American's exec pay enrages labor By Dan Reed, USA TODAY Fresh disclosures about American Airlines' executive compensation angered=20 its labor unions Thursday, and the leader of one union threatened to walk=20 away from a deal that kept the company out of bankruptcy protection this=20 week. Union members agreed to cut their pay by at least 15% to help the=20 company save $1.8 billion a year. Days of voting concluded Tuesday and=20 Wednesday. American's parent, AMR, disclosed the executive compensation=20 changes in its annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange=20 Commission Tuesday. Jim Little of the Transport Workers Union said he will= =20 reconsider signing the new contract because AMR's "failure to timely=20 disclose" the changes was a material breach of its obligation to workers.=20 The TWU represents mechanics and other ground workers. The heads of American's two other unions also were outraged by two changes= =20 in the executive compensation plan: =B7 A plan to pay the airline's top six executives bonuses equal to=20 twice their salaries if they remain at the airline until January 2005. =B7 Creation of a trust guaranteeing parts of the pension plans for=20 American's 45 top executives in the event of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. "Knowledge of this outrage probably would have doomed" the ratification=20 vote, said John Ward, head of the flight attendants union. He called it=20 "the equivalent of an obscene gesture from management to employees." "We=20 just gave them $10 billion in concessions" over six years, said pilots=20 union chief John Darrah. "It's a slap in the face and smells of Enron and=20 WorldCom." American spokesman Bruce Hicks defended the executive compensation changes= =20 as "necessary to retain some very talented and important people in a=20 competitive job market." Management, he said, is communicating the details= =20 of the plans to all employees. "We think the facts demonstrate they're very= =20 conservative and responsible" plans, he said. Changes in executive=20 compensation and pension plans disclosed last month by Delta, Northwest and= =20 Continental airlines outraged workers and some in Congress. Delta CEO Leo=20 Mullin, who got a $1.4 million bonus last year on top of his $795,000=20 salary, responded by waiving his 2003 and 2004 bonuses and giving up stock= =20 awards potentially worth millions. American CEO Don Carty's base salary=20 last year was $881,000, sixth among major airline executives. This year, he= =20 took a pay cut to $543,000. Carty also did not get a bonus the last two=20 years and already has declined any bonus this year. His total compensation= =20 was down 88% over the past two years, when AMR lost $5.3 billion. *************************************************** 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 *********************************************************