The lawyer for AMR Corp. (AAMRQ)'s unsecured creditors' committee warned American Airlines pilots of the risks of rejecting a tentative contract that would allow the carrier's post-bankruptcy plan to be weighed against a US Airways Group Inc. (LCC) merger, Bloomberg News reported today. Jack Butler of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP told members of the Allied Pilots Association that pilots would lose a 13.5 percent stake in a restructured AMR if the deal isn't approved. A successful vote would help the creditors' committee evaluate AMR's preferred strategy to leave bankruptcy on its own and US Airways' takeover push. Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR needs a contract with the pilots, the only union without a new accord, to determine its future costs. Negotiations have ground on since 2006 without a final agreement, even as AMR warned of bankruptcy before filing for court protection on Nov. 29, 2011. A tentative accord calling for union concessions failed in August when 61 percent of pilots voted it down, prompting American to throw out their existing contract and begin imposing terms to lower costs.
