Contract Talks Seek to Avert Pan Am Strike

Last-minute contract talks continued into the early morning hours today in New York as negotiators for financially-troubled Pan American World Airways and the Teamsters Union attempted to avert a strike.

Officials of Pan Am Teamsters Local 732 counted strike authorization ballots Saturday in anticipation of a walkout at 12:01 a.m. EST today, the end of a 30-day government-mandated cooling-off period.

However, negotiations resumed at Pan Am’s Park Avenue headquarters in Manhattan at 10:30 p.m., a Pan Am spokeswoman, Pam Hanlon, said. There had been no talks since Friday.

About 4,500 Pan Am workers nationwide--primarily reservation and passenger service agents and departure gate workers--would be affected, including 172 employees at Los Angeles International Airport and 289 other union members in San Francisco.

Pan Am has said that it needs $105 million in wage concessions from the Teamsters over a 3-year period as part of an overall campaign to achieve $540 million in cost savings.