Comair Pilots Go on Strike; Carrier Suspends Operations

Pilots at Comair Inc., an East Coast feeder airline owned by Delta Air Lines Inc., went on strike Monday, forcing the nation’s second-largest regional carrier to suspend operations.

Comair, whose hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Ky., flies to 95 cities in North America and the Bahamas, with more than 800 departures each day.

“After three years of fruitless negotiations, management’s team abandoned negotiations on Sunday, assuring a strike,” said J.C. Lawson, chairman of the Comair branch of the Air Line Pilots Assn.

The union is fighting for better pay and benefits for the 1,350 pilots. The union contends that its pilots are still paid as though they were flying turboprop aircraft for a tiny airline--rather than larger, longer-range regional jet aircraft for a substantial carrier--and that work rules give the company too much flexibility at the expense of pilots.

No new talks have been scheduled.

“We were told very clearly [by union negotiators] that there would be no compromises, and there wasn’t anything to talk about,” Comair President Randy Rademacher said Monday. “It’s a take-it-or-leave-it game and we’re very sorry about that, because there is plenty of room to move.”

Union spokesman Paul Lackie did not comment directly on Rademacher’s statement about unwillingness to compromise but said the union was insisting on a new contract that would be respectful of its proposals.

Comair said it would make daily decisions about whether to fly its schedule. Monday afternoon Comair said it was canceling all flights until 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The Comair pilots’ strike is the first of several that could hit U.S. airline passengers, who are already disgruntled about frequent delays and cancellations.

President Bush said Monday he did not have the authority to intervene in the Comair strike, which potentially affects 25,000 passengers a day, since the National Mediation Board must first recommend intervention.