=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2003/01= /11/BU226982.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, January 11, 2003 (SF Chronicle) Judge cuts salary of United mechanics/14% reduction airline had asked for i= s granted David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer Anxiety, anger, resignation and cautious optimism gripped United Airlines machinists and mechanics Friday after they learned that federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Eugene Wedoff had imposed a temporary 14 percent pay cut on members of their union. No one, however, was surprised by the ruling, which was granted in response to a request from United's parent, UAL Corp. The decision, which calls for the pay cut to be effective immediately, came shortly after the bankrupt airline had won voluntary pay cuts from pilots, flight attendants and other employees. The lone exception was the 37,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, United's biggest union. "Everybody's been expecting something like this," said Vann Dowdell, who had just finished a shift Friday at United's cavernous maintenance facility at San Francisco International Airport. "It's pressure," Dowdell, a San Mateo resident who has worked as a United mechanic for 15 years, said of the 14 percent pay cut. "It comes to $4 or $5 an hour. You don't feel like going out and spending and having fun. What you're going to do is, you're going to cut back." Most salaries, union officials say, range from $40,000 to $60,000, though senior mechanics can earn more with overtime -- at least in good times, when overtime is amply available. UAL, the dominant carrier at SFO, said it needs the wage reductions as part of its plan to slash expenses by $2.4 billion per year and return to profitability. United, which has been hammered by the weak economy and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has lost $4 billion since mid-2000. On Friday afternoon, workers arriving and departing at the maintenance plant expressed strong feelings about the pay cut, which runs through May 1, when the airline expects to have in place a negotiated package of long-term wage givebacks for all employees. "I don't necessarily like it, but the airline's hurting right now, and we don't have any control over it," said Brian Tucker of Pleasanton, a United mechanic for 15 years. "People think we're greedy," Tucker said of IAM workers, who had gone without raises since 1994. "Six months ago, United gave us a raise. Now they take it. "This airline has been badly mismanaged for a long time, and we're paying the price for it," he said. In a statement Friday, United's chief executive officer and president, Glenn Tilton, praised the judge's ruling. "Now that we have achieved court approval to take the immediate steps necessary to stabilize our cost structure, we can devote our attention to working with our unions on the longer-term imperatives currently facing the company," he said. "From the outset of this process, it has been United's objective to make the necessary changes in a collaborative way," said Tilton, who took the controls of the troubled airline in September. The IAM, which represents mechanics, machinists, ramp workers, customer service representatives and others, had been the lone holdout among United's unions on taking wage cuts. The airline's pilots agreed earlier this week to take temporary 29 perce= nt pay cuts, flight attendants consented to 9 percent wage reductions and dispatchers and meteorologists said they would take 13 percent. For Art Proia, a United mechanic for 10 years, the ruling and the slide into bankruptcy means more than dollars and cents. It could signal a career change. "To me, the situation at United will cause me to take a good, long look = at the direction my life is taking," he said. Mechanic Will Prentice, a 13-year United veteran, said the wage reductio= ns are only part of the challenge now facing mechanics and other United workers. "I think pretty much everybody already put a clamp on any kind of wild spending," Prentice said. "The money's probably the most flexible part of it -- maybe your wife's working. "Next time, it won't just be money, it'll be benefits: work rules, vacations, medical and dental," he said. "You'll be thinking. 'Last year, I had this much time off, now I have this much.' It's bound to affect morale." Bob Stine, media representative for IAM Local 1781, which is based on South San Francisco, said that on Monday, union officials will travel to Chicago, where United is based, to negotiate a long-term wage and benefit reduction that eventually will take the place of Wedoff's order. Late last year, IAM leaders worked out a tentative agreement with United for a wage reduction of 7 percent, but union members voted to reject it. This time, if United and IAM don't come to a new agreement in the coming months, the Bankruptcy Court can void union contracts. E-mail David Armstrong at davidarmstrong@sfchronicle.com.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle