You said it....here we go.
Well here we go...this will get ugly
FORT WORTH - American Airlines is seeking a waiver from the Allied Pilots Association so it can increase the size of its American Eagle regional operations beyond restrictions in the union's contract.
Union leaders have agreed to discuss the subject as part of contract talks, which resumed this week after being on hold since Sept. 11. But the union's president criticized executives for making the issue public and accused management of trying to sow division among union workers.
In a message posted late Tuesday on the union's Web site and telephone hot line, Allied Pilots President John Darrah said, "It appears that we are back to 'business as usual,' with management using a public forum in an attempt to foster division between employee groups - in this case, the American Airlines and American Eagle pilots.
"Ironically, management has criticized [the union] for publicly airing contractual disputes, rather than bringing them to the negotiating table for resolution," he said. "Yet when management wants something from the union, they don't hesitate to use the very same tactic."
AMR Chairman Donald Carty disclosed American's request Tuesday in his weekly message to employees. Carty said man- agement asked union leaders to discuss the waiver in hopes of avoiding layoffs at American Eagle this spring when its operations are expected to bump up against contractual limits.
Carty said the company will honor the contract language if the union doesn't grant a waiver. But he made the case for why he believes a waiver is in the interests of American Eagle workers and American's pilots.
"We have asked the [Allied Pilots] for a waiver to keep American's recovery going strong, and we're very optimistic that the union will understand how important Eagle's feed is to the big airline," Carty said.
AMR Corp., parent of American and American Eagle, is expected to report a record quarterly loss of more than $500 million today.
American spokeswoman Karen Watson said that, under the contract, American Eagle's operations cannot exceed 40 percent of the total number of flight hours or available seat-miles offered by the two AMR-owned airlines combined.
The union agreed to discuss the matter, but Darrah told his members that the contract provision does not require that its operations be reduced.
American Eagle's size has been a source of acrimony since the late 1980s, when AMR began acquiring its former regional airline partners and converting the old American Eagle franchise network into a true second airline within AMR. Pilots at American, like their counterparts at other major airlines, quickly came to view regional airline operations as a way to outsource work to lower-paid workers.
In 1997, American's desire to deploy dozens of new-generation regional jets at American Eagle was a major factor in a pilots union strike halted after seven minutes by President Clinton. Ultimately, the two sides reached a compromise granting bigger raises to the pilots in exchange for regional jets. That deal included a provision limiting the size of American Eagle if any American pilots were laid off.
