American Airlines defends smaller pay cuts for management FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) =97 American Airlines officials are defending job and= =20 salary cuts for executives that are less severe than those faced by pilots,= =20 flight attendants and mechanics. About $100 million would be trimmed from=20 management costs by eliminating 5% of the 12,000 jobs and slashing salaries= =20 by 4% to 15%. Pay for pilots, however, would drop 23% on May 1, and flight= =20 attendants' pay would fall 15.6%. Wages of mechanics and baggage handlers=20 would be slashed 16% and 15.6%, respectively. A company spokesman defended= =20 the more-modest cuts for management employees, noting that they have gone=20 without raises and bonuses for the past two years. Pay for American's=20 management employees lagged industry averages while the company's flight=20 attendants and ground workers have been at the top of industry pay scales=20 and pilots have been near the top, said spokesman Bruce Hicks. "We have=20 always kept at the industry average, very lean and very efficient ... but=20 this puts management even further below average," Hicks said Thursday. The Fort Worth-based airline has already reduced management by 22% since=20 the Sept. 2001 terrorist attacks, he said. The first $30,000 of their salaries will be reduced by 4%, the next $30,000= =20 by 7%, the next $30,000 by 10% and for amounts over $90,000, 13.5%.=20 Chairman Donald J. Carty said this week he would take a 33% cut from his=20 $585,813 salary, and officers' pay would be cut 17%. American and its three= =20 major unions reached tentative agreements Monday on deals to cut more than= =20 $1.6 billion in annual labor costs, the bulk of an estimated $1.8 billion=20 reduction in overall labor spending. Airline officials said they would have= =20 to file for bankruptcy without the deals. Union officials defended the=20 deals, warning of even deeper pay cuts and more layoffs if American went=20 into bankruptcy. Under the tentative agreements, about 2,500 pilots, 2,400= =20 flight attendants and 1,100 to 1,400 ground workers likely will lose their= =20 jobs. Remaining employees will work longer hours and get less vacation. The= =20 deals call for $660 million in cuts from pilots, $620 million from ground=20 workers and $340 from flight attendants. Union employees have until mid-April to approve the plans, which also would= =20 give workers stock options worth a 24.3% equity stake in the airline, plus= =20 profit sharing once the company reaches profit targets. A group called=20 Pilots Defending the Profession has started an organized campaign against=20 the deal, saying it might not keep American out of bankruptcy. The group=20 said in a Web site posting Thursday that the pilots union gave up too much= =20 without getting partial ownership of American or seats on its board of=20 directors. As devastating as the cuts are, the airline has said it would=20 lay off a total of 3,900 flight attendants =97 1,500 more than what is=20 proposed in the concessions plan =97 if it files for bankruptcy, said=20 Association of Professional Flight Attendants spokesman George Price. In=20 that case, the company has said it would use Latin American flight=20 attendants who are paid much less than their U.S. counterparts, Price said.= =20 "That means we could lose American jobs to foreign nationals," he said. *************************************************** 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.ttsailing.org/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************