AIRLINES

Flight Attendants to Move Up Strike Deadline: American Airlines’ flight attendants may strike before a threatened Nov. 22 date because the Federal Aviation Administration is allowing the company to hire “quickie replacements,” union officials said. The Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants said it decided to move up the strike deadline after the federal agency permitted the carrier to shorten flight attendant training from the normal six weeks to eight days. “This action by the Clinton Administration not only jeopardizes the safety of the public, who depend on adequate numbers of skilled flight attendants for evacuations and other emergencies, it undermines our negotiations by strengthening the company’s strikebreaking plans and by compressing the time we have left to reach a settlement,” said Denise Hedges, the union’s president. The union will announce a new strike deadline today, spokesman Randy Edwards said. American says it plans to keep flying if the flight attendants walk out.