Airline unions approve pacts

TULSA — Mechanics and stock clerks at bankrupt American Airlines approved new labor contracts Wednesday, but union officials conceded that the vote won’t prevent hundreds of workers at the airline’s Tulsa maintenance hub from being laid off.

The Transport Workers Union said its mechanics group voted in favor of the new contract, which comes with 3 percent raises, by a razor-thin margin of 50.25 percent to 49.75 percent. The maintenance stock clerks voted 79 percent to 21 percent to accept their contract with a 3.5 percent wage increase.

About 900 workers could be cut in Tulsa, according to one estimate from the airline, compared with 2,100 lost jobs had the union employees voted the contract proposal down.

American Airlines, which has about 73,000 employees worldwide, filed for bankruptcy protection in November and announced a plan in February to eliminate thousands of union jobs as part of a cost-cutting move, including hundreds in Tulsa.

The airline is Tulsa’s largest private employer, with about 7,000 workers, and has operated in the city for more than six decades.

American Airlines spokesman Bruce Hicks said the tentative contract agreements marked an important step forward in the restructuring of the company, whose parent, AMR Corp. of Fort Worth, Texas, is working through bankruptcy court after losing $11 billion since 2001.