NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, February 13, 1997
7A
If airline's offer doesn't fly,jets won't either
American seeks strike agreement with its pilots
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — With a weekend strike deadline looming, American Airlines sweetened its wage offer to pilots Tuesday night but retracted a $2.75 million 1998 stock option the company had offered earlier.
American's parent company, AMR Corporation, and the Allied Pilots Association exchanged counterproposals in a face-to-face bargaining session after a federal mediator shuffled information back and forth between them during the day.
If an agreement is not reached by midnight tomorrow, which is the end of a federally mandated cooling-off period, the pilots said they would strike and the airline said it would shut down, putting about 90,000 employees on unpaid furlough and grounding its fleet.
As some veteran pilots considered early retirement to avoid the turmul of a shutdown, union president Jim Soviich said he still
thought a strike was more likely than not.
The company amended its last offer of a 5 percent wage increase — a 3 percent raise effective Aug. 31 followed by a 2 percent raise on Aug. 31, 1999 — to a total 6 percent raise during the life the agreement, sources familiar with the negotiations said.
But American also withdrew from its earlier offer a plan that would have given the pilots stock options valued at $2.75 million on Aug. 31, 1998. Unaffected in the latest proposal was American's offer of $3 million in stock options upon the signing a new agreement.
Meanwhile, in its second day of negotiations, the union laid out a package of specific wage rates for various models of aircraft, said the sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Several lawmakers have asked President Clinton to intervene, and some were to meet about the issue yesterday with White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles.
As the deadline approaches, pilots close to the mandatory retirement age of 60 have been calling the company, the union and financial planners to consider their options. At the same time,
federal investigators are examin ing threats made against the pilots. No one has been harmed
Pilots walking informational picket lines passed around copies of a threatening letter that they said had been placed in an airplane log book. The letter, loaded with misspellings, told pilots to keep a close watch on their families.
"There hasn't been a lot," Sovich said about the threats. "But it only takes one bad one."
Sovich said he had notified the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA stepped up its scrutiny of American late last month when a strike appeared likely..
The company also reported an increase in maintenance problems, which is typical during a labor disagreement. American representative John Hotard said that two aircraft had been taken out of service Monday at JFK Airport in New York because of scratches made on cockpit windows.
"Things happen, but they are not safety-related," Hotard said. "We don't condone these things. I don't think anyone will do anything to affect the airworthiness of an aircraft."
Sources said much of the dissent
"I don't think anyone will do anything to affect the airworthiness of an aircraft."
John Hotard
American Airlines representative
was coming from about 27,000 mechanics, fleet service clerks, dispatchers and other employees who could be furloughed by a strike.
A little more than a year ago, those unionized workers agreed to a six-year contract freezing their wage scales for three years in exchange for job security.
"That's not necessarily sound financially, but it's an emotional
Some pilots also are unhappy. The company said that at least 35 pilots who were nearing the mandatory retirement age of 60 would retire rather than face a strike.
decision," said Neal Turode of the investment firm Pritchard, Hubble and Herr Inc., which specializes in handling airline pilots' money.
He said the thinking was, "If you're sitting on a nest egg why go through the stress?"
The airline's retirement package is considered the best in the industry. Between a fund to which they contribute themselves and their pension plan, the average lumpsup payout to pilots who retired in 1996 was $1.9 million.
Union representative Wally Pitts played down the possibility of early retirements, saying that they were driven by the soaring stock market, not the labor situation.
"People have been retiring early all fall," Pitts said.
Retirement pay has not been one of the primary contract points.
American and the union, which represents 9301 pilots, have been arguing about pay and who will fly a proposed small jet service.
The pilots, who have not had a basic wage increase since 1993, are asking for raises of more than double what the company offered in a tentative contract voted down by the union last month.
The average salary for an American Airlines pilot is $120,000 a year
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Bill to cut outside officers in teacher dismissal hearings
Kansas educators say lawyers make process complicated
The Associated Press
TOPEKA—A bill that would eliminate outside hearing officers when teachers appeal their dismissals would make it easier for school officials to fire tenured teachers they consider incompetent, a committee was told yesterday.
"This is not a bill about employment," said Scott Brown, a member of the Kinsley-Offlerie Board of Education. "The bottom line is this bill is about kids."
two attorneys cutting a deal.
Brown was joined by other local school board members testifying before the Senate Education Committee in support of a bill that would change the hearing process for teachers who are fired. They said the present system was time-consuming, expensive and risky, and sometimes simply results in
"The process was a joke, absolutely a joke," Debbie Lariimore, a member of the Paola Board of Education, said regarding an attempt to fire a teacher in her district in 1995.
Under present law, if a local school board wants to fire or not renew a teacher's contract, the teacher can appeal that decision and the case is heard by an outside hearing officer.
The hearing officer's decision is final, although it can be appealed to district court by the losing side.
The bill would eliminate the hearing officer, but allow the teacher to have a hearing before the school board, which made the decision in the first place to dismiss the teacher. The school board's decision then could be taken to the Kansas Court of Appeals, rather than to district court.
The probationary period before a teacher is granted tenure rights also would be increased from three to four years.
teachers, led by the Kansas-National Education Association, is intense.
Opposition to the measure from
Opponents will testify Monday, and are expected to argue that the bill would deprive teachers of due process and make them vulnerable to capricious acts of school administrators and school boards.
"We do have a contentious atmosphere in this state right now about duce process," said Gerald W. Henderson, executive director of the United School Administrators of Kansas.
He said that the decision to fire a teacher should not be made by a hearing officer.
The present process is so unwieldy that school districts are now reluctant to terminate a teacher's contract, he said.
Gary Reynolds, superintendent of schools at Clearwater, said it had taken 4 1/2 years to fire a teacher in that district.
"The whole process was unfair to the teacher, the board of education and the taxpayer," he said. "The whole process needs to be changed."
Dialing and driving dangerous, study says
The Associated Press
BOSTON — Talking on a cellular phone while behind the wheel is about as risky as driving close to legally drunk, a study found.
Using a car phone while driving quadruples the risk of an accident, researchers in Canada reported in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. And making a call with a hands-free model is just as dangerous.
Although many people have assumed that the distraction of car phones can be dangerous. The study is the first to actually measure the hazard.
Researchers noted that the fourfold chance of getting into an accident while using a car phone was about the same as that involved in driving with a blood-alcohol level at the legal limit.
Tim Ayers, vice president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association in Washington, said, "I think this is probably something we all know in our gut. When you're driving, you really have to keep your attention on the road."
"You really have to keep your attention on the road."
Tim Ayers telecommunications expert
The researchers studied 699 Toronto-area drivers who had cell phones and were involved in crashes that resulted in substantial damage but no injuries.
The analysis of 26,798 calls showed that having lots of experience with a cell phone — or using a hands-free model — didn't lower people's risk.
Donald A. Redelmeier, a researcher at Sunnybrook Health Science Center in North York, Ontario, said the findings suggested that the loss of concentration was what made these calls a highway hazard.
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