American may head to bankruptcy even with wage deals FORT WORTH (Reuters) =97 The head of American Airlines warned Thursday that= =20 the carrier could still file for bankruptcy if the economy turned sour and= =20 the war in Iraq dragged on, even if labor groups agree to wage concessions.= =20 Don Carty, chief executive of American's parent company AMR Corp., told=20 employees at a town hall meeting their unions should approve deals aimed at= =20 saving the world's largest carrier $1.8 billion a year in labor costs.=20 Otherwise, he said, American will seek $500 million in additional cuts in=20 Chapter 11 protection. "I must tell you honestly, that given the impact of= =20 the war in Iraq and a continued weak economy, the possibility of a=20 bankruptcy filing remains, these tentative agreements notwithstanding,"=20 Carty said. The three major unions are in the process of voting on the=20 concession deals and have set deadlines of Monday and Tuesday, depending on= =20 the group. Union leaders have said the cuts may be tough for rank and file= =20 to swallow unless there were measures in place to help employees share in=20 benefits if the carrier moves to sustained profitability. *************************************************** 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.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************