Pilots to Take Job Actions at American

Pilots at American Airlines said Friday night that unspecified job actions--including a potential work slowdown--would start immediately at the nation’s second-largest airline after talks failed to end a dispute over the carrier’s purchase of Reno Air.

The Allied Pilots Assn., which represents American’s 9,200 pilots, said talks during the week failed to resolve pilots’ anger over how American has integrated Reno, a West Coast carrier that the company bought in November for $124 million.

“The company came our way on a few issues, but on the core issues we are still far apart,” said union President Rich LaVoy. “They still want to fly the Reno pilots on the cheap.”

The union said no new negotiations had been scheduled for the weekend.

A pilot at American’s Dallas operations said he expected job actions to “begin immediately over the weekend” as frustrated union members seek to force the company to make greater concessions.

American pilots did not disclose what forms their job actions would take, but slowdowns could affect some of the 2,100 daily flights worldwide.

The union contends American, based in Dallas-Fort Worth, is violating the labor contract with its pilots by continuing to operate Reno as a separate airline, even though it has acquired most of Reno’s stock and has put four senior executives on Reno’s board.

The union says this violates the pilot labor contract, which requires any aircraft controlled by American to be flown by American pilots.

LaVoy said this week’s negotiations advanced in issues such as training, sick pay and vacation benefits, but core issues such as the differences in the pay of American pilots and that of their counterparts at Reno remained unresolved.

Pilots at Reno Air earn about half the salaries of American’s pilots, who make about $150,000 a year.

American pilots fear American will keep Reno as a separate airline, creating an opportunity for American to expand its Reno operations rather than routes flown by the better-paid American pilots.

American did not immediately return calls to its offices.

A spokesman for AMR Corp., the parent of American, said earlier Friday that a work slowdown by its pilots last summer affected less than 1% the airline’s flights.

In that dispute, American was forced to cancel 500 flights in July and August as pilots protested the number of passengers American had flown on its partner, Canadian Airlines Corp.

Chris Chimes, an AMR spokesman, said that American responded by reaccommodating passengers on other flights and that American was determined to resolve the latest pilot dispute.