American Airlines' pilots can help the world's largest carrier survive the industry's chaos by improving their productivity and emulating their counterparts at Southwest Airlines, a top union official said Wednesday.
Ralph Hunter, an American captain who is president of the Allied Pilots Association, said pilots must change a long-entrenched culture in which efforts to be more productive and efficient were often condemned.
"We need to focus on being the most efficient airline we can be, and we need to look at those carriers that are doing it right," he said Wednesday.
Hunter said he does not expect to have to negotiate cuts in wages, pensions or benefits. American's three unions approved $1.6 billion in annual concessions in 2003.
Union leaders and management will start contract negotiations next year.
In a speech to union board members Monday, Hunter warned that the coming months will be difficult.
"Our job as elected leadership [of the union] is about to get much harder," he said. "We need to shed our old views of inefficiency as a form of job security."
The best thing pilots can do right now, he said, is embrace American's drive to streamline. That would help the carrier reduce its costs without Draconian cuts to pensions or wages.
Hunter said that in the past, some pilots bragged about working as few hours as possible while still collecting their full salaries. "Those days have got to end," he said.
Southwest pilots tend to work longer hours on more flexible schedules. Yet Southwest pilots are among the highest-paid in the industry, in large part because the airline has remained profitable.
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