Union reports snag in talks with American Airlines FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) =97 Negotiations between American Airlines and its=20 pilots have hit a snag over the financially troubled carrier's intention to= =20 fire nearly 1,000 pilots immediately, a union official said Wednesday.=20 American wants to lay off the pilots before the union presents a plan to=20 cut costs by other means, including changes in work rules, said Gregg=20 Overman of the Allied Pilots Association. "We have hit a major snag in=20 negotiations," Overman said. "American Airlines' management wants to=20 furlough close to 1,000 pilots before turning on the calculator." A=20 spokesman for the airline had no immediate comment on possible layoffs. The= =20 latest dispute between American and its unions comes as the carrier=20 negotiates for $1.8 billion in wage and benefit concessions from employees= =20 to help avoid bankruptcy. The airline has asked pilots to bear $660 million= =20 in the cuts =97 the largest chunk =97 and Overman said the union is= committed=20 to finding those savings. Separately, union leaders are studying a bid for= =20 employee ownership of the world's largest carrier. Representatives of=20 several unions attended a two-hour meeting Wednesday in which consultants=20 for the pilots' union laid out a plan for employee ownership. "That doesn't indicate we support it, but we certainly wanted to hear the=20 presentation," said George Price, a spokesman for the Association of=20 Professional Flight Attendants, which was represented at the meeting. The=20 meeting was organized by directors of the pilots' union, who were meeting=20 in Fort Worth. Some members began openly discussing the possibility of=20 employee ownership last week, although the union's president said the=20 group's leaders had not endorsed the idea. "This falls into the realm of a= =20 Plan B," Overman said. "I don't know what the level of seriousness is, but= =20 the board took two hours out of a meeting" to hear the presentation by its= =20 consultants. The unions are negotiating over concessions but have demanded= =20 that in exchange they share in the gains if American returns to=20 profitability. American's chairman and chief executive, Donald J. Carty,=20 has said unions should share in future profits, but the company's=20 negotiators have not proposed how that would work, union and company=20 officials say. In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, shares= =20 of American's parent, Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., rose 12 cents to $2.37. *************************************************** 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.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************