American Airlines lawyer says passengers staged 'near riot' in Miami
Airline announces cancellation of 600 weekend flights
DALLAS (CNN) -- Angry passengers staged a "near riot" in Miami over flight cancellations caused by sick calls from American Airlines pilots, a lawyer for the airline told a federal judge Friday.
Dee Kelly described the incident during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Joe Kendall. The airline wants the judge to hold the pilots' union in contempt of an order issued Wednesday that was aimed at returning pilots to work.
"They had a near riot in Miami, and they had to close a ticket counter in New York," Kelly said. He didn't say when the two incidents happened, and Miami airport police did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Kelly said 450,000 passengers have been affected by the pilot sickout at the nation's second-largest airline, which has gone on for almost a week. On Friday, American announced it would cancel more than 600 flights over President's Day weekend.
In court, Kendall asked APA President Rich LaVoy why the union did not
simply tell the pilots to return to work. "I think we did," LaVoy replied.
The judge then asked how the union feels about spoiling people's Presidents
Day weekend holiday plans. He mentioned the case of a little girl prevented
from getting to Disney World, a woman unable to visit dying relatives and an
Atlanta businessman unable to move 5,000 lobsters.
"It bothers us that private pain is spilling into public," LaVoy said,
adding that American Airlines has a long history of poor labor relations and,
"This straw is about to break."
Judge: 'Isn't that stealing?'
Kendall then asked, "If you call in sick and you get paid and you're not
sick, isn't that stealing?"
LaVoy's response: "I'm not going to tell you our pilots are stealing when
they're not."
On Friday, the eve of the busy Presidents Day travel weekend, American said it was canceling 1,046 flights, almost half of its normal 2,250 daily flights. There was a similar situation Thursday despite the fact that Kendall issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday prohibiting the pilots' union from any "concerted action" encouraging the pilots to continue their sickout.
On Friday, President Clinton urged American and its pilots to resolve the labor dispute.
"I am concerned about the impact this labor dispute is
having on our nation and the traveling public," Clinton said in
a statement. "With the potential for enormous disruption over
the upcoming President's Day holiday weekend, I urge both parties
to think of the impact on the traveling public, set aside their
differences, and work to resolve the issues between them."
Analysts: Dispute costing as much as raises
The intensity of the strike reflects years of conflict between American management and its pilots, who launched a strike in February 1997 that ended after 20 minutes when President Clinton intervened. White House spokesman Barry Toiv said Clinton did not yet have the authority to intervene in the current dispute, since none of the prerequisites for presidential action -- which include a bargaining impasse -- had been met.
Legally barred from striking, American pilots have been calling in sick and refusing to fly overtime to protest the slow integration of lower paid Reno Air pilots, who earn about half their average annual salary of $150,000.
AMR said the pilots union's demands to add Reno pilots to the higher pay scale more quickly would cost as much as $50 million this year. However, Wall Street analysts say American is nearing a break-even point in which the cost of the dispute will match or surpass the amount it would have cost to give the pilots the raises.
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American is losing $1.2 million for every 100 flights canceled, and the airline has canceled 4,902 flights so far, said Timothy Ahern, vice president for operations and planning at the airline. Ahern provided the figures Friday during testimony in federal court.
For passengers, more waiting
Meanwhile, passengers are trying to reschedule flights or get refunds and have been swamping American's reservation desk with calls and finding themselves disconnected or waiting on hold. The airline has said it would offer refunds or help reschedule flights without service or penalty charges for passengers flying through Monday.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to be traveling to Miami, an American Airlines hub and the biggest North American cruise-ship port, for cruises departing this weekend. Operator Royal Caribbean said it knew of at least 1,160 cruise passengers scheduled to arrive Saturday on American flights. Another 1,136 were scheduled to leave.
However, a spokeswoman for Carnival Cruise Lines expected the situation with American to affect only a small number of passengers.
Carnival anticipates having about 11,000 passengers on ships departing from Miami between Friday and Sunday, said spokeswoman Jennfer de la Cruz. Although the cruise line couldn't determine exactly how many planned to fly American to Miami, it did not expect a major impact.
"We think that the majority of people will get to the ship without a problem because people arrive here via all sorts of different means," she said.
Even if pilots return to work immediately, travel is expected to be disrupted for days as planes and crews are moved from city to city.
Associated Press, Reuters Limited and CNN Interactive Writer Marla Edwards contributed to this report.
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