under fly pretty much eliminated! Read on:
Art Tang
American Airlines'' flight attendants this morning approved an enhanced package of concessions, allowing the company to avoid an immediate filing for bankruptcy reorganization.
The company agreed to change a key provision of the agreement that had disturbed flight attendants from the outset. Flight attendants currently are paid based on the scheduled flight time, regardless of whether the flight arrives early. But under the previous concessions, the flight attendants would have lost that extra pay, while the pilots'' deal allows them to retain theirs.
Now, like the pilots, flight attendants will maintain a form of the current arrangement.
''''It was a major concern for flight attendant and we addressed it,'''' said Rick Musica, Miami base vice chairman of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.
The union was the only holdout of the three labor groups for approval of a set of revised, shortened concessions. The flight attendants approved the package during a conference call that began at 9 a.m.
''''We can''t lose sight of the fact that this is still a company in a serious financial crisis,'''' Musica said. ``And what the APFA has done today is just another step in helping this company recover.''''
The settlement follows a series of dramatic developments at American.
On Thursday, the board of directors of American parent AMR Corp. accepted the resignation of Chairman Don Carty, who acknowledged that he was getting in the way of an agreement with the unions.
The board named company President Gerard Arpey, 44, as chief executive and Edward Brennan, the 69-year-old former chairman of Sears, as AMR chairman.
Carty''s failure to disclose details of executive compensation plans to union members as they voted on deep concessions had created a lighting rod that outraged employees and threatened to scuttle unions'' cost-cutting deals.
The transport workers and flight attendants earlier had said they planned to hold new votes that could take up to a month to complete. American had said that such a delay could lead to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Nevertheless, American remains in a difficult financial environment.
Art Tang
American Airlines'' flight attendants this morning approved an enhanced package of concessions, allowing the company to avoid an immediate filing for bankruptcy reorganization.
The company agreed to change a key provision of the agreement that had disturbed flight attendants from the outset. Flight attendants currently are paid based on the scheduled flight time, regardless of whether the flight arrives early. But under the previous concessions, the flight attendants would have lost that extra pay, while the pilots'' deal allows them to retain theirs.
Now, like the pilots, flight attendants will maintain a form of the current arrangement.
''''It was a major concern for flight attendant and we addressed it,'''' said Rick Musica, Miami base vice chairman of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.
The union was the only holdout of the three labor groups for approval of a set of revised, shortened concessions. The flight attendants approved the package during a conference call that began at 9 a.m.
''''We can''t lose sight of the fact that this is still a company in a serious financial crisis,'''' Musica said. ``And what the APFA has done today is just another step in helping this company recover.''''
The settlement follows a series of dramatic developments at American.
On Thursday, the board of directors of American parent AMR Corp. accepted the resignation of Chairman Don Carty, who acknowledged that he was getting in the way of an agreement with the unions.
The board named company President Gerard Arpey, 44, as chief executive and Edward Brennan, the 69-year-old former chairman of Sears, as AMR chairman.
Carty''s failure to disclose details of executive compensation plans to union members as they voted on deep concessions had created a lighting rod that outraged employees and threatened to scuttle unions'' cost-cutting deals.
The transport workers and flight attendants earlier had said they planned to hold new votes that could take up to a month to complete. American had said that such a delay could lead to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Nevertheless, American remains in a difficult financial environment.
