Pilots’ Board Recommends OKing Contract

Leaders of the American Airlines pilots’ union recommended that members approve a tentative contract with the nation’s largest domestic airline. In a 12-6 vote, the Allied Pilots Assn. executive board said the plan will be presented to American’s 9,300 pilots for a vote in the next few weeks, said Jim Sovich, president of the union. Under the proposed contract, American pilots would get raises totaling 9% through 2001 and stock options. And within four years, the Dallas-based airline would end a second-tier wage scale adopted in the early 1980s. The pilots union launched a strike in February, but it ended only minutes later when President Clinton ordered a 60-day cooling-off period and formed an emergency board to come up with a proposed settlement.