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AA files motion for contempt
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February 11, 1999: 11:24 p.m. ET
Airline asks court to find pilots' union in contempt, flights still grounded
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - American Airlines headed back to court Thursday, asking a federal judge to hold its pilots in contempt for failing to return to work after being ordered to end their staged sick-out.
The airline filed a motion for contempt against the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing its pilots, in the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas.
The motion comes a day after U.S. District Judge Joe Kendall directed the APA to end a sick-out that has grounded more than 3,800 flights this week.
American Airlines said instead of returning to work, the number of sick workers increased, resulting in some 1,170 flight cancellations Thursday from the nearly 1,000 flights canceled Wednesday.
The flight cancellations approach half of the carrier's 2,200 daily flight schedule. Flights of the airline's American Eagle commuter affiliate have not been affected by the job action.
"We appreciate the fact that a majority of our pilots continue to fly, but are surprised and disappointed with the APA's failure to clearly communicate to its members what the judge ordered," American said in a statement. "The union leadership needs to recognize that they are not just letting down the company, but a federal judge, our customers and their fellow employees -- all of whom had expectations that things would get better, not worse."
Wall Street analysts estimated the job action has cost AMR Corp. (AMR), the parent of American, as much as $50 million in lost revenue.
American canceled more than 1,170 flights Thursday -- more than half of the 2,250 scheduled daily. It was the largest single day of cancellations since the sick-out began. For the entire month of February last year, airline lawyers said, American canceled a total of just five flights.
Ticket lines were backed up at American counters all over the country, its customers growing ever more angry and impatient impatience with the delays and cancellations.
U.S. District Court Judge Joe Kendall on Wednesday ordered the APA not to engage in any "concerted action" to encourage pilots to call in sick or refuse overtime. The ruling was sought by American in an effort to end the job action, which began late Friday and centered around a dispute involving pilot pay at Reno Air, a smaller carrier acquired by American late last year.
"We look to the APA to cooperate in complying with Judge Kendall's order that found the APA to be engaging in an illegal work stoppage, and to communicate very clearly to its membership that pilots have a legal obligation to return to work," the carrier said Thursday.
The union noted that the injunction does not apply to individual pilots who have been refusing overtime and calling in sick.
"We're going to advise our pilots that they have to abide by what the judge has ordered here," APA President Rich LaVoy said.
Union members, prohibited by federal law from striking, had refused to work overtime and declared themselves medically "unfit to fly" to protest the lower salaries American is maintaining for the Reno Air pilots.
Those pilots make an average $75,000 a year, half the $150,000 average salary of the 9,200 American pilots.
American contends it would cost $40-$50 million a year to raise the Reno salaries immediately.
In his ruling, Kendall said the job action was "inappropriate and should stop." But he did not leave the airline unscathed, blaming the dispute on the company's labor history. "If you look up the term 'bad labor relations' in the dictionary, you'd see an American Airlines logo beside it," the judge said.
The carrier has established a procedure for obtaining refunds and for changing discount flights without a service charge.
American was hoping to have regular service restored by the weekend, one of the year's key travel periods because it includes the President's Day holiday and many school vacations.
AMR shares were down 5/8 to 55-7/16 in Thursday trade.
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