United Airlines agrees to major labor deal
CHICAGO -United Airlines (UAL) has reached agreement on contracts covering about 30,000 union employees including airport workers.
The International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers said Monday that the contracts, if ratified, would increase pay by about 30 percent over five years and also raise defined-benefit pensions and stop outsourcing of work now done by the union's members.
United said the agreements followed just four months of negotiations and were reached before the date when old contracts could normally be updated. Labor contracts in the airline industry don't expire but become amendable.
Chicago-based United Continental Holdings has been trying to improve its checkered labor-management history since changing CEOs last September.