United pilots union leaders endorse contract

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Leaders of the pilots union at United Airlines unanimously endorsed a contract tentatively reached last month after a protracted labor dispute forced the world's largest airline to cancel tens of thousands of flights.

Rick Dubinsky, chairman of the Master Executive Council of the United branch of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), said union leaders agreed late Friday to recommend that members ratify the contract.

United and the ALPA, which represents 10,000 of the carrier's pilots, reached a deal on August. 26 to end a dispute that had contributed to an epidemic of delays and cancellations. The ratification vote should be held in October, the union has said.

The deal is believed to involve pay increases of 45 percent to 55 percent over the almost four-and-a-half year life of the contract, industry sources have said.

Some of the raises would offset a 15 percent wage cut taken by pilots in 1994 in exchange for a 25 percent stake in UAL Corp, United's parent company.

Under the contract, pay for United pilots would be about 10 percent greater than for any other pilot group at a major U.S. airline.

The tentative deal, reached after 18 months of talks, is already having an effect throughout the industry. Pilots at other leading airlines, including AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, are involved in contract talks and plan to seek similar or even greater gains.

The refusal of pilots to work overtime in protest of the pace of contract talks was a major factor in United canceling as many as 20,000 flights over the summer. Flight cancellations had averaged 190 per day in August.

Key areas of contention had been pilot scheduling and work life, including the issue of the use of smaller regional aircraft to service some routes.

Chicago-based United, the main operating unit of UAL Corp., still faces contract negotiations with its 15,000 mechanics, who are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

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