New pilots’ union leaders at American Airlines set conciliatory tone in break from recent past
By David Koenig, APThursday, July 8, 2010
New union leaders at American set polite tone
FORT WORTH, Texas — New leaders of the pilots’ union at American Airlines are toning down the rhetoric against the company, believing that will help them win a new labor contract.
They say they’re going to stop using billboards and picket lines to blast the company.
The newly elected union leaders said Thursday they want job-protection measures and pay raises in a new contract, although they didn’t give specifics.
American has long suffered from testy labor-management relations that led to two strikes in the 1990s and renewed threats of strikes this year by flight attendants and ground workers.
David Bates, the new president of the Allied Pilots Association, says he wants open communication with the company, something he says hasn’t happened in the last three years.
