Unions call on AMR to end labor-law lobbying = = = = Tuesday January 21, 4:26 PM EST = By Jon Herskovitz FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Unions representing 75,000 employee= s at American Airlines parent company AMR Corp. (AMR) on Tuesday called o= n AMR to stop lobbying Washington on labor laws, saying the campaign is h= ampering cooperative efforts to keep the struggling airline in business. "The only thing we should be concentrating on at this time, top to bottom= , is the survival of this airline," John Darrah, president of the union t= hat represents American's pilots, told a press conference. The unions also suggested the airline may be looking to gain major conces= sions from its labor force as it looks at the cost cuts its main rival, U= AL Corp.'s (UAL) United Airlines, has squeezed from its employees as it r= estructures under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. = A spokesman for AMR said the company is spending all of its time and effo= rt toward saving the carrier, adding that union leadership may be using t= he labor law issue as a way to deflect some attention from the hard decis= ions it will have to make. Major airlines are laying the groundwork for their biggest push yet to ge= t Congress to change the the Railway Labor Act, or RLA, a decades-old law= used for resolving contract disputes between airlines and unions. They c= laim such action is necessary to help the industry recover from its worst= financial downturn. With high labor costs cited by Wall Street as a chief reason for commerci= al aviation's financial troubles, the big airlines believe their case aga= inst RLA will resonate with the Republican-controlled Congress. AMR Chief Executive Don Carty has been a prominent spokesman in the campa= ign to change the RLA. In recent weeks, Carty has also made public pleas for labor groups at AMR= , the world's largest airline, to come to the aid of American, saying the= re was no time to waste if they wanted to save the struggling airline. COST CUTS "We have asked Don Carty to pull back on this attack in Washington," said= James Little, director of the air transport division for the Transport W= orkers Union "We are not fixing something that is broken. It is only broken in their e= yes," Little said. AMR has said it is faced with even more pressure to reduce costs as Unite= d and US Airways have seen their costs reduced in the bankruptcy process = through items such as friendlier terms for paying debts. American asked union leaders and nonunion employees last week "to forge a= n unprecedented partnership with management." The plea from Carty and air= line President Gerard Arpey comes as two major unions at the carrier cons= ider a company request to freeze their wages and another union is trying = to hammer out a new contract. AMR, based in Forth Worth, Texas, is seeking to cut costs wherever it can= amid huge financial losses, with a goal of about $4 billion in permanent= reductions. American said it has already identified more than $2 billion= in cuts as it has slashed its capacity and cut its work force since the = Sept. 11 attacks walloped the air industry. Union leadership told the press conference that company management is loo= king to slash labor costs to get to its goal of $4 billion, and an AMR sp= okesman said cuts in personnel will be part of the mix for the remaining = $2 billion in cuts. "A big chunk of that has to come from a restructuring of our labor contra= cts," said spokesman Tim Doke. AMR will report fourth-quarter results on Wednesday. It posted a loss of = almost $1 billion in the previous quarter. = =A92002 Reuters Limited. = Roger EWROPS