The union that represents the pilots of American Airlines escalated their attempts for saving 200 jobs for their pilots on Friday. In their attempt, they sued the airline for the right of telling the pilots not to work overtime voluntarily, which is a tactic that may hurt the schedule reliability of American Airlines. Last month, the carrier said that they may lay off up to 200 pilots, starting in October, which will be part of their effort for reducing their workforce by almost 7,000 jobs or 8%.

Lloyd Hill, the President of the Allied Pilot Association, said that they have committed theirselves to using legal action in order to mitigate the furloughs of the pilots, and the members that were at risk the most have been called back to work from being laid off within the past several months. Lloyd said that being laid off 2 times within such a short time period, especially when it can all be avoided, will be a major hardship for the pilots, as well as their families.

An American Airlines spokeswoman, Sue Gordon, said that she hasn’t seen that complaint and would not give a comment. She did say, however, that the airline shares the interests of the union in finding better ways for reducing the lay offs of pilots, but the Allied Pilot Association didn’t respond to the proposal they made, which could have offered incentives of as much as 4.5 months with severance pay to some of the senior captains, while allowing the airline to schedule more hours for pilots every month.

Find out more at: www.aa.com