Delta Pilots Approve Strike

ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots, angered by management’s effort to throw out their contract and impose deep pay cuts, voted by a wide margin to authorize a strike, union leaders said Tuesday.

The 94.7% vote in favor of authorizing a strike gives the Air Line Pilots Association’s leaders the authority to set a strike date. They didn’t set a date immediately and gave no indication when they might act.

The results were announced in a memo to pilots from the chairman of the union’s executive committee, Lee Moak.

An arbitration panel must decide by April 15 whether to void the pilots’ contract. The union has said it will strike if its contract is rejected.

The nation’s No. 3 carrier, which is operating in Chapter 11, has said a strike would put it out of business.

Any strike probably would prompt a court challenge by the company, which would almost certainly seek a restraining order. Moak said the union would “do what is legal.”

Moak said he would ask union leaders to give him sole authority to set a strike date.

He said the union was still open to negotiations, but he said the company had not been willing to compromise.

Company spokesman Bruce Hicks said the vote would not affect Delta service.

“Together with our pilots and all of our employees we remain focused on our No. 1 priority, which is taking good care of our customers,” Hicks said.

He added that the company was committed to seeking a consensual deal with its pilots.

Atlanta-based Delta sought approval to reject its contract with its 5,930 pilots so it can impose as much as $325 million in long-term pay and benefit cuts, which would include a wage reduction of at least 18%.

Delta’s pilots previously agreed to $1 billion in annual concessions, including a 32.5% wage cut, in a five-year deal in 2004. But Delta, which has imposed pay cuts on other workers, said it needed more from its pilots after filing for bankruptcy protection in September.