United Airlines Reaches Tentative Deal With Flight Attendants’ Union

United Airlines reached a tentative agreement with its flight attendants’ union Saturday that keeps the employee pension plan intact. The airline also said it wouldn’t go to court to cancel the union’s contract.

Details of the agreement won’t be made public until the Assn. of Flight Attendants’ United Master Executive Council meets Tuesday to vote on the contract, the union said in a letter posted on its website. The AFA said the tentative agreement didn’t include changes to the pension plan and kept medical and dental benefits intact.

UAL Corp., United’s parent company, has asked for $1.36 billion in worker concessions as it tries to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The company, which is seeking to end the flight attendants’ pension plan, said it wouldn’t act at this time on a request to have a bankruptcy court scrap contracts for the AFA and aircraft mechanics’ union.

United said in a statement that it was deferring to the AFA to explain the terms of the agreement to its members. The airline said it would work with the AFA in the next 90 days “to attempt to resolve pension issues.”

The airline’s bankruptcy judge on Friday rejected an agreement with United’s pilots’ union that would have saved $180 million a year.

United reached a tentative agreement Friday with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. on a new contract with concessions. That agreement also doesn’t deal with workers’ pension plans, United said.

Shares of UAL Corp. fell 10 cents to $1.23 on Friday in over- the-counter trading. UAL has said the stock probably wouldn’t have any value after the company’s reorganization.