Won’t Fly Airline in Support of Striking Pilots : Actors Publish Anti-Continental Ad

Daniel J. Travanti, the star of the television series “Hill Street Blues,” and more than 30 other members of the Screen Actors Guild took out a full-page newspaper advertisement Monday saying they will not fly on Continental Airlines because they feel the airline cares “more about money than safety.”

“Many of the veteran pilots have been locked out and rookie pilots have been hired at cut-rate wages to take their place. Because of these concerns we won’t fly the new Continental,” declared the ad, which also was signed by Ellen Burstyn, the president of Actors Equity, Patty Duke, John Forsythe, Tony Randall and Martin Sheen, among others.

A spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Assn., which placed the ad in USA Today at a cost of $22,000, said it signals that the union’s 16-month-long battle against Continental is still very much alive. The pilots have been on strike against Continental since September, 1983, shortly after the airline declared bankruptcy, halted domestic operations, annulled its labor contracts and then, three days later, resumed operations with new working conditions and pay scales that lowered pilots’ wages by more than 50%.

Travanti was unavailable for comment Monday, as were three other members of the “Hill Street” cast who signed the ad--Barbara Bosson, Charles Haid and Joe Spano. But Kim Fellner, public relations director of the Screen Actors Guild, said she hoped the ad “would provide a shot in the arm for the strike.”

Fellner noted that the Screen Actors Guild’s executive committee had taken a position in October, 1983, that no member of the union’s board would fly Continental while on union business. “For us, the issue transcends Continental. Continental in some ways pioneered bankruptcy as a way of breaking unions, and that can happen to any of us, regardless of the industry we’re in.”

Dennis Higgins, chairman of the Continental Pilots Executive Council, said he was pleased to have the help of the actors. “There’s a broad base of support out there. But we’ve still got a long fight in front of us,” he acknowledged.

Last June, a federal bankruptcy court judge in Houston approved Continental’s attempt to cancel its contract with the pilots union, saying the agreement was “burdensome” and a threat to the carrier’s financial health. The pilots have appealed that decision and have several other legal actions pending against the company.

The union has also been waging a campaign alleging that Continental is unsafe, but the Federal Aviation Administration disagrees with the charges.

“Continental Airlines is meeting all of the federal air regulations that all of the other airlines are meeting and must meet in order to fly,” FAA spokesman Ed Pinto said in a telephone interview from Washington on Monday.

In February and March, the FAA reviewed a number of complaints the union had lodged about Continental safety practices in various parts of the country. The agency found 52 possible discrepancies but cited the airline for just three of them, saying the others were handled administratively with letters of correction or dismissed after discussions with Continental officials, according to a spokesman.

Continental spokesman Mike Cinelli said he did not think the actors’ ad would have much impact. He also contended that a similar ad taken out last September by 70 members of the National Football League Players Assn. had not hurt the company.

The airline, he stressed, “set record numbers during the Christmas holiday period,” had reported a profit of $35.8 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, and expected to report record profits for the entire year of 1984.

But Esperison Martinez, public relations manager of the pilots union, asserted that picketing and other activities by the union and other labor organizations had hurt the company. He said “the profit would be much greater if it were not for the efforts of the striking pilots.”

About 1,450 pilots remain on strike against the company, and about half of them are receiving strike benefits of $2,400 a month, according to union official Higgins. He said the other strikers had found other work and were not receiving benefits.

Higgins said Continental faces stiff opposition from some of its creditors who are seeking to halt the airline’s planned $600-million expansion until it presents a plan to pay its debts. Several of the creditors, including the pilots union and Chase Manhattan Bank, are attempting to delay the company’s planned acquisition of up to 30 jetliners from Boeing Co. for $600 million.