By Kevin Lavery, KWMU News
St. Louis, MO – Starting next spring, American will begin converting 17 MD-80's once operated by TWA to meet American Airlines configuration standards. The work should save about 190 jobs. AA spokeswoman Julia Bishop-Cross says St. Louis' mechanic workforce is well suited for the job:
"Their performance ratings have been some of the highest in the system, and that has really shown the folks at headquarters that St. Louis is a city that is important to the company," said Bishop-Cross.
But Bill Rody, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 529 in St. Louis, says while that's good news in the short term, he's concerned about the rest of the 350 employees American originally said it would cut:
"The conversion work is right now a band-aid measure, so they have to project this out further," said Rody. "Once that conversion work is done, is there another anticipated furlough?
The aircraft conversion project will begin early next year and could last through the end of 2004.