American Airlines dumps executive bonuses FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) =97 After sharp criticism from its rank-and-file,=20 American Airlines dropped a plan Friday to award bonuses to top executives= =20 if they stay at the embattled airline until 2005. The plan had caused an=20 uproar among American employees, who learned of the perks this week as they= =20 approved wage cuts and other concessions that the company said it needed to= =20 avoid bankruptcy. ``I have apologized to our union leaders for this and for= =20 the concern it has caused our employees," chairman and chief executive=20 Donald J. Carty said in a statement. ``Those executives who have made the=20 personal commitment to remain with American during this financial crisis,=20 myself included, are not here solely for monetary reasons and we have all=20 agreed to give up these retention payments in order to give our employees=20 confidence in management's ongoing commitment to shared sacrifice." The bonuses, equal to twice their salary, were offered to Carty and five=20 other senior executives, and a seventh manager was offered a bonus of 1=20 times salary. Employees complained about the bonuses, which were approved=20 last year but only disclosed this week after union workers voted to cut=20 their own pay 15.6 percent to 23 percent to avoid even deeper cuts and=20 layoffs if American filed for bankruptcy. Chairman and chief executive=20 Donald J. Carty acknowledged that while discussing cost-saving agreements=20 with union leaders he never described the bonus plans. ``I have apologized= =20 to our union leaders for this and for the concern it has caused our=20 employees," Carty said in a statement issued by the company. ``Those=20 executives who have made the personal commitment to remain with American=20 during this financial crisis, myself included, are not here solely for=20 monetary reasons and we have all agreed to give up these retention payments= =20 in order to give our employees confidence in management's ongoing=20 commitment to shared sacrifice." *************************************************** 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.pscutt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************