Union: Delta subsidiary Comair, flight attendants reach tentative agreement on concessions

<p>The union representing the 970 flight attendants for Comair, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines Inc., said Friday the two sides have reached a tentative agreement on concessions.</p><p>The tentative agreement comes four days after Comair announced that it would impose wage cuts and changes in work rules for the regional airline's flight attendants beginning Nov. 15. Comair has said that it must have the concessions to emerge from bankruptcy protection.</p><p>Details of the concessions were not immediately announced Friday.</p><p>A federal bankruptcy judge in July gave Comair permission to throw out its contract with the flight attendants. The attendants had threatened to go on strike if Comair imposed concessions.</p><p>Comair, based in Erlanger, Ky., near Cincinnati, has said it needed $7.9 million a year in concessions from the flight attendants as part of a package of cuts from the flight attendants, pilots and mechanics.</p><p>Like its Atlanta-based parent Delta, Comair, which has 6,500 employees and operates 882 flights daily to 103 cities, is trying to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed last year.</p><p>The president of Local 513 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said that the tentative agreement strengthens job security, caps health insurance payments and provides financial assistance to the company.</p><p>"We recommend that our fellow flight attendants vote in favor of this proposal," said local President Connie Slayback. "We've been able to negotiate the terms of this consensual agreement."</p><p>Messages left at Comair offices were not immediately returned Friday.</p><p>Slayback said that the flight attendants will vote on the proposed pact by Nov. 14.</p><p>Comair said Monday when announcing that it would impose concessions that it had tried since last November to reach a deal with the flight attendants. The company said that even with the adjustments to the contract that include an average pay cut of 7.5 percent, its attendants would remain the highest paid in the regional airline industry. The average flight attendant salary is $29,950 and the average pay cut is $2,250.</p><p>Union officials said at the time that they were willing to continue negotiations but would use all of their options to protect the interests of the flight attendants.</p><p>Jim Hoffa, Teamsters general president, said in a statement Friday that the tentative agreement "ensures that the flight attendants remain the best-paid flight attendants in the regional carrier industry."</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc128)</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc1d0)</p>

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