Globetrotter11
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http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...STS21/509010416
September 1, 2005
Pilot walkout might spell end of ATA
ATA and its pilots appear headed for a showdown that could scuttle efforts to revive the bankrupt local airline.
No one wants to say it out loud, but if pilots strike, the airline is grounded -- possibly forever. That would mean the loss of about 4,500 jobs and a key element in plans to finance a new midfield terminal.
The final tussle over pay for ATA's 833 pilots and flight engineers could begin next week in bankruptcy court. Last-ditch negotiations began Tuesday and run through today. Both sides express hope they can reach agreement on new wage and benefit concessions, although they are more than $20 million apart.
In the meantime they are positioning themselves for the worst: a strike.
The Air Line Pilots Association is in the midst of a strike vote. On Sept. 12, it's likely a vast majority of the pilots will give the union permission to call a strike.
The pilots are incensed by ATA's request in court to dump a collective bargaining agreement and for permission to whack up to $44 million more from their pay through 2006.
They're also ticked that founder J. George Mikelsons got a severance package that pays him $650,000 in cash and forgives $400,000 from a company loan. Judge Basil Lorch III approved the package last week.
The pilots have said they'll give back $18 million in addition to the $66 million they've given in the last 14 months. The company said it needs far more, however, to persuade investors to back a $100 million refinancing meant to pull it out of bankruptcy.
ATA told Lorch the financing package, and by extension the company, is doomed unless pilots agree to give back far more than $18 million.
Without the refinancing, which is predicated on the higher level of pilot concessions, the company will fail. If the court grants the company permission to impose its plan on the pilots, they'll strike and the company will fail.
A deal may materialize today, but the dread felt by negotiators must be like that of the hurricane hunters who flew into Katrina as it churned over the Gulf of Mexico. A potentially devastating storm is brewing for ATA.
September 1, 2005
Pilot walkout might spell end of ATA
ATA and its pilots appear headed for a showdown that could scuttle efforts to revive the bankrupt local airline.
No one wants to say it out loud, but if pilots strike, the airline is grounded -- possibly forever. That would mean the loss of about 4,500 jobs and a key element in plans to finance a new midfield terminal.
The final tussle over pay for ATA's 833 pilots and flight engineers could begin next week in bankruptcy court. Last-ditch negotiations began Tuesday and run through today. Both sides express hope they can reach agreement on new wage and benefit concessions, although they are more than $20 million apart.
In the meantime they are positioning themselves for the worst: a strike.
The Air Line Pilots Association is in the midst of a strike vote. On Sept. 12, it's likely a vast majority of the pilots will give the union permission to call a strike.
The pilots are incensed by ATA's request in court to dump a collective bargaining agreement and for permission to whack up to $44 million more from their pay through 2006.
They're also ticked that founder J. George Mikelsons got a severance package that pays him $650,000 in cash and forgives $400,000 from a company loan. Judge Basil Lorch III approved the package last week.
The pilots have said they'll give back $18 million in addition to the $66 million they've given in the last 14 months. The company said it needs far more, however, to persuade investors to back a $100 million refinancing meant to pull it out of bankruptcy.
ATA told Lorch the financing package, and by extension the company, is doomed unless pilots agree to give back far more than $18 million.
Without the refinancing, which is predicated on the higher level of pilot concessions, the company will fail. If the court grants the company permission to impose its plan on the pilots, they'll strike and the company will fail.
A deal may materialize today, but the dread felt by negotiators must be like that of the hurricane hunters who flew into Katrina as it churned over the Gulf of Mexico. A potentially devastating storm is brewing for ATA.
