Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 16, 1994                   TAG: 9407180143
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

USAIR TRANSFERS MAIL, FREIGHT BUSINESS

The transfer to Intex, to take effect Monday, means the loss of three part-time USAir jobs, said USAir spokesman Dave Shipley.

The airline announced in May that it would subcontract out the work in Roanoke and 34 other U.S. cities, where 510 full-time and 122 part-time employees were assigned to freight and mail handling.

In February, USAir said it subcontracted freight and mail handling in 21 cities, expecting to save $1.5 million a year. The plan to add 35 more cities in May was expected to save the financially troubled airline about $10 million a year.

USAir President Frank Salizzoni has said the airline will also evaluate the possible savings from subcontracting airport food and beverage catering operations later in the year.

Three Pittsburgh ground crew workers and the United Steelworkers of America filed suit against USAir in Pittsburgh in an unsuccessful effort to block plans for subcontracting the work.

The court's decision not to grant a preliminary injunction against the company has been appealed, said Howard Scott, a Steelworkers spokesman.

The airline announced its subcontracting plans May 20, three days after 7,687 ground crew workers had voted for union representation. Results of a runoff election between the Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers for the right to represent the workers are due next week.

The ground crew workers affected by the decision to subcontract represented 8 percent of the workers involved in the union vote.

USAir passenger-service workers, such as ticket takers, are scheduled to vote next week whether they want Steelworkers representation. Scott said USAir's move to subcontract its lucrative freight and mail business was an attempt to "scare the Dickens" out of the passenger-service workers before their union vote.

Shipley called Scott's charge "totally false." He said USAir has been contracting out freight and mail handling in some airports for a long time and it's "not a new thing."

The union's attempt to get an injunction against the company and its charge that the subcontracting is a company effort to scare the passenger-service workers is totally "a bogus electioneering tactic" on the union's part, he said.