United Pilots Agree To Cut Wages 29%
Accords Also Set With Two Other Unions

By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 8, 2003; Page E03

Pilots at United Airlines agreed to a 29 percent pay cut in a effort to help the carrier reduce operating costs and emerge from bankruptcy, calling the move a sign of their "good faith" but also expressing their disappointment with the company's labor relations.

The agreement clears one hurdle in the airline's difficult negotiations for steep cuts needed to reduce wages by $2.4 billion through 2008. United, the nation's second-largest airline after American, said the pilots' concessions would help it meet terms of its debtor-in-possession financing agreement.

The company also said agreements had been reached with the Transport Workers Union representing United's meteorologists, and the Professional Airline Flight Control Association, representing dispatchers.

The Association of Flight Attendants is to vote this week on a 9 percent pay cut already agreed to by its leaders.

Last month, the International Association of Machinists, which represents the firm's mechanics, aircraft cleaners and sales-counter agents, rejected United's request that its members accept 13 percent wage cuts, saying they weren't given enough time to study the financial information provided by the airline.

If any of the unions do not reach agreements on pay cuts, Bankruptcy Court Chief Judge Eugene R. Wedoff would decide whether to permit United to impose the wage cuts on its own, or even increase the amounts needed to ensure that the interests of the company's creditors are protected. Wedoff has said he would decide by Friday. United filed a court motion on Dec. 27 that would allow Wedoff to erase the company's collective bargaining agreements with its unions if management and labor cannot reach a consensus on the magnitude of the cuts.

United pilot Paul Whiteford, an official of the Air Line Pilots Association union, said in a statement that the pilots "acted in good faith to accept an immediate 29 percent temporary wage cut that provides interim financial assistance to help stabilize the company in the initial months of bankruptcy."

But Whiteford added that the pilots "have been disappointed at management's approach to labor discussions since the bankruptcy filing, and we expect that this significant pilot sacrifice will encourage the company to engage in a collaborative discussion over a reasonable economic settlement" of the pilot union's contract."