US Airways Reaches Pact With Flight Attendants
Jan. 28--US Airways Group Inc. has reached a tentative contract agreement with its 6,700 flight attendants, removing one hurdle in a potential merger with bankrupt American Airlines.
In 2005, US Airways was acquired out of bankruptcy by America West Airline. Management has been unable to reach contracts with the former "east" and "west" flight attendants and pilots, who worked for the predecessor US Airways and America West, because of seniority and wage disparities.
Pilots still do not have a unified contract. The major issue is seniority. Pilots from premerger US Airways have more years of service on average than pilots from the former America West.
There is fresh impetus for US Airways to reach labor peace because it would remove skepticism about whether the airline could make a merger work with American's flight attendants and pilots.
US Airways CEO Doug Parker, a proponent of consolidation, said Wednesday the carrier has hired advisers to explore a potential merger with American, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization on Nov. 29.
"We hope that there might be an urgency to get the contracts all settled, so that they can move forward" with a possible merger, said Capt. James Ray, spokesman for the U.S. Airline Pilots Association.
The Wall Street Journal published a story on its website Friday afternoon saying Delta Air Lines was eyeing US Airways as a possible acquisition target. Delta is also looking at American. US Airways said it would not comment.
Pilots employed at the former US Airways, which went through bankruptcy twice in the last decade, have a provision in their current contract that if there is a "change of control" at the airline "our wages will snap back to pre-bankruptcy era wages, which would put us by far at the top of the industry," Ray said. "So they don't want that to happen."
On Thursday, the National Mediation Board advised US Airways and the pilots union that it was recessing negotiations for now.
"It's not unusual for the mediator and the mediation board to suspend mediation when they believe, if they recess the talks, it will assist the parties in reaching a deal in the longer term," said airline spokesman Todd Lehmacher.
The union said the mediator did not indicate how long the "break" would be, and reminded both sides that they were free to continue to negotiate. "We then requested additional meeting dates with the company, however, they were unable to provide a response to our request at this time."
Contact staff writer Linda Loyd at 215-854-2831 or [email protected].
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