By Steve Halvonik
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Cash-strapped US Airways is seeking to reduce retirement benefits to ticket, gate and reservations agents by $13 million a year and to slash some salaries by up to 35 percent as part of its $1.5 billion cost-cutting drive.
Chief Executive Officer Bruce Lakefield laid out details of the plan during a meeting Tuesday with Morty Bahr, president of the Communications Workers of America.
According to the CWA, Lakefield proposed:
Eliminating retiree medical coverage, saving $5 million a year.
Reducing company contributions to current employees' 401(k) retirement plans by $8 million a year.
Slashing the top pay rate from $20 an hour to $13 an hour for workers who don't accept company buyouts.
"What the company is proposing is extreme for this work group,'' said Candice Johnson, a CWA spokeswoman.
US Airways is asking all labor groups to cut wages and benefits by $800 million as part of its cost-cutting effort. The company has said it could default on $726 million in federally guaranteed loans and file for bankruptcy if employees don't approve the givebacks by September.
Lakefield also raised pension concerns in a closed-door meeting with flight attendants earlier this week in Pittsburgh.
According to a local labor leader who attended the meeting, Lakefield said that making $110 million in payments to the flight attendants' and mechanics' pension funds in September could cause the company to default on its $726 million in federally backed loans.
David Castelveter, a US Airways spokesman, declined yesterday to discuss the September pension payments. He also played down the significance of Lakefield's proposals to Bahr, characterizing them as a starting point in bargaining.
"We exchanged concepts and ideas with the CWA leading into the start of formal negotiations," Castelveter said.
US Airways' talks with the CWA are scheduled to begin the week of July 26, Johnson said yesterday.
The CWA's decision Wednesday to enter talks was reported the next day by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Other local news organizations were reporting incorrectly as late as yesterday that the CWA had not agreed to enter talks.
The flight attendants' union said yesterday that negotiations with US Airways would begin Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
"We're delighted that the unions are coming to the negotiating table," Castelveter said.
The mechanics union is the last holdout against concession talks, and spokesman Joe Tiberi said yesterday that would not change.
"Our members told us they don't want to reopen the contract, and we won't," Tiberi said.
US Airways is seeking $122 million in concessions from the CWA, $267 million from the mechanics' union, $116 million from flight attendants, and $295 million from pilots.
Like the mechanics union, the CWA is insisting that it doesn't want to reopen its contract. That position is almost untenable, said Marick Masters, a University of Pittsburgh professor who is writing an academic paper on US Airways' labor relations.
US Airways' concession demands are so large that labor groups will likely be unable to meet their savings targets without accepting pension cuts.
"US Airways has a revolver pointed at the heads of the unions, and five of the six chambers are loaded," Masters said.
Also yesterday, the flight attendants union announced that 200 members, including 45 from Pittsburgh, had signed up for a voluntary severance package. The program permits those who voluntarily resign to receive post-employment travel benefits for themselves and some family members.
Only 28 of the 200 flight attendants who accepted the offer are currently active employees, the union said. Their seniority ranged from March 1976 to April 1999.
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Cash-strapped US Airways is seeking to reduce retirement benefits to ticket, gate and reservations agents by $13 million a year and to slash some salaries by up to 35 percent as part of its $1.5 billion cost-cutting drive.
Chief Executive Officer Bruce Lakefield laid out details of the plan during a meeting Tuesday with Morty Bahr, president of the Communications Workers of America.
According to the CWA, Lakefield proposed:
Eliminating retiree medical coverage, saving $5 million a year.
Reducing company contributions to current employees' 401(k) retirement plans by $8 million a year.
Slashing the top pay rate from $20 an hour to $13 an hour for workers who don't accept company buyouts.
"What the company is proposing is extreme for this work group,'' said Candice Johnson, a CWA spokeswoman.
US Airways is asking all labor groups to cut wages and benefits by $800 million as part of its cost-cutting effort. The company has said it could default on $726 million in federally guaranteed loans and file for bankruptcy if employees don't approve the givebacks by September.
Lakefield also raised pension concerns in a closed-door meeting with flight attendants earlier this week in Pittsburgh.
According to a local labor leader who attended the meeting, Lakefield said that making $110 million in payments to the flight attendants' and mechanics' pension funds in September could cause the company to default on its $726 million in federally backed loans.
David Castelveter, a US Airways spokesman, declined yesterday to discuss the September pension payments. He also played down the significance of Lakefield's proposals to Bahr, characterizing them as a starting point in bargaining.
"We exchanged concepts and ideas with the CWA leading into the start of formal negotiations," Castelveter said.
US Airways' talks with the CWA are scheduled to begin the week of July 26, Johnson said yesterday.
The CWA's decision Wednesday to enter talks was reported the next day by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Other local news organizations were reporting incorrectly as late as yesterday that the CWA had not agreed to enter talks.
The flight attendants' union said yesterday that negotiations with US Airways would begin Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
"We're delighted that the unions are coming to the negotiating table," Castelveter said.
The mechanics union is the last holdout against concession talks, and spokesman Joe Tiberi said yesterday that would not change.
"Our members told us they don't want to reopen the contract, and we won't," Tiberi said.
US Airways is seeking $122 million in concessions from the CWA, $267 million from the mechanics' union, $116 million from flight attendants, and $295 million from pilots.
Like the mechanics union, the CWA is insisting that it doesn't want to reopen its contract. That position is almost untenable, said Marick Masters, a University of Pittsburgh professor who is writing an academic paper on US Airways' labor relations.
US Airways' concession demands are so large that labor groups will likely be unable to meet their savings targets without accepting pension cuts.
"US Airways has a revolver pointed at the heads of the unions, and five of the six chambers are loaded," Masters said.
Also yesterday, the flight attendants union announced that 200 members, including 45 from Pittsburgh, had signed up for a voluntary severance package. The program permits those who voluntarily resign to receive post-employment travel benefits for themselves and some family members.
Only 28 of the 200 flight attendants who accepted the offer are currently active employees, the union said. Their seniority ranged from March 1976 to April 1999.
Helps cast a "light" on the fibbing and over exaggerations that goes on inside...uh, caught ya!
