Taking a page from the negotiating strategy of bankrupt carrier United Airlines, American Airlines has given the members of its three largest unions until 11:00am this morning to prevent a bankruptcy filing by voting for $1.8 billion in concessions. The risk of their labor contracts being thrown out in federal bankruptcy court led the pilots' union, flight attendants' union, and the Transport Workers Union representing eight separate labor groups at American Airlines, to tentatively agree to the concessions last month (see WIT for April 1, 2003). A federal judge yesterday through out a request by several pilots to postpone the vote, and the unions have said that an extension of the voting period at the request of the neutral agency overseeing the vote would not prevent a timely reporting of the results.
See "American Airlines Unions Vote on Concessions", EDWARD WONG, The New York Times, April 14, 2003