American workers brace for thousands of job cuts

American notified its flight attendants union on Wednesday that it will cut up to 900 jobs starting Aug. 31, but that appears to be the tip of the iceberg.

Although American has not given a total figure, the airline says it expects to shed 8 percent of its work force. With about 85,500 workers, including those at sister airline American Eagle, that would represent more than 6,800 jobs.

"The mood is fairly glum," said Karl Schricker, an American pilot and union spokesman. "They brought back 30 furloughed pilots in June. Those guys quit other jobs to come back ... and now they wonder if they'll be out the door."

American plans to cut domestic capacity 11 percent to 12 percent this fall. Overall, including international flying, that translates to a pullback of about 8 percent.

Jeffrey Brundage, senior vice president of personnel at American parent AMR Corp., said in a memo to employees Wednesday that jobs will be reduced "commensurate" with the overall 8 percent reductions.

Brundage, however, did not cite a specific number in his memo. And he said the company is still working through the specifics by employee type--pilots, mechanics and so on.

The company said last week that it would cut management and support staff jobs by about 8 percent in September.

American's unions have been waiting for grim news since May, when the company announced it would sharply curtail U.S. flying and retire 45 to 50 planes after the busy summer vacation season.

AMR lost $328 million in the first quarter of this year, and the second quarter got off to an even worse start when American grounded its MD-80 fleet for safety inspections. More than 3,000 flights were canceled, costing the airline tens of millions of dollars in lost ticket sales.