Judge declines to stop American pilots'' voting
FORT WORTH - A federal judge in Fort Worth has denied a request by several American Airlines pilots for a restraining order to halt voting on a proposed concessions package.
If it had been approved, the restraining order would have resulted in a bankruptcy filing, American executives have said. The carrier wants an decision on concessions from unionized employees by Tuesday, according to airline officials.
The petition to stop the vote was filed Monday morning by three pilots who argued that the board of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 13,000 American pilots, neglected its own bylaws when it gave tentative approval to a concessions agreement earlier this month.
The board voted even though the complete language of the new contract hadn''t been drafted, the pilots argued. They were concerned that union members might not realize what they''re voting on because the wording hadn''t been finalized.
But a restraining order was not needed in this case, U.S. District Judge Terry Means ruled. In his order, he said that the petition failed to prove that the vote could cause irreparable harm to union members, and he noted that the board had waived the normal procedures because of the financial emergency at American.
He also pointed out that stopping the vote could, in fact, be damaging to the general public because of the danger of an American Airlines bankruptcy.
"A bankruptcy filing by American Airlines will have a devastating effect on the local and national economy," he wrote, "and (would) further disrupt the already crippled air transportation system."
Pilots and ground workers are scheduled to complete their voting at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Flight attendants will finish voting 10 a.m.
American executives say the concessions are vital to the airline''s survival.
The Fort Worth-based carrier has lost $5.2 billion in the past two years, and is expected to lose $800 million during the first three months of 2003 as it struggles with a steep downturn in business travel and fierce competition from discount airlines such as Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways.
