AMERICAN FILES FOR MEDIATION

American Airlines today announced it is filing for mediation with the National Mediation Board (NMB) as contract talks continue between American and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA). The company invited the APFA to petition the NMB jointly or to file concurrently.

"We've made significant progress toward an agreement with APFA to this point; however, as we move into the more difficult economic issues we believe that mediation can help us achieve a tentative agreement without the process bogging down," said Sue Oliver, vice president of employee relations for American. "The NMB can be very useful in helping parties reach positive resolutions on difficult issues, and that's what we would like to see happen. We have a great deal of respect for the NMB staff and the value they can bring to this process."

She said American verbally notified the NMB of the mediation request today and will file formally on Friday.

Oliver said American and APFA have reached agreement on 24 of 38 contract articles in negotiations this summer, including subjects such as mergers and acquisitions, flight attendant disability, passenger assault, vacation and schedule trades. Still unresolved are major items such as wages, retirement and crew rest.

"The economic issues are, historically, the more difficult issues on which to reach agreement, and we believe the mediation process can help both sides work through them productively," Oliver said.

American's Flight Attendants did not ratify a prior tentative agreement reached in May of 1999. Substantive talks for a second agreement began in March of this year.

The company will wait to hear from the NMB as to when a mediator will be selected and when mediated talks will begin. Anticipating that the process can begin soon, Oliver said, "We look forward to working together with APFA and concluding a successful agreement for our Flight Attendants. In the interim, we have committed to APFA that we will continue to work internally on unresolved items and to share information to keep the process moving forward."