American Airlines plans to lay off about 40 cargo workers at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on or around Sept. 21, according to information released today by the Texas Workforce Commission.
The 40 jobs are part of plans outlined in April by American to cut 1,200 nonunion jobs at airports and its Tucson reservations center. Overall, the carrier has said it will eliminate more than 14,100 jobs under its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Federal law requires companies to issue Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification (WARN) Act letters to workers and the state 60 days before layoffs.
“The goal for all of our employee groups is the same – to achieve necessary cost savings through sustainable, structural changes that will lay the foundation for a new, profitable and growing American Airlines,” American spokesman Bruce Hicks said today. “As part of the restructuring changes, American will outsource all cargo agent functions and some airport services agent functions.”
The 40 workers consist of 36 cargo agents and four cargo coordinators, according to American’s July 20 letter to the Texas Workforce Commission. American has offered the D-FW cargo workers voluntary separation options but does not have a count yet, so some of those people may have received a WARN notice, Hicks said.
So far, American said it has notified about 160 cargo agents and 135 airport agents of layoffs. Last month, the airline filed a WARN notice with Florida to cut 63 cargo agent jobs at Miami International Airport on or around Oct. 19, according to various Florida publications.