Flight attendants in St. Louis critical of American proposal ST. LOUIS (AP) =97 Many St. Louis-based flight attendants for American=20 Airlines voted against concessions that the company said it needed to avoid= =20 bankruptcy, saying Wednesday they had nothing to lose since the labor=20 givebacks would cost them their jobs anyway. But American's flight=20 attendants nationwide still approved the $340 million in concessions, their= =20 union said, pulling the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier back from=20 bankruptcy's brink. The St. Louis-based workers had hoped for better=20 treatment if American went bankrupt. "If yesterday's vote was no, today's=20 vote is hell, no," said a senior flight attendant who will lose her job,=20 severance pay, health benefits and her home after 35 years with Ozark, TWA= =20 and American airlines. "It's totally wrecked my life. I walk out with=20 nothing but my suitcase." In advance of Wednesday's vote results, the St.=20 Louis-based flight attendants =97 former TWA employees =97 spoke bitterly as= =20 their union was given another day to vote after rejecting concessions= Tuesday. All of American's roughly 1,800 St. Louis-based flight attendants are among= =20 more than 2,000 likely to be furloughed in the agreement. Despite=20 individuals' lengthy careers with TWA, they lost seniority when American=20 acquired St. Louis-based TWA in early 2001. They have been the first to be= =20 affected by cuts. "I don't know any ex-TWA flight attendant who voted yes," said another=20 35-year veteran of TWA and American. The flight attendants said they wanted= =20 to help the struggling company, like others in the airline industry,=20 battered by a shaky economy and terrorism worries. But they said their own= =20 union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, won nothing for=20 them in exchange for their concessions. Certain job loss was chief among=20 the reasons the St. Louis-based flight attendants opposed the agreement,=20 which also has no "snapbacks" that would provide relief if the economy=20 improved over the life of the contract. Moreover, flight attendants=20 furloughed as of May 1 are no longer entitled to the company's two-month=20 severance pay. "We are being served up as a concessionary package," said=20 Inez Guzman, who had 25 years with TWA before becoming an employee of=20 American. "TWA never put us on a platter. When American acquired TWA, they= =20 said they'd be 'fair and equitable.' We never thought we'd be the=20 sacrificial lamb." Disgruntled flight attendants said Wednesday's second=20 vote amounted to American's squeezing the result it wanted in the first=20 place. One attendant who declined to give his name, citing company=20 prohibitions against employees speaking to the media, likened the second=20 vote to racketeering. The flight attendants said their supervisors were=20 calling them at home, handing them leaflets and leaving messages under=20 their hotel room doors urging them to vote to accept the concessions.=20 Flight attendant Kim Mayer said he was handed a leaflet when he boarded a=20 flight in Dallas on Tuesday night urging him to call a certain number to=20 change his vote. "I told them it's over, it's done," he said. "The whole=20 thing is disheartening." *************************************************** 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 *********************************************************