American Airlines Wants To Eliminate 13,000 Jobs, End Pension Plans

The parent of American Airlines wants to eliminate about 13,000 jobs – 15 percent of its workforce – as the nation's third-biggest airline remakes itself under bankruptcy protection.

The company proposes to end its traditional pension plans, a move strongly opposed by the airline's unions and the U.S. pension-insurance agency, and to stop paying for retiree health benefits.

AMR Corp. said Wednesday that it must cut labor costs by 20 percent. It will soon begin negotiations with its three major unions, but the president of the flight attendants' union quickly rejected the company's ideas as unacceptably harsh.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

If these changes go through, I will never fly AMERICAN again.

And I say this because my late Dad was an aircraft instrument mechanic. The companies for which he worked had a love/hate relationship with Spencer, because he understood, VERY CLEARLY, that the instruments he was checking out, and calibrating to perfection, were the difference between life and death in the air.

If you don't have enough smart and well-trained people doing this kind of work, safety will suffer.

Apparently, to AMERICAN CEO Thomas Horton, this is an acceptable risk, but it is not one I am willing to take.

Posted on Feb 02, 2012 at 09:29
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