Removing the threat of bankruptcy from the immediate future of the world's largest airline, American Airlines and the largest unions among its workforce yesterday reached tentative agreements on labor cost concessions totaling $1.8 billion annually (see WIT for March 19, 2003). The breakdown of the $1.8 billion is $660 million in concessions from pilots at the financially troubled carrier, $340 million from flight attendants, and $620 million from the 34,000 members of eight Transport Workers Union (TWU) bargaining units at American. Membership votes on the tentative agreements on work rule changes, benefit reductions, and pay cuts running as high as thirty percent for pilots and nineteen percent for some TWU members, are scheduled to be completed by April 15.
See "American Air Reaches Deal With 3 Unions on Big Cuts", EDWARD WONG, The New York Times, March 31, 2003