Airline's troubles worry Oklahoma city OWASSO, Okla. (AP) =97 In a city where American Airlines' contributions can= =20 be measured in everything from cups of coffee to car sales, the airline's=20 troubles had some residents on edge Thursday. About 1,000 of the 10,000=20 workers at American's Tulsa maintenance base live here, helping to make the= =20 Tulsa suburb Oklahoma's fastest growing city. But they're not the only ones= =20 uneasy about the future of the world's largest carrier. "It worries me,"=20 said Gary Briggs, who works on cars, not airplanes, but attributes a=20 decline in his business partly to jittery American employees staving off=20 inevitable repairs. The stock of AMR, American's parent, has lost more than= =20 90% of its value in the past year. Shares fell sharply this week after=20 reports that AMR was negotiating financing to operate under bankruptcy=20 protection. The uncertainty over what's next may have some residents=20 thinking twice about making big buys or dining out, said Gary Akin,=20 president of the Chamber of Commerce. "American Airlines isn't going to go= =20 away," he said. "It could be restructured. Does it mean overall lower=20 benefits? Does it mean overall lower wages? "What will American look like=20 two or three years from now? I don't think anyone knows." In an effort to avoid bankruptcy, American has proposed concessions that=20 include salary and benefits reductions. Leaders of the Transport Workers=20 Union, which represents mechanics, baggage handlers and other ground=20 workers, said they would review the proposal. A decade ago, American=20 employees made up roughly 40 percent of Owasso households, said Tim Rooney,= =20 assistant city manager. That percentage decreased as Owasso's population=20 grew 79 percent from 1990 to 20,000 last year. Residential building permits= =20 increased nearly six-fold during the same period. The city's average=20 household income is $66,723. Sales tax revenues, however, have not met expectations in recent months,=20 Rooney said. The city budgeted for a 7.72 percent sales tax increase over=20 last year but now believes that number will be about 2.8 percent less. "But= =20 we don't necessarily attribute that to what's going on at American," he=20 said. "We attribute it to more what's going on nationally" with uncertainty= =20 over potential war in Iraq. Some Owasso residents have lost jobs as WorldCom, in an industrial park=20 just outside city limits, has cut its work force=20 of=20 4,600 by nearly half. Business has dropped off just a little at the Ram=20 Cafe, a diner named for the school mascot, where a mostly blue-collar crowd= =20 gathers for breakfast at 5:30 a.m.Owner Mary Lou Barnhouse said she feels=20 for the families of American Airlines employees who have come to count on=20 well-paying maintenance jobs. But she knows many more Owasso residents=20 could be affected by the company's struggles."I could see where it could=20 have a mushroom effect on Owasso," she said over the slap and sizzle of=20 burgers. "If there should be layoffs or cutbacks on salaries, it could have= =20 an effect on everyone." Loretta Tittle's son-in-law works at American as a mechanic. News reports=20 on the company's outlook now grab her attention. She worries, even though her daughter has a job, too.If American has to lay= =20 off workers or goes bankrupt, she said, "it would be like taking half the=20 food off the table." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.tha.gov.tt/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************