Delta Pilots Give More Concessions

Union representatives for Delta Air Lines pilots narrowly approved a 14-percent hourly wage cut to help their bankrupt employer.

By a 58 percent to 42 percent vote, leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association agreed Wednesday to the cuts as well as reductions in other pilot pay and cost items equivalent to approximately an additional 1 percent in pilot pay.

The union represents about 6,000 pilots for the world’s second-largest airline.

The interim agreement will result in pilot cost reductions of about $143 million, on an annualized basis, and puts a hold on Delta management’s motion to reject the pilots’ working agreement in bankruptcy.

The narrow margin of approval reflected the pilot group’s anger over the concession request, which came less than a year after the union granted a controversial, $5 billion concession package in an effort to help Delta avoid bankruptcy, the union said.

Delta and its pilots’ union will now seek to negotiate a tentative comprehensive agreement by March 1, with pilot membership ratification no later than March 22.