Eastern Airlines said Monday it will lay off 1,010 of its 7,000 flight attendants on Feb. 4 and cut wages for the others to reduce costs and avoid financial default.
The airline announced the measures eight hours after a deadline on contract negotiations with attendants passed without an agreement.
Eastern reservationists in Chicago were told over the weekend that nonunion employees should expect a 20 percent salary cut effective Feb. 1. More than one-quarter of Eastern`s work force of 41,000 is nonunion.
A spokesman for Eastern in Miami said that the exact size of the cut for all noncontract workers hasn`t been determined.
But the spokesman, Felix Forestieri, acknowledged that a 20 percent reduction ”is under consideration.”
Eastern Chairman Frank Borman said the airline expects to reduce labor costs by $250 million this year by negotiating concessions with all employee groups.
A 30-day cooling-off period in negotiations with the attendants expired Monday. Under terms of federal law governing airline-labor negotiations, the company now is free to impose new wages and working conditions.
Eastern said it would impose a 2 percent pay cut for flight attendants and require them to work more hours. The 2 percent cut comes on top of an 18 percent slash instituted two years ago.
A longer workweek and new rules giving Eastern more scheduling flexibility would permit the carrier to continue flying its normal schedule with fewer attendants.
”We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that Eastern is profitable,” said Borman.
Eastern reported earnings of $6.3 million in 1985, its first yearly profit since 1979. But the airline lost $67.3 million in the fourth quarter of 1985, as industrywide fare-cutting accelerated. Eastern has projected a deficit for the coming year.
Eastern owes about $2.5 billion to some 60 lenders. Earlier this month, the banks jointly issued a Feb. 28 deadline for Eastern to obtain major labor concessions or face technical default on its debt.
Leaders of the Transport Workers Union Local 553, which represents Eastern`s attendants, vowed earlier Monday to fight Eastern`s action.
Robert Callahan, president of the local, didn`t specify how. But he reiterated an earlier promise that workers wouldn`t strike before March 1 to give the sides more time to talk.
No further meetings between the union and Eastern are scheduled.
”Since it is a fight you want, we will fight you . . . in the boardrooms, in the banks, in the media, on Wall Street and with the public . . . and maybe in the streets,” Callahan said.
”It`s all-out war.”
