Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 19, 1993 TAG: 9311200282
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Medium
In Roanoke, American's commuter subsidiary, American Eagle, still was flying its three scheduled daily runs.
But passengers dependent on connector flights with American Airlines at the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., airport were being transferred to other airlines before leaving Roanoke, airport spokesman Mark Courtney said. American Eagle accounts for about 4 percent of Roanoke's air traffic.
American Eagle's flight attendants are covered under a separate contract and are not involved in the strike by attendants against Aermican Airlines.
American threatened to fire strikers and said it intends to use managers and nonstrikers to keep most flights going. The union, which represents 21,000 workers at American, vowed to stay out until after the busy Thanksgiving holiday weekend and was hoping to get the pilots to join them.
The airline and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants failed to reach a new contract agreement in two days of federally mediated, last-ditch talks. They are split over pay, staffing and other issues. Weary negotiators called it quits about 2 a.m. Thursday in New Orleans, and the strike began four hours later.
It was the largest airline walkout since Machinists struck Eastern Airlines in 1989. But it was difficult to gauge the impact.
American said it was confident flight attendants who cross picket lines and managers newly trained as flight attendants would enable it to staff flights in line with government safety rules. The company would give no details on the proportion of flights affected.
Some customer s on canceled flights said the company's optimistic statements amounted to misinformation.
``I called to find out what, in fact, was flying and the airline said this morning that all flights were going and on time,'' said a passenger who declined to identify herself at Greater Buffalo (N.Y.) International Airport. ``But when we got here, the baggage person out front said none of the flights were going.''
In the past, flight attendants striking alone at other airlines have failed to close a carrier. If the flight attendants can persuade the more powerful pilots not to fly, they would stand a much better chance of shutting down American.
The union that represents 10,000 pilots was voting on whether to join the strike. Ballots were to be counted today. A third group of unionized workers, the 30,300 mechanics and ground workers, were barred by court order from joining.
The airline operates the nation's largest domestic system, with service to more than 200 U.S. cities as well as international routes. Its parent company also operates several smaller commuter airlines, which were not directly affected by the strike.
The American cancellations threatened to ripple through the system, disrupting connecting flights and sending passengers to later American flights or competing airlines.
American spokesman Al Becker predicted that ``large numbers of our flight attendants will cross the picket line and come to work.'' The ones that do strike, he said, ``are going to be permanently replaced.''
At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, American spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said she had no specifics on flight disruptions but said: ``I liken the situation at O'Hare to a bad snow day.''
The airline said it uses about 6,000 flight attendants on any given day but could fly with fewer and still meet Federal Aviation Administration standards.
Union President Denise Hedges said if no contract agreement has been reached by Nov. 28, she will ask the union's board of directors to send the flight attendants back to work and pursue other steps.
The two sides returned to the table Tuesday for the first time since negotiations broke off Oct. 30. On Nov. 1, American unilaterally implemented a new contract that included an average 7.8 percent pay raise.
Hedges said sticking points included pay, funding of retiree health benefits and scheduling and work-rule changes that ``would result in flight attendants working longer hours for less pay.''
With the Nov. 1 raise, American flight attendants draw a base pay of between $17,000 and just more than $34,000 per year. The union wants higher raises than the company is offering to make up for what it considers pay cuts in previous years.
by CNB