Sides Fail To Reach Agreement In Extended Talks

Talks between management and the union representing roughly 14,000 baggage and cargo handlers at American Airlines broke down recently, after both sides failed to reach a deal on a new contract.

Bloomberg reports talks between American and the Transport Workers Union started December 2, and extended well past the December 8 deadline. Despite that extension to hammer out a deal, the talks ended in an impasse in the late hours of December 12.

"We discontinued the negotiation last night," said American Airlines spokeswoman Tami McLallen on Saturday.

The next step appears to be mediated talks before federal officials. McLallen wouldn't confirm a mediator would be brought in, though both sides agreed before talks began the National Mediation Board would be called if a contract deal couldn't be reached amicably.

When the NMB is called in, it will mark the third mediated labor negotiation now underway between American and its workers. Mediators are also overseeing talks between AAL management, and its pilots and flight dispatchers.

And just as with those contentious negotiations, it looks like the NMB has its work cut out for them with the TWU. "The company didn't seem very serious about getting an agreement," John Conley, the union's Air Transport Division director, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Union negotiators neither ignored the competitive realities that American faces nor ignored the economic fragility of the current environment. We gave them our equivalent of a red tag sale."

American is working desperately to cut its labor costs, in the face of declining demand. While fuel prices have since ebbed from this summer's record highs, the airline says it's still trying to recover those losses... and few expect those prices not to peak again.

The TWU also represents fleet service workers at American, along with parts clerks, simulator technicians and ground school instructors.

FMI: www.aa.com, www.twu.com