United asks judge to void contracts CHICAGO (AP) =97 United Airlines asked a bankruptcy judge Monday to nullify= =20 its labor contracts after failing to reach agreements by a self-imposed=20 deadline, raising the pressure on its unions to agree to long-term cost=20 cuts. The move gives the two sides until May 1 to settle on negotiated=20 terms or the court could void the contracts =97 a drastic and risky means of= =20 slashing labor costs that is rarely employed in airline bankruptcies. If=20 agreements aren't in place by then, the requested ruling by Judge Eugene=20 Wedoff would enable United to impose its own, stricter terms, helping it=20 stay on its lenders' timetable to show progress in bankruptcy or lose its=20 financing. That would send ripples through the beleaguered airline=20 industry, where other troubled carriers are closely watching United's=20 efforts to lower costs in hopes of making their own severe labor cost=20 reductions. It also would effectively wipe out decades' worth of negotiated contract=20 provisions at United, the world's second-largest airline. Nullifying=20 contracts is generally avoided in the industry, in part because of the=20 danger of alienating employees at a time when labor turmoil can doom a=20 struggling carrier. United, the dominant carrier at Denver International Airport, has warned=20 since January, when it secured interim wage cuts worth $70 million a month= =20 in savings, that it would begin the contract-scrapping process if unions=20 didn't agree to concessions by mid-March. But the talks with unions remain= =20 bogged down over both the size of United's requested labor cuts =97 31%, or= =20 $2.56 billion annually, through 2008 =97 and its plan to start a low-fare=20 carrier, which would entail a lower wage scale and separate work=20 rules. Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based United filed the industry's largest=20 bankruptcy on Dec. 9 after sustaining heavy losses since 2000. It posted a= =20 record $3.2 billion loss for 2002. Shares in United parent UAL Corp. rose= =20 1 cent to close at 86 cents on the New York Stock Exchange. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************