CHICAGO, Dec 14 (AFP) - Negotiators for United Airlines and its pilots' union have come to a provisional agreement on a new round of wage cuts that the carrier says are critical to its efforts to exit bankruptcy, officials said Tuesday.
The Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots' Association (ALPA) will review the tentative agreement Thursday and if it signs off on the deal, it would go to members for a vote, ALPA spokesman Dave Kelly said.
Both United and ALPA declined to provide details of the proposed deal.
"United is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association on the cost savings the company needs to secure the exit financing necessary to restructure successfully," the Chicago-based airline said in a statement.
The number two US carrier had been seeking to slash its pilots' pay by 18 percent as part of a two-billion-dollar cost savings program.
On Monday, United announced a package of wage reductions for salaried staff and management that will yield 112 million dollars in savings annually.
The cuts are effective January 1, but will be restored once the carrier exits Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it said.
United has told its unions that it wants this second round of cuts in place by mid-January, and it has also gone to court to get permission to unilaterally impose them if collective bargaining fails.
But talks with its other unions could well prove more contentious than those with its pilots.
The Association of Flight Attendants, or AFA, has said it is prepared to call strikes if United acts unilaterally to void its contracts, and sent ballots to its 21,000 members earlier this month in preparation for such a showdown.
Moreover, the AFA has repeatedly said that United management needs to find a way other than wage cuts to solve the carrier's financial crisis and attract the financing necessary to emerge from bankruptcy.
United management maintains that it has no other option but to reduce labour costs in light of soaring fuel prices, and a competitive environment that makes it impossible to hike prices.
The carrier has already extracted 2.5 billion dollars in annual cost savings from its workforce since filing for bankruptcy in December 2002.

12/14/2004 19:32 GMT - AFP