Eastern’s Unions Gain Time to Increase Ante

A last-ditch attempt by Eastern Airlines’ unions and Chicago commodities dealer Joseph Ritchie to buy the carrier won at least three more days of life Friday after the unions said they would sweeten the bid with an additional $175 million to $200 million in wage concessions.

Separately, the strike-hobbled carrier announced that, to cut its $1.7-million-a-day losses, it will pare executive salaries 20%, require non-union employees to work more hours for the same pay and eliminate vacations for the rest of the year.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Burton R. Lifland extended the deadline for the purchase proposal until Monday to allow the unions and Ritchie to further refine their offer and present it to court-appointed examiner David I. Shapiro, Eastern’s unsecured creditors and Eastern officials. The extension came at the recommendation of Shapiro, who said the group had “very substantially improved” its offer by supplementing an equity stake of $100 million that had been disclosed Thursday.

The carrier was forced to seek the protection of bankruptcy court March 9, five days after most of its pilots and flight attendants walked out in sympathy with a machinists’ union strike. Since then, the airline has been able to operate only about 110 flights a day, compared to more than 1,000 before the strike.

The bid by Ritchie and the unions is competing in the bankruptcy court with an Eastern proposal that it sell off $1.8 billion in assets to form a radically smaller airline. Also on the table is a proposal to liquidate the airline, although many consider that a less likely possibility.

The additional union money would take the form of a reserve that the reorganized airline could turn to if other funds proved insufficient to cover operating costs during its first six months of service.

The new pledge added substantially to union financial promises. Of the $100-million equity stake pledged Thursday as part of the union-Ritchie bid, $75 million is to come from union sources. The unions had earlier promised $210 million in wage concessions over a five-year period.

Under the austerity measures Eastern announced Friday, full-time ticket agents and clerical workers will be scheduled to work 50 hours a week for 40 hours pay through Dec. 1. Managers will also be required to work at least 50 hours a week.

Executive salaries will be reduced 20% through the end of the year and 10% through the first six months of 1990, Eastern said.