Members of the flight attendants union at American Airlines voted narrowly to approve annual concession of $340 million yesterday after union leaders and the company agreed to extend the voting period following an initial rejection of the concessions (see yesterday's WIT). The vote secures the last part of $1.8 billion in annual concessions that American Airlines' CEO had said unions needed to make in order to prevent a bankruptcy filing under which the airline threatened to overturn its labor contracts and impose even harsher concessions. The flight attendants' 52 to 48 percent vote approving the concessions, and a similarly narrow vote approving concessions by ground-workers at American Airlines, reveal the enormity of the animosity American Airlines has engendered among its employees.
See "Flight Attendants Approve Concessions at American", EDWARD WONG, The New York Times, April 16, 2003