Leaders Meet Again Tuesday To Mull It Over

It looked like a deal. It smelled like a deal. Hell, it even quacked like a deal. But US Airways' ALPA pilots in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have balked at a $300 million concession package that would take away more than 18-percent of their pay and a good chunk of the airline's pension contributions to boot. Union leaders said they wanted more time to study the airline's proposal.

"Clearly, there is still some resistance by the Pennsylvania delegation to sending this thing out," Jack Stephan, a spokesman for the pilots' union, said Sunday. He was quoted in the New York Times.

The union's master council must approve the deal before it's sent on to the rank and file for ratification. In spite of the delay, the Times reported the ALPA has already scheduled meetings designed to inform the membership about the plan. Those meetings run between now and October 14th.

T he once-and-again bankrupt airline reportedly increased its demand for labor concessions from $800 million a year to $950 million. Pilots would see 18.25 percent of their salaries evaporate immediately.

The tentative agreement, reached over the weekend, also calls for a sharp reduction in the amount of money US Airways contributes to the pilots' pension fund and the elimination of all health care benefits for retirees. That means pilots, who must retire at 60 in accordance with federal regulations, might conceivably be without health insurance until they're 65.

Under the deal approved by the airline and union leaders, pilots would at least be able to buy their own company-sponsored insurance between the ages of 60 and 65.

FMI: www.alpa.org, www.usairways.com