Posted on: Thursday, June 21, 2001

Delta pilots ratify new contract

By Justin Bachman
Associated Press

ATLANTA — Despite some misgivings, Delta Air Lines pilots have approved a new five-year contract with the carrier that ends the threat of a strike during the summer travel season.

About 70 percent of Delta's 9,800 pilots supported the contract, with more than 97 percent casting a vote, the Air Line Pilots Association said in announcing the results yesterday. A majority was required for passage.

Few union or company officials expected pilots to reject the deal, despite some concerns about new scheduling rules, retirement benefits and a separate pilot wage system at Delta Express, the carrier's lower-cost subsidiary based in Florida.

Charles S. Giambusso, chairman of the ALPA unit at Delta, called the ratification vote "a pretty big day" for the pilots, whose salaries will surpass those paid by United Airlines, the previous highest.

"We put three years of work into something and this is now the culmination of that work," Giambusso said.

The five-year contract, with the new pay rates retroactive to May 2000, would provide raises of 24 percent to 39 percent and hikes of up to 63 percent at Delta Express. The contract gives pilots an 11 percent raise in the first year and 4.5 percent annual hikes through 2005.

Under the new contract, a typical pilot's monthly pay would jump more than $1,500, based on the average pilot salary of about $158,500 last year. Delta says the contract will add $2.4 billion to its labor costs.

"This is an important milestone for Delta Air Lines," chairman and chief executive Leo F. Mullin said. "We have emerged from the long and sometimes difficult months of negotiations with a mutually beneficial agreement."

In a memo to employees, Mullin said Delta is optimistic about its long-term prospects, even as it struggles with a slump in demand by business travelers. Delta flies 120 million passengers a year, first among U.S. carriers.

Delta and the pilots struck the deal April 22 after 19 months of negotiations, which included pilots declining to accept overtime — disrupting hundreds of holiday flights — and a federal court's injunction against the pilots' union.

Henry Turner, an L-1011 first officer from South Carolina, said he voted for the contract reluctantly because he didn't think ALPA would be able to obtain a better one.

"I just wanted a little bit better enhancements to my retirement benefit, since it was my last chance," said Turner, 58, who plans to retire at 60.

The contract approval allows the company to focus on concluding an expensive three-month strike at its Comair regional carrier unit. Comair pilots began voting on a tentative deal Tuesday.

Last week, Delta said it expects to lose $140 million to $160 million in the second quarter as continued weakness in the economy and the Comair strike demolish profits. The Atlanta-based airline lost $133 million in the first quarter.

In other labor disputes, American Airlines and its flight attendants returned to the bargaining table yesterday in Washington. The flight attendants are counting down to a possible strike as early as June 30 without an agreement. But President Bush would likely intervene to derail any strike.

Also meeting with federal mediators were United Airlines and its ramp workers, who haven't been released by the National Mediation Board to strike. United and its mechanics were to resume talks today, the board said.