole job."
AMR's call center in Mexico City employs 290 people and also handles calls from Mexico, Spain and several Latin American countries. Latin America is AMR's largest international market.
www.aa.com
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American Adds to Its Work Force in Mexico
Friday February 27, 5:19 pm ET
By Brad Foss, AP Business Writer
American Airline's Customer Service Work Force Grows in Mexico, Shrinks in U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- American Airlines is adding to its work force in Mexico and rerouting calls there that were formerly handled by domestic customer service representatives -- even as it has been cutting similar jobs in the United States.
ADVERTISEMENT
Since last spring, AMR Corp., the carrier's parent company, has hired about 130 reservation agents in Mexico to handle calls from Spanish-speaking customers in the United States and Latin America, the company acknowledged Friday.
Meanwhile, AMR recently informed about 100 workers at a call center in Puerto Rico that the San Juan office would be shut down this spring. In the past year, AMR also has closed reservation offices in Las Vegas, Norfolk, Va., and St. Louis, which together had employed about 1,400 people.
Contacted by The Associated Press earlier in the week about a general increase in industry jobs being sent overseas, AMR said calls from the United States were not being rerouted to other countries.
AMR said Friday that it unintentionally misspoke at the time, but that the growth of its Mexico operations has not come at the expense of U.S. workers.
United Airlines said this week it had signed a contract with Electronic Data Systems to open a customer call center in Nova Scotia that will eventually employ 200. A spokeswoman said it was the first time United would outsource such work. Travelocity, the online travel site owned by Sabre Inc., said this month that it will outsource about 300 jobs to India over the next year. Delta Air Lines outsourced nearly 1,000 jobs last year to call centers in India.
AMR's decision to hire more Mexican workers is one example of how the world's largest carrier is cutting costs at a time when the industry is losing money. The Fort Worth, Texas-based airline lost $111 million in the last three months of 2003.
A full-time worker in Mexico gets paid about $400 a month, about one quarter what new hires in the United States would make, said Mike Lo Vuolo, an official with the Fort Worth, Texas, office of the Communications Workers of America.
The CWA is trying to unionize AMR's reservation agents, one of only two groups of AMR workers not represented by organized labor.
By rerouting calls once handled by Spanish-speaking and bilingual Americans to Mexico, AMR is turning its back on the domestic work force, particularly people who were furloughed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Lo Vuolo said.
"They've still got American employees that were furloughed and have recall rights," Lo Vuolo said. "There are still people here that could be handling calls that they're rerouting elsewhere."
AMR spokesman Carlo Bertolini, however, said the newly hired bilingual Mexican workers are not replacing actual jobs. Instead, employees who worked for AMR's now-defunct U.S.-based "Spanish desk" have merely seen their job responsibilities change.
"The people who did handle (Spanish language) calls in the U.S. were already doing other functions as well," Bertolini said. "That wasn't their sole job."
AMR's call center in Mexico City employs 290 people and also handles calls from Mexico, Spain and several Latin American countries. Latin America is AMR's largest international market.
www.aa.com
Email this story - Set a News Alert
