CHICAGO (AP) -- Leaders of United Airlines' pilots union endorsed a tentative contract agreement Thursday and sent it to the membership for a ratification vote, saying there was a risk the bankruptcy court would have imposed an unacceptable alternative.þþThe decision by the Air Line Pilots Association's United branch moves the carrier a step closer to a consensus pact with a key union on new labor contracts that would sharply reduce wages and benefits again for its work force.þþDetails were not disclosed by either the union's leadership or the company, which has said any revised contract with pilots must provide $191 million in annual savings. The company last month gave the union a series of options on how to achieve that target -- from a straight 18 percent pay cut to smaller cuts and changes in work rules.þþ``We were faced with a tough choice: negotiate with the company to reach a consensual agreement that would inevitably involve further concessions, or proceed in the bankruptcy court where we faced a dangerous risk of an imposed, and totally unacceptable, outcome,'' Mark Bathhurst, chairman of the pilots union's master executive council, said in a statement.þþThe tentative agreement announced Tuesday makes the pilots union the first of United's four big unions to come to initial terms. All four have criticized the bankrupt airline's latest proposed steep cutbacks.þþThe deal must now be ratified by rank-and-file pilots. No date has been set for a ratification vote.þþThe nation's No. 2 airline, a unit of Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based UAL Corp., has said it needs to impose an additional $725 million in annual labor cuts after already extracting $2.5 billion a year in concessions last year. The company has been in bankruptcy for two years.þþ
Source: NY Times
