Flight attendants ratify cost-cutting deal with United CHICAGO =97 United Airlines' flight attendants ratified a cost-cutting deal= =20 with the nation's No. 2 carrier Saturday, one day after the company's stock= =20 tanked as analysts called bankruptcy nearly inevitable. Association of=20 Flight Attendants spokeswoman Dawn Deeks said 87% of the flight attendants= =20 who voted signed off on the deal. United's 24,000 flight attendants had=20 been widely expected to approve the $412 million in wage concessions.=20 However, their OK means little as long as the airline's mechanics continue= =20 to resist proposed reductions of $600 million in their wages and benefits.= =20 Wage-cutting agreements accepted by United's pilots and other employee=20 groups expire Dec. 31 unless mechanics sign on. United is asking for a=20 total of $5.2 billion in companywide labor cuts over 5.50 years. The=20 airline says its application for a $1.8 billion federal loan guarantee is=20 imperiled if all unions cannot agree on wage concessions. A ruling is=20 expected any day on the guarantee, which cash-poor United says it must have= =20 to obtain $2 billion in private loans. Without the loan guarantee, United has said it would have no choice but to= =20 file for bankruptcy. In a message to employees recorded after the=20 mechanics' vote and before the attendants' approval, United chief executive= =20 Glenn Tilton warned that a bankruptcy filing could dramatically alter the=20 what he called a "cooperative" negotiation process. "We all must then=20 follow a prescribed course that is both unpredictable and potentially=20 adversarial," Tilton said. A bankruptcy is likely to have no immediate=20 effect on passengers. United has said it will continue flying its normal=20 schedule, as US Airways has been doing since its Chapter 11 filing in=20 August. United and the International Association of Machinists and=20 Aerospace Workers were scheduled to meet Sunday to discuss the mechanics'=20 rejection. Union spokesman Frank Tiberi said the flight attendants' vote=20 would have no effect on those negotiations. Shares in United parent UAL=20 Corp. plunged $1.12, or 31%, in holiday-shortened trading Friday to close=20 at $2.51 on the New York Stock Exchange. That was the first trading day=20 since the mechanics' vote was announced. The stock has lost 92% of its=20 value since before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. United has been struggling since the Sept. 11 attacks to reverse=20 multimillion-dollar losses each day. It has reduced service and has laid=20 off 20,000 workers because of the weak economy and sharply reduced spending= =20 by business travelers. With hefty debt payments and other challenges=20 looming, there's almost no time left for United to find the financial=20 backing it needs to avoid filing for bankruptcy-court protection from its=20 creditors. "The mechanics' vote makes bankruptcy virtually inevitable for=20 United and UAL," said credit analyst Philip Baggaley of Standard & Poor's,= =20 which downgraded the company's long-term corporate debt rating deeper into= =20 junk status. The airline faces a $375 million debt payment Monday, although= =20 under a grace period it could push that back to Dec. 16. A bankruptcy=20 filing likely would have a profound impact on the airline industry. A=20 bankruptcy court judge is likely to slash labor and other costs even more=20 severely than United has proposed, prompting cutbacks and new revenue=20 strategies among its competitors. United's employee stock ownership plan=20 also would be endangered, as would workers' remaining investments in the=20 55% employee-owned carrier. 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: (Island Events) http://www.islandevents.com (Island Events) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************