Hawaiian Airlines pilots
reach last-minute deal

The pilots reach a tentative labor
agreement needed to bring the carrier
out of a two-year bankruptcy

Hawaiian Airlines and its pilots union have struck an 11th-hour labor deal and asked a bankruptcy judge to postpone his ruling on a company motion to impose contract terms on the union.

Judge Robert Faris was expected to issue a written order on the motion before the end of this week. But the two sides reached an agreement yesterday after two weeks of talks that resumed after a court hearing that concluded April 15.

"Like all airline employees, our pilots have worked and sacrificed a great deal to get to where they are today," said Kirk McBride, master executive council chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association's Hawaiian Airlines unit. "We believe this new pact answers many of the questions our members had with the previous tentative agreement."

Union officials plan to brief the 400 members on the three-year deal right away so that the ratification process can begin early next week. The vote is scheduled to end May 10.

Hawaiian Airlines trustee Joshua Gotbaum said if the contract is ratified the carrier hopes to be out of bankruptcy by the end of May.

Last month, the pilots voted down a tentative agreement 144-120. The pilots are the only one of the company's six union groups without a newly ratified contract.

"The first agreement would have been ratified if 13 pilots had changed their mind," Gotbaum said. "In this negotiation, we have worked on the issues that are of concern for pilots -- the nature of their retirement security and concern about their health care costs -- while continuing to have a contract that meets the company's needs."

The new tentative agreement shortens the time period in which pilots under 50 will be converted from a defined-benefit retirement plan to a defined-contribution plan. It increases the percentage of total pay that will be contributed to each pilot to 17 percent. Under the deal, the provisions of the pension plan could be changed through future negotiations after the company exits from bankruptcy.

"Both parties want to continue to negotiate on the retirement issue to come up with a win-win solution as soon as possible after the bankruptcy," said Jim Giddings, the union's negotiating committee chairman. "The concern with the percentage (in the previous tentative agreement) was that it didn't make pilots whole. But the 17 percent should make pilots very close to whole if not made whole."

In addition, pilots will receive wage increases of 1 percent each year, the same as in the first tentative agreement.

Two weeks ago, Faris wrapped up a four-day hearing by urging the two sides to reach a deal before he was forced to give them "a shotgun marriage."

The pilots had threatened to strike if the court gave the company the ability to force a contract on them.