A bankruptcy court judge has ruled that American Airlines can throw out its collective bargaining agreements with its pilots.
Keith Wilson, president of the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American’s pilots, issued a statement after the ruling, calling on pilots to “maintain their professionalism.”
Wilson said American’s management won’t be able to successfully restructure without a consensual agreement with pilots. He pointed to testimony during Tuesday’s hearing in which the attorney for the Unsecured Creditor’s Committee said that “there has to be a deal” between American and pilots.
American issued a statement saying that it had worked to reach a “consensual deal” with pilots but that pilots rejected that agreement in August.
Judge Sean Lane issued the ruling Tuesday, three weeks after refusing American’s efforts to toss out the contracts a month ago.
Then Judge Lane had said that large labor cuts were necessary but that American had gone too far on furloughs and codesharing. The company then withdrew its changes on furloughs and set new limits on codesharing.
American has reached labor agreements with every other union representing its employees.