Thousands sign pledge supporting American Airlines workers
Feb. 09-- A week after AMR Corp. said it will cut 13,000 jobs -- at least 2,100 of them in Tulsa -- in its bankruptcy restructuring, more than 10,500 people have pledged support for American Airlines workers, officials said Wednesday.
The support of Tulsa-area residents and others nationwide has come in the form of people signing their names on the website of Local 514 of the Transport Workers Union ( ). Local 514 leaders announced the creation of the website last week -- two days before the parent company of American announced the layoffs.
"What's bad for American is bad for America," said Rick Mullings, spokesman for the TWU and Local 514, which represents about 5,600 airline mechanics and related work groups at the airline's Maintenance & Engineering Center at Tulsa International Airport.
Supporters who have signed their names on the website range in location from Oklahoma to Hawaii, TWU officials said.
The online pledge states that supporters will tell public officials, news media and community leaders that employees at American Airlines, American Eagle Airlines and all workers dependent on the carriers must be treated fairly. The pledge supporters are advocating for the preservation of good-paying U.S.-based jobs and no outsourcing of in-house maintenance. They also are asking AMR to avoid terminating the company's four defined benefit pension plans.
Fort Worth-based AMR filed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Nov. 29. The petition listed assets of $22.87 billion and liabilities of $30.08 billion. The company has posted losses of more than $11 billion over the past decade, court documents show.
"It's critical that our elected officials and community leaders fight to keep these jobs local," Mullings said. "Our workers perform their work with a high level of pride because they know families are flying in these airplanes every day. Safety is their top priority. The union will fight tooth and nail to keep these important jobs from being outsourced."
AMR executives said last week the company must cut $2 billion a year in costs and increase revenue $1 billion annually to emerge from bankruptcy and compete successfully in the airline industry. One of the company's proposals is to outsource 40 percent of its airline maintenance work.
AMR said it needs 20 percent cost reductions from each of its three unions: mechanics, pilots and flight attendants.
Negotiators for the company, the TWU, Allied Pilots Association and Association of Professional Flight Attendants have been meeting in Fort Worth during the past week to discuss details of restructured labor agreements.
Local 514 Vice President Mike McDonald said 46 negotiators from 22 TWU locals around the country are among the union participants at the meetings.
"It's slow. It's very slow," McDonald said of the talks. "They're speculating they're going to be down there this week and next."
D.R. Stewart 918-581-8451
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