{"id":6187,"date":"2012-04-30T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=6187"},"modified":"2012-04-30T11:19:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:19:36","slug":"union-aa-merger-with-us-airways-means-fewer-job-cuts-in-tulsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/04\/30\/union-aa-merger-with-us-airways-means-fewer-job-cuts-in-tulsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Union: AA Merger with US Airways Means Fewer Job Cuts in Tulsa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6188\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"American Airlines and American Eagle employees prepare to march to U.S. Bankruptcy Court to protest against American's plans to cut jobs and labor costs while under bankruptcy court protection. The airline's three major unions, while opposing the company's restructuring plans, announced Friday that they would support a potential takeover bid by US Airways.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/aa-protest.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6188\" title=\"American Airlines Workers Rally Outside U.S. Bankruptcy Court\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/aa-protest-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Spencer Platt \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">American Airlines and American Eagle employees prepare to march to U.S. Bankruptcy Court to protest against American&#39;s plans to cut jobs and labor costs while under bankruptcy court protection.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>US Airways has been <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/04\/24\/aa-in-bankruptcy-court-airline-wants-to-cut-contracts-unions-want-a-merger\/\">wooing<\/a> labor unions to support a possible bid for bankrupt American Airlines.<\/p><p>Last week, the Transport Workers Union \u2014 which represents about 2,100 workers targeted for layoffs at American\u2019s maintenance base in Tulsa \u2014 joined pilots and flight attendants unions in supporting a US Airways takeover.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Under a US Airways agreement with the TWU, the airline would cut 450 jobs at American&#8217;s maintenance base in Tulsa and grant two-year furlough protection to the 4,500 workers who remain, according to union documents, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tulsaworld.com\/business\/article.aspx?subjectid=585&articleid=20120428_45_A1_USAirw209737&rss_lnk=1\">reports<\/a> the Tulsa World.<\/p><\/blockquote><p><!--more--><\/p><p>Officials with AMR Corp., American\u2019s parent, say they want to emerge from <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/topic\/american-airlines\/\">bankruptcy<\/a> protection as an independent carrier. AMR is asking a bankruptcy court to void its current labor contracts.<\/p><p>For a decade, major airlines have used bankruptcy to accomplish what couldn\u2019t be negotiated: \u201creduce wages and benefits to \u2018market\u2019 levels,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/steven-pearlstein-two-can-play-the-airline-bankruptcy-game\/2012\/04\/27\/gIQAJ239nT_story.html\">writes<\/a> <em>Washington Post<\/em> columnist Steven Pearlstein:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Back in the days when fares and routes were regulated by the government and compensation was effectively set in an industry-wide pattern, there wasn\u2019t much incentive for airlines to resist above-market wages, gold-plated benefits and inflexible work rules. And even after the industry was deregulated and the major carriers faced competition from lower-cost, non-union upstarts, the threat of a crippling strike gave the airline unions the upper hand in contract negotiations.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>Bankruptcy gave airline executives a way to void labor agreements, change work rules, fire thousands and impose lower wages \u2014 effectively neutralizing the threat of a union strike, Pearlstein writes.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>All of which makes what is happening at American Airlines deliciously ironic.<\/p><p>The company hoped to win speedy court approval for a plan to eliminate 13,000 positions, reducing benefits to current employees and retirees and reforming work rules that have made American\u2019s productivity the lowest in the industry. Instead, the unions did an end run and struck new labor agreements with US Airways, which will use it as the basis for launching a bid to buy its larger rival out of bankruptcy.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>Airline unions\u2019 new message, Pearlstein writes: \u201cboth sides can play the bankruptcy game.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Airways has been wooing labor unions to support a possible bid for bankrupt American Airlines.Last week, the Transport Workers Union \u2014 which represents about 2,100 workers targeted for layoffs at American\u2019s maintenance base in Tulsa \u2014 joined pilots and flight attendants unions in supporting a US Airways takeover. Under a US Airways agreement with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":6188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,300],"tags":[293,294,363],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6197,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187\/revisions\/6197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}