United Talks Collapse on Back-to-Work Issue : Airline’s Vow to ‘Protect’ Non-Striking Pilots Seen as Key Obstacle; Lengthy Dispute Expected

Talks aimed at settling the United Airlines pilots strike collapsed Saturday after 19 consecutive hours of discussion, most of it focused on settling disputes raised by the strike itself.

No future talks were scheduled, signaling a prolonged strike and a clogged summer travel season at the nation’s airports, where other airlines are reporting record loads.

Friday night, negotiators in Chicago had managed to compromise on the key economic issue--United’s proposal for a two-tier wage system designed to sharply cut the pay of newly hired pilots--but the two sides could not forge a back-to-work agreement.

Last-Ditch Proposal

Officials of the National Mediation Board offered a last-ditch, non-negotiable proposal, but both United and the Air Line Pilots Assn. turned it down and broke off their marathon session at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

The most emotionally charged issue remaining is United’s demand that the 270 pilots who refused to join the 5,000 strikers receive priority in the choice of which routes and types of planes they fly and in which cities they are based.

United, vowing to “protect” the pilots who stood behind the airline, wants to award them “super seniority” when prime assignments become available.

For example, under the company’s proposal, if the captain of a Los Angeles-based United 747 flight to Honolulu were to retire, a non-striking pilot with 20 years’ experience would be given priority over a striking pilot with 30 years’ experience in bidding for that position.

Seniority Called Critical

Because United has only 86 positions for 747 jumbo jet captains, a pilot’s seniority is critical when such positions are put up for bid.

The union complains that rather than merely protecting the non-striking pilots, United wants to reward them.

The airline’s back-to-work proposal “would allow guys with far less experience to leapfrog” over thousands of pilots, said Dick Rogers, a United captain who heads the union’s Los Angeles operation.

Rogers said that pilots will not return to work unless “the seniority system is left intact, as it was before the strike.”

Charles Craypo, chairman of the University of Notre Dame economics department and a labor relations expert, said Saturday that he expects the union to fight doggedly on that issue.

“These issues are more important than people think,” Craypo said. “There’s a lot at stake here . . . seniority is so important in the airlines because it gives you the top jobs at the best times.” In addition, salaries of 747 pilots are higher than those of pilots flying smaller planes.

The strike, which is beginning its 10th day, has forced the airline to slash its schedule to 14% of its normal 1,550 flights a day. United now flies 209 flights at only 41 airports.

With no new talks in sight, each side insisted Saturday that it was ready to outlast the other.

The airline, which for weeks has threatened to “rebuild” itself without the strikers, said that it will lure enough experienced pilots away from other, lower-paying airlines to expand service to 25% of capacity (about 390 flights a day) by July 1. That was United’s first specific promise of expansion during the strike.

“Conservatively, we believe we can return this airline to 100% operation by the first quarter of 1986,” said Chuck Novak, manager of corporate communications.

The pilots union, which has a history of not striking effectively and not honoring other labor organizations’ picket lines, said that newly found solidarity with other unions will make United’s rebuilding plans impossible.

The pilots noted that they are being supported by 90% of the Assn. of Flight Attendants, who have honored picket lines, and said that they also expect the airline’s mechanics to join the strike the moment United begins putting newly hired pilots in the air.

United’s 15,000 mechanics, represented by the International Assn. of Machinists, have continued to work on United planes because of a no-strike clause in their contracts. But on Friday an official of the machinists union warned United in a letter that the airline’s offer of permanent jobs to experienced pilots represents “an attempt to destroy the Air Line Pilots Assn.” The letter vowed that the machinists union “will not stand by idly.”

Pilots union leader Rogers said that his members had helped a United Auto Workers chapter picket in Beverly Hills during the week and that, in turn, “we’ve been receiving calls from unions we’ve never even heard of wanting to supplement us.”

The pilots struck on May 17 over United’s proposal to drastically reduce the wages of newly hired employees. Under the company’s proposal, a fifth-year pilot would earn $27,792, compared to the current $60,456 salary.

The union said that it was willing to accept lower pay for new pilots only if the two tiers merged at the eighth year in a fashion similar to pilot wage agreements at several other airlines.

Details of the compromise on a two-tier plan reached Friday have not been disclosed.

Other back-to-work issues blocking an agreement involve:

--About 500 entry-level pilots whom United trained in anticipation of the strike. Although they were offered jobs on the day the strike began, all but four refused to cross the picket line. As a gesture of solidarity, the union wants United to assure these pilots of employment. United, which was embarrassed by the trainees’ mass refusal to work, refuses.

“We’re very proud of these guys,” Al Vasquez, a pilot union spokesman in Chicago, said. “They are essential to our success, and we’re certainly going to stand by them.”

--Sixty-five experienced pilots United hired last week to expand service. The union believes that these new employees should be placed at the bottom of the seniority list, behind the 500 pilots who refused to go to work.

--The rights of members of the Assn. of Flight Attendants. The union wants assurance that the flight attendants who have continued to work will not be given seniority advantages over the striking attendants. United believes that the union has no right to bargain for treatment of another union.

Audrey Freedman, labor economist for the Conference Board, a New York business research organization, said that the back-to-work dispute “is a microcosm of the two-tier issue.”

In adopting a two-tier system, United is trying to cut the number of high-paid pilots. United pilots average between $85,000 and $91,000 a year, with the highest paid receiving $152,000.

Similarly, Freedman said, awarding “super seniority” rights to less experienced pilots who crossed the picket line is a way of downgrading more senior employees and, in effect, encouraging them to leave.

In the face of a prolonged strike, travel agents reported that most air passengers are making connections, though they may be forced to make a mid-journey stopover or lose money normally saved with a discount fare.

Nevertheless, travelers face a number of aggravations brought on by the United strike:

--Several airlines, enjoying far higher “load factors” with the bulk of United’s flights canceled, have sharply reduced the number of discounted coach fares they normally sell.

--Some airlines are refusing to honor United tickets that were bought at a discounted price unless the passenger agrees to pay a supplement to equal the full coach fare. Other airlines are honoring United discounts, but the policies have no pattern, according to travel agents and the Air Transport Assn. of America, which represents major carriers.

--Some passengers, made nervous by the way airplanes are suddenly jammed, are double- and sometimes triple-booking flights to their destinations. This makes it difficult for airlines to be certain just how many persons will show up at the gate when a flight reads “full” on the computer.

The financial pain for holders of United discount tickets can be severe if they are forced to pay full-price supplements.

For example, a traveler who took advantage of advance-payment policies may have bought a round trip ticket to Chicago from Los Angeles on United for $300 could be forced to pay $150 to $300 more to have the fare accepted by another airline, said Mark Jones, a Cardillo Travel consultant in Los Angeles.

“There seems to be a different situation in each carrier and each city,” Susan Raffler, manager of Encino Travel Service, said.

One option in such a situation would be to fly “standby.” Most airlines are willing to honor discounted United tickets on a standby basis, but with many planes flying between 80% and 90% of capacity as the summer vacation season begins, the odds of finding such space are limited.