Aloha unions OK pay cuts

By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer

Aloha Airlines said it has reached a tentative agreement with its four unions on pay cuts and contract extensions that would allow the airline to save $37 million in labor costs over three years.

The agreements would affect about 3,000 workers and are part of the terms of the airline's recent conditional approval for a federally backed loan from the Air Transportation Stabilization Board, according to the airline.

Aloha said yesterday that labor cost-cutting would not involve any layoffs.

Airline and union representatives last night declined to specify what the tentative contract agreements include until employees can review the terms.

Aloha spokesman Stu Glauberman said nonunion employees' terms are still being discussed but would be similar to those affecting the unions.

"It would be the same effect on everybody in terms of their paycheck," he said.

Aloha's Island Air employees are not included in the contract agreements.

Aloha Airlines had previously said it was asking its unions for a 10 percent pay cut for employees.

"It's hard to say if it's 10 percent because it's complicated. It has other factors," Randy Kauhane, assistant general chairman for the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers District Lodge 141, said last night of the tentative contract deals.

The IAM represents about 1,600 workers at Aloha. The other unions involved in the agreements are the Air Line Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, and the Transport Workers Union.

The company said its unions need to ratify the agreements, either through full membership or through a Master Executive Council. The process is expected to be completed by mid-December.

Kauhane said members would receive information on the tentative agreements by the first week of December, and that the agreements need to be be ratified by the union's committees and membership.