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Saturday Morning News

U.S. Airways, Flight Attendants Reach Tentative Contract Agreement

Aired March 25, 2000 - 8:00 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Topping our news this morning, there are cheers of joy from flight attendants and sighs of relief from passengers. Early this morning, U.S. Airways and its flight attendants reached a tentative five year contract agreement, averting a threatened shutdown of the nation's sixth largest airline.

Here's CNN's Carl Rochelle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARL ROCHELLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Negotiations between U.S. Airways and its flight attendants went down to the wire and then some before an agreement was finally reached. The airline had set a deadline of midnight Friday night to shut down all flights if an agreement hadn't been worked out. That deadline was extended at the last minute, but it was several hours later before official word that an agreement had been reached.

LESLIE BOONE, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: We actually literally came down to the wire and it was that close, to the very end. We did not know at two o'clock in the morning if we were going to have a deal or not.

ROCHELLE: The flight attendants' union says the contract gives members a 10 percent pay raise over five years with an unspecified signing bonus. The flight attendants said they had taken pay cuts in 1993 to help out the then struggling airline. But now, they said, the airline was making money and the time for payback had come.

Early Saturday, U.S. Airways issued a statement in which it praised the negotiators for both sides, who it said had worked hard to put in place an agreement that works for our flight attendants and allows the company to compete in the marketplace. The 10,000 flight attendants had been working for more than three years without a contract and this agreement must still be approved by the membership of the union, a vote that is expected in about six weeks.

In the meantime, U.S. Airways says its flights will continue their normal schedules.

Carl Rochelle, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: Union leaders say they are optimistic their membership will approve the agreement. Officials from U.S. Airways declined to talk with us about the deal but we are joined by a member of the union leadership team. He is Mark Littleton, Chairman of the Association of Flight Attendants Negotiating Committee. Mark, thanks for being with us.

MARK LITTLETON, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE: My pleasure, Miles. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: How would you characterize this agreement, a victory for the flight attendants?

LITTLETON: I would rather use the word success, Miles, because we listened to our members throughout this long process and listened to what they wanted, what they said their needs were and we feel like we've accomplished their needs, meeting their goals and their desires and so I'd call it a success more than a victory because victory implies a win or a loss and at the end we managed to come together with the company and work out an agreement that works well for our members and works well for the company, too.

O'BRIEN: All right.

LITTLETON: And that's a win-win.

O'BRIEN: To the extent you can, let's get down to brass tacks. I realize you, there are certain details you want to reserve to present before the rank and file before you share it with the rest of the world, but could you give us the broad outlines of the agreement?

LITTLETON: Some of the broad outlines of the agreement, Miles, we secured pay increases for our members, the protections of the Family Medical Leave Act, we secured pension improvements so that our married flight attendants are no longer penalized in the way that their pensions are distributed. We just, you know, we couldn't be more pleased. We've got job protection in the event of a merger or acquisition or a partial transaction.

The things that our members told us were most important to them, the 10,000 flight attendants at U.S. Airways, we came to a very solid agreement on. We think that our members are going to be very pleased with this agreement.

O'BRIEN: The tactic that you used here a little bit unconventional. As opposed to everybody threatening to walk off the job the idea was to have sporadic walkouts. It was tantamount to an outright strike because the airline said it would shut down. Did this validate your strategy?

LITTLETON: Yes, I believe it validated our strategy in every way. Our strategy is designed so as to have a minimal impact on our customers, our passengers, and have a maximum impact on the company.

O'BRIEN: And bottom line today for passengers holding U.S. Airways tickets, what should they be thinking right now? LITTLETON: As far as the flight attendants are concerned, it's business as usual. We welcome you and we look forward to serving you and we can't wait to take you where you need to go.

O'BRIEN: Mark Littleton is Chairman of the Association of Flight Attendants and he's the U.S. Airways. He's had a long night, up all night. Thanks for joining us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Go get some rest.

LITTLETON: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. U.S. Airways' biggest hub is in Pittsburgh. CNN's Ed Garsten joins us live from there with the latest. I guess things are running smoothly, Ed?

ED GARSTEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, things are running smoothly, indeed, although for U.S. Air's busiest hub it's a lot less busy than usual even for a Saturday morning. While U.S. Air won't officially give us any volume levels at this point, we're told rather informally by some of the counter agents that it's a bit slower than normal for a Saturday morning. We checked with one of the larger travel agents in this region, Mahn Valley Travel (ph). They say that they've got an awful lot of calls mostly because of fears of disruption of service, 15 to 20 percent more calls, and that a real reason for the lowering in volume here this morning is that a lot of travelers simply either double booked or made alternative plans because they just didn't want to get stuck not being able to get where they wanted to go.

Now, we have checked the board this morning. There are no cancellations of any U.S. Air flights and actually things seem to be going quite smoothly. There is a real sense of relief, though, I've got to tell you, here in the terminal. Yesterday we visited with a lot of passengers and with the folks that run the shops here. They have a kind of a large mall they call the Air Mall at this terminal.

Some of these shopkeepers were really sweating it out because if there was any sort of a shutdown here on the part of U.S. Air, which operates 86 percent of the passengers travel on U.S. Air, they were going to see a real hit in business. So a real sense of relief that the folks here dodged a real bullet.

Ed Garsten, CNN, reporting live from Pittsburgh International Airport.

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