Tulsa World
D.R. STEWART, World Staff Writer

Ken MacTiernan tried to talk about his objections to the proposed three-year contract that American Airlines mechanics are voting on this week, but car horns, shouts and cheers from passing motorists kept drowning his words.

"We're getting a lot of support," MacTiernan said.

An aircraft mechanic at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and an executive board member of the Transport Workers Union at American, MacTiernan and a half dozen other DFW mechanics drove to Tulsa on Wednesday to show support for a "no" vote on the proposed contract.

At 1 p.m., the DFW contingent unfurled a banner — "Vote No" — across the street from American's Maintenance & Engineering Center at 3800 N. Mingo Road. They timed the demonstration to coincide with a shift change at the base, which employs 6,000 aircraft mechanics and related work groups.

The M&E Center is American's largest aircraft overhaul base, and many mechanics believe the fate of the tentative agreement rests in Tulsa's hands.

"We're here to show support to the guys in Tulsa for a 'no' vote," said Russ Cannon, a DFW mechanic who has worked at American for 21 years.

American also has overhaul facilities at Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, where 1,900 mechanics and related work groups are employed, and Kansas City, which has about 500 mechanics.

American also employs several thousand mechanics around the country at overnight line stations in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York and Miami, Fla.

After more than two years of negotiations, American and the TWU on May 5 reached a tentative three-year agreement calling for a 3 percent wage increase the first year and 1.5 percent wage increases in each succeeding year. Mechanics at the Tulsa, Fort Worth and Kansas City bases also were offered lump-sum signing bonuses of 6 percent.

"The line stations don't receive the signing bonus," Cannon said. "This is another concessionary contract, and it's a slap in the face."

In 2003, the TWU agreed to $620 million a year in wage and benefit cuts to help American avert a bankruptcy filing. American's unionized pilots gave up $660 million a year, and its unionized flight attendants agreed to cuts of $340 million a year.

Meanwhile, during the last eight years, American executives and officers have continued to accept multimillion-dollar salaries, stock options and bonuses, mechanics said.

Dennis Hayes, a mechanic at the Tulsa base, said TWU members didn't expect substantial pay increases because American and the industry have lost billions of dollars in the last decade.

Last week, American reported a second-quarter loss of $11 million.

"The biggest issues are they want to take the (Tulsa) base to 24/7, end the medical pre-funding retirement program and create a new (lower-paid) mechanic title," Hayes said. "Now, if you work weekends, you get 1 ½ time (pay). With the TA (tentative agreement), you would work straight time on weekends.

"During the school year, weekends are the best time to be with our families. A lot of people also are making up for the cuts we took in 2003 by working overtime. The TA will cost people thousands of dollars a year."

Hayes, Cannon and MacTiernan said the TA is an example of the International division of the TWU collaborating with American management.

"American Airlines is doing everything they can to make me hate American Airlines," MacTiernan said, "and I feel the International is allowing them to make me feel this way."

Results of the voting on the TA will be announced Aug. 24 by the American Arbitration Association.

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