United pilots may hold strike vote

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-05/D9UQNQTO0.htm

CHICAGO

The unions for pilots at United Airlines said on Thursday that they may vote to authorize a strike in the future.

No date for a vote has been set, and pilots can't walk off the job until after a complicated series of steps requiring approval of federal mediators.

United and Continental merged in 2010, and their pilots are represented by separate units of the Air Line Pilots Association. Their governing councils held a joint meeting on Thursday and authorized leaders from United and Continental to hold a strike vote if they feel it's appropriate, said David Kelly, a spokesman for the United branch of the union.

Negotiations run by the National Mediation Board are continuing between pilots and United Continental Holdings Inc. On May 11 pilots from United asked the federal labor board to release them from talks, one of the first steps that can lead to a strike. Kelly said the NMB hasn't responded to the request.

On Tuesday morning, before the pilots' announcement, United's chief financial officer John Rainey told analysts at a conference in Boston that "despite some of the rhetoric in the press we're actually making very good progress" toward joint agreements to cover the merged workforce.

Without addressing pilots specifically, he said the airline wants agreements that are good for both employees and shareholders, "but we're not going to go out and write a big check just to get an agreement done overnight."