Airline Trying to Escape Liquidation

Midway Airlines, which hasn't been flying since mid-July, is looking in many directions, to see what it can do to avoid having its assets go to the auction block.

The following statement was issued Tuesday by Capt. Mark Stewart, chairman of the Midway pilot's unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) in response to continued unresolved issues in the current concessionary agreement:

"While we sincerely hope that Midway will be able to overcome its current financing problems, there are several outstanding issues this pilot group insists be addressed before we can even consider whether to sit down at the negotiation table with management. Primary among these issues is an attendance and sick leave policy that not only violates our current agreement, but also is in direct conflict with what was agreed upon during our last negotiations. It is simply unacceptable for any Midway pilot to ever have to make a choice over losing one's job or flying sick and violating federal regulations. It is, simply, an unsafe practice. Issues such as this must be resolved before we can sit down with our management and attempt to negotiate for the third time in the last 20 months. It is my hope that Midway management appreciates the significant safety issue this presents and will quickly work to resolve outstanding matters such as this as soon as possible. Until we resolve our differences in the current agreement, it does not seem worthwhile to entertain any discussion of possible changes to that concessionary agreement. If the current contract is being disregarded, what is the point of negotiating any further changes?"

FMI: www.alpa.org; www.midwayair.com