American Wants To Lay Off 1,200 Workers, Outsource Sky Caps And Some Gate Agents

April 19--American Airlines said it wants to outsource sky caps, some airport agents and domestic cargo agents as part of its restructuring plan which includes laying off 1,200 non-unionized workers.

On Wednesday, the Fort Worth-based carrier outlined its plans to reduce annual employee costs by $95 million for 10,000 non-unionized workers in its agents, representatives and planners group.

The carrier said these changes, which include some pay and work rule changes expect to be implemented within the next 60 to 120 days.

"The decisions in reshaping these departments -- including in some cases, outsourcing, creating different tiers of work, closing some operations and moving some work to home-based positions -- were not made lightly," said American spokesman Bruce Hicks. "While very difficult, all of these approaches are designed to preserve tens of thousands of jobs and return American to a sustainable, profitable airline."

American also plans to close its southwestern reservations office, located in Tucson, which employs about 680 reservations agents. These workers will be offered the opportunity to work from home or to relocate to another reservation center, the airline said.

The carrier said it expects to close its Admiral Clubs in airports at Kansas City and Washington-Dulles as well as eliminate some positions in its premium traveler clubs.

For all workers in this work group, American plans to replace their pensions with a defined contribution plan and implement a profit sharing plan for employees.

The details of the restructuring plan can be found here.

Read more here: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/sky_talk/2012/04/american-wants-to-layoff-1200-workers-outsource-sky-caps-and-some-gate-agents.html#storylink=cpy

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