Honolulu Star-Bulletin Business /2005/01/20/

[ FAST FACTS HAWAII ]

Drinking water gets worse on airlines

WASHINGTON » Asking for bottled water or a canned drink aboard an airliner might be the safest way to fly.

Coliform bacteria are showing up in more airliners than last summer when the government first took steps toward requiring sanitation improvements.

The Environmental Protection Agency will now have domestic airlines test themselves and submit results to the agency to see if the trend continues. Some self-sampling has begun, and airlines are adapting their routine disinfections to meet EPA guidance.

4-hour strike disrupts Air Canada flights

TORONTO » A four-hour wildcat strike by Air Canada ground crew workers at Pearson International Airport ended last night, but not before disrupting the travel plans of thousands of people with numerous flights delayed or cancelled.

A union spokesman said a resolution had been reached over the contentious issue surrounding punching out at the end of shifts and that workers had agreed to return to work late yesterday.

Boyd Richardson, a spokesman for members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said no disciplinary action would be taken against the strikers.

The walkout forced the airline to cancel at least 19 flights and delayed some 60 others. Flights in other Canadian cities were also affected.

United Air pilots union agrees to 11.8% cut

CHICAGO » United Airlines' pilots would take an 11.8 percent pay cut and the future of their defined-benefit pensions would be left temporarily unresolved under a revised contract worked out by the two sides.

The tentative contract agreement, released yesterday by the pilots' union, was sent to United's 6,400 pilots for a ratification vote that lasts until Jan. 31.

The pact, announced late Tuesday, calls for hourly pay to be cut by nearly three percentage points less than the 14.7 percent reduction of the previous agreement, which a federal bankruptcy judge dismissed Jan. 7. Pay would be raised 1.5 percent annually from 2006 through the contract's final year in 2009.