United intensifies push for federal assistance CHICAGO (AP) =97 Cash-strapped United Airlines, running out of time to avoid= =20 taking its restructuring into bankruptcy court, stepped up its campaign=20 Thursday for government help. A day after a critical agreement with=20 machinists in efforts to cut companywide labor costs by $1.1 billion=20 annually, United and its unions issued a new appeal to the federal panel=20 considering its application for a $1.8 billion loan guarantee. The airline= =20 delivered more than 42,000 letters from United employees, suppliers and=20 allies to the Air Transportation Stabilization Board's offices in=20 Washington, urging that the cash guarantee be granted. Representatives of=20 the pilots, machinists, flight attendants, salaried employes and management= =20 groups all spoke briefly with staff members of the ATSB to reinforce the=20 importance of the world's second-largest airline and the consequences a=20 bankruptcy filing would have. "We've had letter-writing campaigns before=20 but we've never generated this kind of vibes, which shows the strong=20 feelings the employees have," said spokesman Joe Hopkins of the Elk Grove=20 Village, Ill.-based airline. It's not known whether the three-man board can be swayed by lobbying,=20 including pressure from congressional delegations in Illinois and several=20 other large states where United is a major employer. But the stakes are=20 enormous for United, which is losing more than $7 million a day and is=20 thought to be on a pace to run out of cash early next year. The immediate=20 urgency is a Dec. 2 debt payment of $375 million, although that carries a=20 grace period of 10 business days which expires Dec. 16. In a separate=20 effort to drum up financial aid, chief executive Glenn Tilton was in Rio de= =20 Janeiro on Thursday seeking help from United's partners in the Star=20 Alliance, a cooperative worldwide network of 14 airlines that share=20 passengers and revenue. Investors remain hopeful, as evidenced by the=20 latest spurt in United's stock. Shares in parent company UAL Corp. rose 22= =20 cents, or 7%, to close at $3.32 on the New York Stock Exchange after=20 opening more than 24% higher. They are still down three-fourths in value=20 since the start of the year. While awaiting the ATSB decision and hoping machinists ratify their=20 tentative agreement next Wednesday, United is trying to obtain more=20 financial help from its vendors and identifying additional cuts to round=20 out its plan for $5.8 billion in labor cuts over 5-1/2 years. Mechanics=20 will take pay cuts of 6% to 7% starting Dec. 1 under the terms of the=20 agreement, released late Thursday, while the other employees will receive=20 6% cuts. All the workers will get annual raises of 1.5% to 2% starting in=20 December 2004, returning to current pay levels as of Dec. 1, 2007. Also,=20 the first four days of vacation time from 2003 through 2007 will be unpaid.= =20 Unaffected by the accord is the $500 million in retroactive pay owed to the= =20 machinists. A $70 million payment on that debt comes due in mid-December. Even with the machinists' pact =97 entailing $1.5 billion in wage reductions= =20 for 13,000 United mechanics and 24,500 baggage handlers, customer-service=20 agents and reservations workers =97 announced cuts are some $400 million=20 short of the targeted total. Standard & Poor's airline analyst Philip=20 Baggaley said it still appears "more likely than not" that the federal=20 board will reject United's application, forcing the airline to file for=20 bankruptcy protection. But he told investors in a research note that "there= =20 remains a significant minority chance that United will manage to avoid=20 Chapter 11." He said that if machinists approve the concessionary deal next= =20 Wednesday, political pressure on the ATSB to approve the loan guarantee=20 will increase The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (chgdev) http://www.chagdev.com/ (Chaguaramas Development Authority) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************