Aug. 03-- A dozen American Airlines mechanics who picketed the carrier's Tulsa maintenance base Thursday said they want mechanics to understand the consequences of voting in favor of a tentative contract agreement.

"There's no job security," said Don Rodgers, who drove from Dallas-Fort Worth with a van full of DFW-based mechanics to picket. "If we vote 'yes,' not a single mechanic is guaranteed a job."

But American spokesman Bruce Hicks said Rodgers and the "no" vote advocates are misinformed.

The tentative contract agreement will save jobs, Hicks said, and it will provide better pay and benefits than mechanics will receive if the contract is rejected and the company imposes provisions of its March "term sheet."

"The tentative agreement now being voted on will save 1,500 jobs in Tulsa," Hicks said. "There are significantly more and larger raises in the first year that don't exist in the term sheet. There is an early-out clause and mid-term (wage) adjustment that are not included in the term sheet. There is medical coverage, insurance benefits that aren't included in the term sheet."

American's Transport Workers Union mechanics and stock clerks, who rejected the company's last contract offer in May, have been voting on the tentative agreement since July 23. The polls close at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.

In separate ratification balloting, American's Allied Pilots Association and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants also are voting on their tentative agreements. The APA voting concludes at noon CDT Wednesday. Polls for the APFA balloting are open until 10 a.m. CDT Aug. 19.

American parent AMR Corp. filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization petition in November.

American executives said the company needs $1.25 billion a year in labor cost savings, or 20 percent from each union and non-union labor group, including more than $300 million a year from the TWU.

If nearly 11,000 TWU mechanics and stock clerks fail to ratify the contract, Hicks said AMR will ask a U.S. Bankruptcy judge to approve its Section 1113 motion to cancel its collective bargaining agreements.

"If the judge rules in our favor and allows us to abrogate (the collective bargaining agreement), we'll impose the conditions of the term sheet," Hicks said.

The term sheet includes layoffs of up to 14,000 people companywide, 2,600 of them in Tulsa, where 7,000 people are employed. It also stipulates outsourcing of 40 percent of aircraft maintenance now performed in house and would impose changes in work rules and job classifications that likely will mean longer hours and reduced pay for some workers, company officials said.

Hicks said TWU ratification of the tentative agreement would result in the loss of just more than 10,000 jobs companywide. It also includes 15 percent wage increases over six years and improved benefits compared with earlier offers.

Ratification would result in layoffs of 700 mechanic and related work group members -- out of 9,500 mechanics and related -- while 90 stock clerks out of 1,000 companywide would lose their jobs, Hicks said.

"This is a very important decision and each TWU member needs to carefully consider the facts, determine what is best for him or her and vote accordingly," Hicks said. "These tentative agreements will save about 1,800 jobs versus the March term sheet, with most of those in Tulsa. There is no question that American Airlines must and will reduce its costs and we believe this tentative agreement is the best answer for the airline and our people.

"If ratified, these agreements would allow us to create a successful future for tens of thousands of American Airlines employees as we move through restructuring and beyond."

Rodgers, a member of TWU Local 565 at DFW, said there is no language in the agreement specifying limits on job cuts.

"If their intention is not to get rid of us, put it in writing that you're going to give 7,000 people job security," Rodgers said. "What does it cost AA to give someone job security if they intend to keep them? How can you give pilots 90 percent (actually, 95 percent) job guarantees and not give mechanics job guarantees?"

Rodgers and Local 565 President Gary Peterson said what AMR executives say now and what the company's intentions are could be "vastly different."

"When you get new airplanes," Peterson said of American's order of more than 400 Boeing and Airbus aircraft, "they don't get rid of the baggage handlers. But you don't need as many mechanics."

D.R. Stewart 918-581-8451

[email protected]

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