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CNN Live Today

Angry at American

Aired April 23, 2003 - 11:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: George Price is communications director for the flight attendants union. He joins us from Texas this morning.
George, good morning.

GEORGE PRICE, ASSOC. OF PROFESSIONAL FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: Good morning. And thank you for having me.

KAGAN: How is Don Carty's apology going over with the flight attendants?

PRICE: Well, the flight attendants of American Airlines stepped up to the plate and provided American Airlines with the $340 million in relief that they had requested. We did this in good faith. Unfortunately, after the balloting process had been complete, we found out the top six executives had retention bonuses provided to them, and $41 million in SURP (ph) protections, or pension protections, that we were not provided.

KAGAN: We reported on that part. Understandably, the flight attendants would be bitter and angry. Where does it stand, though, in terms of calling for a revote on those concessions?

PRICE: Well, based on the outrage that the flight attendants have displayed over this revelation of the information in the 10K report, and the material breach by the company, the APFA board of directors voted yesterday to reballot our membership in order to provide them with the opportunity to cast a fully informed decision on the company's restructuring proposal.

KAGAN: And how is that going to work in terms of timing?

PRICE: Well, again, we've committed to helping the company any way we can to stay out of bankruptcy. We want to do this in a expeditious fashion. And we are working diligently right now to work out the details of the reballoting process.

KAGAN: So you're not quite there yet.

Now as I understand, we're talking about three union. There pilots, there's the transportation workers, like the mechanics, and then there's you guys, there's the flight attendants. The pilots, as I understand it, are not planning to revote.

PRICE: That is correct, from what we understand from APA. They are withholding their signature on their proposal, or on their agreement, at this time. KAGAN: There's some people, George, who fear with the revote, that things could get -- and keeping in mind that they're ticked that they were mislead, but things could actually be even worse, if you don't help the airline along, and do have this revote, that there will be more people who lose even more jobs and even stronger wage cuts.

PRICE: Well, certainly, again, we've committed and made that very clear to the company that we were committed to working with them. I think that our actions over the past few weeks and months have clearly demonstrated that we are committed to working with our company. We know the viability of the company is at stake. We know that our jobs are here with American Airlines. It's our company, and we want to do our part.

We do have an obligation to our membership to provide them with the opportunity to cast an informed decision on this proposal by the company.

KAGAN: And do you think American Airlines is going to make it?

PRICE: I certainly hope so. It's 20 years of commitment from me and many from a lot of other employees. We all are really committed to working with the company. We need our jobs. We want our passengers here with us. We want to keep American Airlines in the air. That's very important to all of us.

KAGAN: And, George, just a flight concession here, I understand, I was given the wrong name of your group. So if you could tell us exact title of the group you represent.

PRICE: It's the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

KAGAN: We appreciate that. George Price, thank you so much for joining us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 23, 2003 - 11:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: George Price is communications director for the flight attendants union. He joins us from Texas this morning.
George, good morning.

GEORGE PRICE, ASSOC. OF PROFESSIONAL FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: Good morning. And thank you for having me.

KAGAN: How is Don Carty's apology going over with the flight attendants?

PRICE: Well, the flight attendants of American Airlines stepped up to the plate and provided American Airlines with the $340 million in relief that they had requested. We did this in good faith. Unfortunately, after the balloting process had been complete, we found out the top six executives had retention bonuses provided to them, and $41 million in SURP (ph) protections, or pension protections, that we were not provided.

KAGAN: We reported on that part. Understandably, the flight attendants would be bitter and angry. Where does it stand, though, in terms of calling for a revote on those concessions?

PRICE: Well, based on the outrage that the flight attendants have displayed over this revelation of the information in the 10K report, and the material breach by the company, the APFA board of directors voted yesterday to reballot our membership in order to provide them with the opportunity to cast a fully informed decision on the company's restructuring proposal.

KAGAN: And how is that going to work in terms of timing?

PRICE: Well, again, we've committed to helping the company any way we can to stay out of bankruptcy. We want to do this in a expeditious fashion. And we are working diligently right now to work out the details of the reballoting process.

KAGAN: So you're not quite there yet.

Now as I understand, we're talking about three union. There pilots, there's the transportation workers, like the mechanics, and then there's you guys, there's the flight attendants. The pilots, as I understand it, are not planning to revote.

PRICE: That is correct, from what we understand from APA. They are withholding their signature on their proposal, or on their agreement, at this time. KAGAN: There's some people, George, who fear with the revote, that things could get -- and keeping in mind that they're ticked that they were mislead, but things could actually be even worse, if you don't help the airline along, and do have this revote, that there will be more people who lose even more jobs and even stronger wage cuts.

PRICE: Well, certainly, again, we've committed and made that very clear to the company that we were committed to working with them. I think that our actions over the past few weeks and months have clearly demonstrated that we are committed to working with our company. We know the viability of the company is at stake. We know that our jobs are here with American Airlines. It's our company, and we want to do our part.

We do have an obligation to our membership to provide them with the opportunity to cast an informed decision on this proposal by the company.

KAGAN: And do you think American Airlines is going to make it?

PRICE: I certainly hope so. It's 20 years of commitment from me and many from a lot of other employees. We all are really committed to working with the company. We need our jobs. We want our passengers here with us. We want to keep American Airlines in the air. That's very important to all of us.

KAGAN: And, George, just a flight concession here, I understand, I was given the wrong name of your group. So if you could tell us exact title of the group you represent.

PRICE: It's the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

KAGAN: We appreciate that. George Price, thank you so much for joining us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com