American to lay off 3,100 flight attendants FORT WORTH (AP) =97 American Airlines will lay off more than 3,100 flight=20 attendants on July 1 as part of recently approved labor concessions, the=20 workers' union said late Wednesday. American recently won employee=20 approval for $1.8 billion in annual labor concessions, including $340=20 million from flight attendants, that the cash-strapped carrier said it=20 needed to avoid bankruptcy. "Today's announcement by American is indeed=20 very sad for all of us at the APFA," said John Ward, president of the=20 Association of Professional Flight Attendants. "The news that so many of=20 our coworkers will now face unemployment is another in a long line of very= =20 disheartening events of late." The news was, however, not surprising.=20 American said recently that it sent layoff notices to 5,000 flight=20 attendants late last month, warning that they could be laid off as early as= =20 July 1. About one-third of the attendants were based in St. Louis and had=20 worked for Trans World Airlines, which American's parent company bought in= =20 2001. The number of layoffs among flight attendants was larger than the 2,400=20 cuts required under the new contract approved as American teetered on the=20 brink of bankruptcy last month. Company officials have said the additional= =20 layoffs were necessary because some employees had returned from voluntary=20 leaves of absence, swelling the work force. "We recognize that any=20 furloughs are painful," said American spokesman Todd Burke. He said the=20 company was able to reduce the number of flight attendants being laid off=20 to 3,123 because of voluntary leaves. A total of 1,545 flight attendants=20 are taking voluntary leaves. The layoffs are in reverse seniority order,=20 meaning those who have been with the company the least time receive notices= =20 first. Burke said the most senior of the flight attendants being furloughed= =20 has a seniority date of April 6, 2000. About 1,800 flight attendants, who= =20 formerly worked for TWA and were based in St. Louis, have April 2001=20 seniority dates. The union said once the layoffs are carried out, American will have cut=20 6,000 flight attendant jobs since October 2001. American also had said it would cut 2,200 pilots and 1,200 ground workers.= =20 The first pilots are expected to receive layoff notices on June 1. Flight= =20 attendants and other union employees also saw wage cuts of 15% to 23%,=20 beginning May 1. Chief executive Gerard Arpey has said the labor=20 concessions are vital to the airline's effort to return to financial=20 stability. Parent company AMR Corp. lost more than $5.2 billion over the=20 past two years and lost another $1 billion in the first three months of= 2003. *************************************************** 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.cso.gov.tt TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************