United Can Delay Rehiring Trainee Pilots, Judge Says

United Airlines does not have to immediately rehire 500 pilot trainees fired for refusing to cross picket lines during the pilots’ strike this summer, a federal judge said Thursday.

However, the airline must give its next 500 jobs to the trainees, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Bua said in a clarification of his Aug. 1 ruling, which ordered the trainees reinstated. He said United assured him that all trainees would have jobs by August, 1986.

An additional 539 pilot replacements were properly hired and may keep their jobs, Bua said. The replacements were hired during the 29-day strike that began on May 15, when more than 5,000 pilots walked off the job in a dispute over salaries.

Although the salary dispute was resolved on May 24, when both sides agreed to adopt a two-tier wage schedule for five years, the strike continued because of an impasse over whether the newly trained pilots would be reinstated.

United and the Air Line Pilots Assn. agreed on June 14 that pilots would return to work and the remaining issues would be settled by a federal judge.