Anna Giroir
January 15, 2007Check It Out!
January 17, 2007THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
An agreement that will return 90 striking pilots to work has been reached with PHI Inc., which provides flight service for the offshore petroleum industry and medical transports, a union said.
The Office and Professional Employees International Union said the agreement, reached in federal court Thursday, will allow the pilots that remained on strike to begin returning to work Jan. 29.
In November, PHI said 237 of its 546 pilots initially participated in the strike. The 90 that had not returned to work will be allowed back under the agreement, the union said.
Unionized pilots went on strike in September after 2 1/2 years of negotiations failed to produce a new labor agreement. In November, PHI said pilots had called off the strike, and members of the union made an unconditional offer to return to work. Union officials had argued that under federal law, the offer required the company to return striking pilots to work in open positions according to seniority.
The union, in a news release Friday, said PHI did not institute its offer until the agreement was reached.
No one answered the phone at PHI’s office in Lafayette Saturday.
