STAR-BULLETIN / 2002
Hawaiian Airlines has been seeking $15 million in labor concessions and $15 million in leasing cost reductions in order to return the company to profitability.
Hawaiian pilots Leaders at Hawaiian Airlines' pilots union said yesterday they have endorsed a tentative agreement on concessions and plan to put the agreement to a vote next week.
OK givebacks
Union members will vote next week
on the tentative airline dealBy Dave Segal
dsegal@starbulletin.com
The Air Line Pilots Association, which had been negotiating for three weeks, said it will immediately start meeting with its 420 union members to answer questions and will continue such sessions through Sunday. ALPA said voting will begin on that day and will end March 6 in order to meet the Hawaiian board of directors' new deadline of March 7. The board previously had set a Feb. 20 deadline.
Hawaiian has been seeking $15 million in labor concessions and $15 million in leasing cost reductions in order to return the company to profitability. The airline, which lost $11.3 million through the first nine months of last year, said in November it expects to report a loss for all of 2002. Hawaiian plans to detail those numbers at the end of next month.
ALPA released a statement yesterday in which it said it was committed to Hawaiian and its passengers.
"Our negotiating committee and ALPA's economic and financial analysis team worked closely with Hawaiian management to assess the carrier's financial state and develop viable changes to the pilots' contract that would meet the airline's needs for flexibility," said Ron Hoopai, master executive council chairman of ALPA's Hawaiian unit.
ALPA didn't detail the concessions, but a person close to the situation said some of the issues included reserve staffing, which is how reserve pilots are scheduled for flights; vacation and days off after training.
The airline had been seeking $8 million in concessions from the pilots, but ALPA didn't specify in its announcement whether it had reached that target.
"If the company and the union have decided what they put in this agreement is worth $8 million, therefore it is," the source said. "It seems as if the scheduled pay raises are still intact. There's also a provision that if the company decides at some point in the future to declare bankruptcy, it will not move to void our contract. My observation is that given what's happening in the industry, I think this is a move to protect the contract in general, and to protect the pension plan specifically."
Last week, the International Association of Machinists became the first of the three major unions to ratify as members overwhelmingly approved a new agreement.
The Association of Flight Attendants are still negotiating.
"I think the labor groups coming in with ratified agreements sets the stage for some serious discussion to what the next step will be," said Sam Poomaihealani, a Hawaiian Airlines board member and a grand lodge representative for the IAM's international office in Upper Marlboro, Md. "There's obviously other components to this. Getting the labor groups in the fold is the first part of it."
The second part is the $15 million in concession from Hawaiian's aircraft lessors, which is dependent upon the company getting concessions from the unions.
Hawaiian spokesman Keoni Wagner declined to elaborate about any aspect of the negotiations.
"I don't have any comment other than to say we are working with our union groups and others to revise Hawaiian's business plan, and progress continues to be made in that regard," he said.
Poomaihealani said the board decided to extend the deadline to March 7 because unions were still in discussion with the carrier and they were close to reaching a tentative decision.
"Extending was the most sensible thing to do," he said. "I don't think anyone was looking at filing for bankruptcy."
Still, he said the prospect of bankruptcy looms as it does for other carriers.
"I don't think in the airline industry today that's an issue that's going to go away," he said. "The fact of the matter is the entire airline industry is in dire straits, and where we go and what happens in the Middle East will obviously have some impact on how the airlines as a whole perform."
What happens if all Hawaiian's unions haven't reached tentative agreements by the March 7 deadline?
"We'll find out March 8," Poomaihealani said.
Hawaiian Airlines
