Union: American Airlines, pilots to resume contract talks Wednesday
By
Terry Maxon/Reporter
tmaxon@dallasnews.com
6:15 PM on Tue., Oct. 18, 2011
Here’s the update from the Allied Pilots Association on Tuesday evening:
APA BOARD OF DIRECTORS FALL MEETING: The APA Board of Directors resumed their regularly scheduled fall meeting at 9 a.m. Central today at APA headquarters in Fort Worth, spending the entire day in closed session. APA Negotiating Committee Chairman First Officer Neil Roghair provided a detailed recap of the recent intensive negotiations between APA and management. In addition, Scope Committee Chairman First Officer Tim Hamel briefed the Board on the Scope-related discussions. The Board also received a briefing by a group of American Airlines management representatives regarding their perspective on the same Scope items.
The Board recessed their meeting at 5 p.m. and will reconvene tomorrow at 9 a.m.
NEGOTIATIONS TO RESUME: APA and management are scheduled to resume discussions tomorrow. We will keep you informed as developments at the bargaining table warrant.
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October 17, 2011
American, pilots making good progress in talks, union rep says
Terry Maxon/Reporter
tmaxon@dallasnews.com
Sam Mayer, American Airlines pilot and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said Monday afternoon that American and the union have made good progress in their contract talks, even though there’s no deal yet.
Taking note investors sold off AMR stock Monday, Mayer said that “Somehow people were drawing the conclusion that the failure to come out of this weekend with a deal at hand meant we were at an impasse, or that things had broken down. Really, nothing could be farther from the truth.”
Added Mayer: “We’ve made some significant progress. We’ve seen a lot of movement from the company, and we’ve moved. We’ve significantly closed the gap on a lot of issues. But we’re not there yet. There’s still a lot of work that has to get done. The company had an ambitious timetable. It didn’t work. But that doesn’t mean we’re stuck.”
American and union negotiators met through the weekend at Lake Texoma, and the union negotiators left at midday Monday to return to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. On Tuesday, the negotiators will meet with the union’s board of directors.
“The negotiators are planning to spend the day with the board tomorrow, briefing them on where things stand – what’s opened, what’s closed, where the big hurdles are – and trying to formulate a plan going forward,” said Mayer, chairman of the union’s communications committee.
Mayer said he doubts that negotiations can resume by mid-week as American spokeswoman Missy Cousino suggested. It’ll likely take longer for that for the APA negotiating team to prepare for the next round of talks, following its meeting with the APA board.
“Everybody wants to get this resolved sooner rather than later. But it’s time for our negotiating committee to regroup and work with the board and figure out where they want to go,” Mayer said.
“Depending on where the board direction sends them, they may have to do a little bit of prep work before they’re ready to go back into the arena with the company. But I think it’s a desire on both sides to get this going sooner rather than later,” he said.
Are the two sides close? It depends.
“The big stuff is still there,” Mayer said. “Pay is still there. Scope is still there. Pension, work rules…”
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/10/union-american-airlines-pilots.html