USAir Promises Employee Protection if Acquisition of PSA Is Consumated

SAN DIEGO —  USAir Group has promised to grant income protection to Pacific Southwest Airlines’ union and non-union employees if USAir completes its proposed $400-million acquisition of the San Diego-based airline, company officials said Thursday.

In letters delivered to PSA employees on Wednesday, USAir Group Chairman Edwin I. Colodny said it is “appropriate” to grant the income protection provisions, which would be triggered by a successful merger, to all non-officer employees of PSA and USAir.

Marvin L. Griswold, secretary-treasurer of Local 2707 of the Teamsters Union described Colodny’s offer as “terrific” Thursday but demanded that USAir and PSA incorporate the protective measures into existing employee contracts. He also asked that USAir and PSA withdraw their request that the Department of Transportation not order the airlines to institute the protective provisions.

Griswold repeated his earlier pledge that the Teamsters would push USAir to retain labor contract language that the airline wants changed.

USAir has based its proposed acquisition upon PSA winning changes in Teamsters contracts covering the airlines’ 3,184 Teamsters-represented flight attendants, reservations agents, machinists and ground personnel.

The so-called “labor protective provisions” agreed to by Colodny would protect the wages of employees who lose jobs and would provide relocation assistance in the event of a merger. They guarantee that employee seniority lists would be integrated in a “fair and equitable manner” and call for binding arbitration to solve merger-related labor disputes.

The regulations were created by the Civil Aeronautics Board, which regularly imposed them on airlines planning to merge. However, the Department of Transportation, which began enforcing the regulations after the CAB was abolished, rarely has imposed them upon airlines involved in mergers.

The DOT generally has determined that labor protective provisions are a negotiable item to be resolved by labor and management.

In a statement circulated with Colodny’s letter, PSA Chairman Paul Barkley said that Colodny’s offer “further demonstrates USAir’s tradition of fairness and strong employee relations.”

Barkley described USAir as the “. . . most likely (of all merger candidates) to treat PSA employees in a fair and equitable manner and preserve job security for the greatest number of PSA employees.”

PSA’s pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., last week agreed to contract changes demanded by USAir, and non-represented employees this week issued a “vote of confidence” in the proposed merger, according to a PSA spokesman.