American to Impose Contract : Labor: Airline’s unilateral move covers unionized flight attendants. Boycott is planned and strike is still possible.

Attempting to avert a strike, American Airlines said it will impose a new contract on its 21,000 unionized flight attendants today after a break-down in contract negotiations over the weekend.

After contract negotiations broke off Saturday, the flight attendants union said it planned to launch a national campaign for a boycott of the nation’s second-largest airline. It has scheduled a press conference for Tuesday to release more details.

American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp., said the new contract will raise pay by an average of 35% over four years, but the Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants said the raise is only 7.5% higher than the old four-year contract.

The higher raises will come at the lower pay levels. For example, a fourth-year flight attendant now making $18,178 a year will earn $26,701 at the end of the four-year contract--a 47% increase, a company spokesman said. Meanwhile, an attendant now at the top scale of $32,745 for domestic flights will earn $36,796 in four years--a 12% increase.

The contract “has a large number of the positive elements that the flight attendants had been seeking,” American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said Sunday.

A spokesman for the flight attendants union said it was too early to comment on whether the company’s action would avert a strike. The APFA had threatened to strike on or before Nov. 22, unless it could reach an agreement on a new contract.

Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

“We’re going to have to look at what they’re imposing and how much it varies from their last offer on the table,” said APFA spokesman Randy Edwards.

The union said it announced the boycott against America “to start drying up their business before we go on strike.” Flight attendants will discourage travel agents from booking people on American, and will set up picket lines at airports, a union spokesman said.

American Airlines officials have said the company intends to keep operating in the event of a strike. A spokesman said there was no way to prepare for a boycott but said that all a boycott would do is cause financial damage to American without settling anything.

A federal mediator declared an impasse in the negotiations on September 29 and called for a 30-day cooling off period. Since no tentative agreement was reached by the end of the 30 days, the company was free to implement any of the proposals that came up in the negotiations.

The union is also now free to strike.

The new contract will give flight attendants the pay raises, increased training pay and time-away-from-base pay, the company said. It also will increase vacation for attendants hired since 1983.

But there also are at least two provisions in the new contract that the flight attendants had opposed in the negotiations.

American said it will change its staffing procedures in order to reduce the number of attendants assigned to certain flights. The number of attendants on each flight will be determined by the number of passengers on the plane and whether or not meal service is offered.

Flight attendants also will participate in a cafeteria-style flexible benefits plan and will be required to pay a portion of the cost of their health benefits, as the company’s other employees already do, Smith said.