United Airlines Mechanics Ratify New Labor Contract - Update

(RTTNews) - Teamsters Union said Thursday that aircraft mechanics and related workers at United Airlines Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL), have ratified a new labor contract that provides for significant wage increases, maintenance of health care benefits and improved job security protections.

The union noted that the contract covers about 5,500 aircraft mechanics and related employees throughout the U.S. Passage of the agreement is seen as a major step toward achieving the goal of a single combined contract for the 9,000 Teamster mechanics at a merged United Airlines and Continental Airlines, the union said. Mechanics at Continental had approved a separate agreement in November 2010.

Separately, United Airlines said that mechanics represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters or IBT ratified a new labor agreement with the company.

United Air Lines and Continental Airlines completed their merger in October 2010, creating the world's largest airline. The companies agreed to the merger early May in an all-stock transaction deal valued at more than $3 billion. United Continental Holdings, Inc. (UAL) is the holding company of United Airlines and Continental Airlines.

Commenting on the ratification of the new labor agreement, Jim Keenan , senior vice president of Technical Operations for United Airlines, said, "This is another important step which benefits our co-workers and contributes to the future success of United. We now turn our attention to a joint agreement for all United and Continental mechanics, and are committed to reaching an agreement that is fair to the company and fair to our employees."

Roger Apana, a mechanic from Honolulu and a member of the Teamsters union's negotiating committee, said, "It feels good that we were able to achieve a $11,500 signing bonus along with restoring many of the items that were conceded in bankruptcy and securing the best job protections we've had in our 70-year history."

UAL closed Thursday's regular trading at $18.84, down $0.11 or 0.58 percent on a volume of 3.15 million shares.

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