American, Pilots Remain Divided as Strike Approaches

Despite continuing talks with a federal mediator, American Airlines and its pilots Friday evening remained divided on major contract issues, raising the possibility of an imminent strike at the nation’s second-largest carrier.

“We’re closer now than when we started, but we are still really far apart,” the union’s chief negotiator Brian Mayhew said at a news conference in Washington just 3 1/2 hours before the strike deadline of 9 p.m. PST Friday.

A walkout by American’s 9,300 pilots will ground 640 planes that carry about 200,000 travelers daily, nearly one-fifth of the nation’s air passengers.

“It’s going to be mayhem,” said James Higgins, an airline analyst with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in New York. “If you don’t have to travel,” he added, “I wouldn’t.”

Anxious travelers and their agents, as they have all week, scrambled Friday to make alternative arrangements at the start of the Presidents Day holiday weekend.

“I am terribly worried. I have no other flight to go to and I want to get back to my husband,” said Betty Moore as she stood in line at the airport in Dallas for a standby ticket to Sacramento.

Meanwhile, airport officials and other airlines nationwide braced themselves for the first airline strike since American Airlines flight attendants walked out in 1993.

“We don’t expect any disruption, but we have plans to add security if we need to,” said Nancy Niles, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles International Airport.

Most other major carriers announced Friday they would accommodate American Airlines ticket-holders on a space available basis. United Airlines, Trans World Airlines and Continental Airlines said they would drop restrictions on discount tickets for customers who may be stranded in the event of a strike. But many flights were expected to be full because of the holidays, suggesting that thousands of passengers are likely to be affected by the labor strife over job security and wages.

“We do have some seats,” said Linda Rutherford, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, which is accepting American Airline passengers on a standby basis. But she added, “We are running quite full because of fare sales and promotions.”

American, for its part, said it planned to fully staff its ticket counter at airports for “several days” if the pilots struck to help passengers get flights other airlines.

“We’re negotiating very hard . . . progress is coming but it’s coming slowly,” said company spokesman Chris Chiames during a brief break in negotiations Friday evening.

A walkout would be felt most severely at American Airlines-dominated airports such as Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami but will also cause significant passenger and economic disruption in many other areas, including Southern California.

American has 70 daily departures out of LAX and 14 out of John Wayne Airport in Orange County, where some Friday flights were canceled before a potential strike could ground planes. The Los Angeles area is home to about 850 American pilots and an additional 3,600 company flight attendants and other employees--most of whom would be furloughed.

“Yes, I’m prepared,” pilot Chuck Spence said solemnly just hours before heading to a meeting in Long Beach for a nationwide union teleconference from Washington, where negotiations have been going round the clock for several days.

“Does it frighten me to go on strike?” the 46-year-old Camarillo resident asked. “No,” Spence answered. Then he added: “Am I worried about my future? Of course.”

President Clinton urged the two parties Friday to strike a deal. But he gave no signs as to whether he would stop a strike by declaring a national emergency, which under the Railway Act he could do to keep planes flying for up to 60 days during arbitration.

Earlier this week, the Department of Transportation told Clinton that a strike would cost the nation’s economy up to $200 million each day and could strand up to 40,000 passengers daily.

American is also a major cargo carrier, and shipments of U.S. mail, along with many other goods that American moves between the United States and Central and South American, would also be affected.

Because of the effect on travelers, analysts do not think a strike would last for more than a few days. “I suspect there would be some government intervention,” said Ray Neidl, an aviation analyst at the New York investment firm of Furman Selz Inc.

Robert Crandall, chairman and chief executive of AMR Corp., the Fort Worth-based parent of American Airlines, has said a strike would cost his company $50 million a day, a figure that some analysts say is too high.

Nonetheless, analysts agree that the strike, if it runs more than a few days, would be extremely costly to American, which like many other airlines has seen their profits grow in recent years.

Already, American has canceled many of its overseas flights as well a dozen round-trip domestic flights scheduled for Friday so that aircraft would not be stranded at airports. In preparation for the strike, with a new credit line, American has amassed a $2-billion war chest to help weather a walkout.

Crandall has said he would accept binding arbitration to reach a new four-year contract with the pilots, but the pilots’ group, the Allied Pilots Assn., has opposed arbitration.

American and its pilots union have been wrangling over a new contract for two years. The two sides tentatively approved a pact last November in which American offered the pilots a 5% raise over four years plus stock options on 5.75 million company shares.

But by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, the pilots--who earn on average $120,000 a year--rejected the offer, and their union later proposed that the pilots get an 11% pay hike over four years and options on 7.25 million shares.

Many pilots, however, insist that the critical issue is over who will fly new, smaller jets that American plans to add to its American Eagle commuter fleet--an issue that pilots say endangers long-term job security.

The company wants the jets to be flown by the American Eagle pilots, who currently fly the commuter line’s turboprop airplanes and earn on average $35,000 a year.

The Allied Pilots Assn. fears that American will use the lower-cost commuter planes on American Airlines routes, thus displacing its members. American Airlines, however, claims it can’t accede to the Allied Pilots’ demand without eroding its competitiveness.

One older American pilot in Dallas, who asked that he not be identified, said he voted for the last contract proposal. But he said the commuter jet issue is more of a long-term threat to junior pilots.

“The younger ones are saying, ‘By opening the door and giving American Eagle the regional jets, you’re opening the door to eliminate our jobs.’ ”

David Walsh, an associate professor at Miami University in Oxford, who has written a book on airline labor relations, doesn’t see any easy resolution to the commuter jet issue.

“It’s a serious issue,” Walsh said, adding that both sides have a point. He added, “The (union’s) expectations are higher because the carrier is doing better, and the feeling is you ought to get a share of it. But management’s argument is that we’re doing well precisely because we’ve been able to keep costs down.”

Times Wire Services contributed to this story.