American Airlines ruling delayed
DALLAS – A federal bankruptcy judge has delayed a ruling scheduled for today on whether American Airlines can break its contracts with unions and impose cost-cutting steps including thousands of layoffs.
Judge Sean Lane in New York postponed a decision until June 29.
The one-week delay gives the company and unions more time to negotiate voluntary cost-cutting agreements that the unions have so far resisted.
The Allied Pilots Association had requested more time after its board voted 11-to-5 late Wednesday to reject American’s latest offer. The company said it proposed pay raises, profit-sharing and stock in the airline after it emerges from bankruptcy protection.
Bruce Hicks, a spokesman for American parent AMR Corp., said the company would not sweeten the proposal that was rejected by the pilots’ union board but will give the union “more time to better understand our proposal and make a decision that is in the best interests of our pilots.”
Pilots’ union spokesman Tom Hoban said both sides would meet over the weekend and the union board would hold another vote next week.
Arch Coal laying off 750 in eastern U.S.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One of the world’s largest coal producers said Thursday it would lay off about 750 workers in the Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia coalfields, the latest setback for an industry struggling to sustain market share as utilities switch to cleaner and cheaper alternatives to generate electricity.
The bulk of the cuts by Arch Coal Inc., almost 600, are in Kentucky. The disappearance of high-paying mining work heightened anxiety in hardscrabble Kentucky towns where officials worried declining demand for coal would result in leaner budgets and more people on unemployment rolls.
“This is just a start, I think,” said Dennis Ray Noble, the judge-executive of Perry County, which he estimated has lost about 30 percent of its mining jobs in the last year and the jobless rate is 12.4 percent.
The St. Louis-based company said its subsidiaries would close three higher-cost mining complexes and associated preparation plants: two in Kentucky and one in West Virginia. It will temporarily idle another complex in Kentucky and curtail production at other facilities in the three states.
SmartMoney will become strictly digital
LOS ANGELES – After three-straight quarters of steep advertising declines, SmartMoney’s print magazine is ceasing publication and switching to an all-digital format aimed at online users.
Dow Jones & Co., a unit of News Corp., said 25 positions at SmartMoney will be eliminated. It will increase SmartMoney.com’s staff from nine to 15 editorial employees.