Machinists

Bond Distributing Co. officials and striking beer truck drivers plan to return to the negotiating table, but the two sides differ widely in their expectations.Workers on the picket line yesterday outside the company in southwest Baltimore said they are optimistic that a settlement will be reached soon. But Norman R. Buchsbaum, a labor attorney for Bond, said the two sides remain apart on eight to 10 issues and that no end is in sight.The drivers for Bond, a beer distributor, have been on strike since Aug. 11 after working six weeks without a contract.

Mechanics at USAir Group Inc. will take a 13 percent wage cut as part of the troubled airline's effort to cobble together $1 billion of annual cost savings to stay in business.The International Association of Machinists announced limited details of the proposed deal yesterday, two days after the company said there was a tentative agreement, but refused to say what was in it. The union represents about a third of the 45,000 workers at USAir, which controls the dominant share of flights serving Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

USAir workers who load and unload aircraft voted overwhelmingly yesterday to unionize, giving the airline another headache as it tries to work its way out of a financial morass.But because none of the three unions competing to represent the 7,687 fleet service workers received a majority of votes, a runoff election will be held this summer to determine whether the United Steelworkers of America or the International Association of Machinists -- the two top vote-getters -- will represent the USAir workers.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport has been hit harder by the Machinists' strike against USAir than have many of the airline's other hubs, with sharp cutbacks in jet service costing BWI thousands of dollars a day and underscoring its diminished status with the carrier.The strike by the 8,300 Machinists -- which enters its third day today with no apparent progress -- has left the airline operating about 60 percent of its 2,700 jet flights nationwide. But at BWI, only 17 of USAir's 90 jet flights -- less than 20 percent -- are taking off.USAir is the airport's largest carrier, handling 14,000 of its 27,000 daily passengers.

The planned merger of the Steelworkers, Auto Workers and Machinists unions is the biggest-ever union consolidation in U.S. history, and union officials say it won't be the last.After losing millions of members because of corporate consolidations and restructurings, Big Labor is fighting back by consolidating and restructuring itself, a move that is drawing even grudging admiration from union busters.But as labor leaders, sounding strangely like corporate managers, began last week to laud the advantages of economies of scale, questions abounded.

PHILADELPHIA - US Airways Group Inc. received court approval yesterday to extend a crucial agreement with the federal government that helps provide the financing the airline needs to reorganize and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy this summer. The agreement with the federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board lets the airline use the cash it has on hand through June 30. US Airways expects to find $100 million in additional financing or cost savings by next week to get through the winter, when business is slowest.

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. is preparing to "put on a show" this week by calling 41 witnesses and presenting more than 400 exhibits at a trial aimed at rejecting current union contracts, one bankruptcy expert says. The airline has the burden of proving that it needs new, lower-cost contracts to survive, said the expert, Douglas Baird, a professor at the University of Chicago's law school. The trial begins Friday in Chicago. United faces discontented employees who do not necessarily agree to the cuts in pay and benefits the company seeks.

MARIETTA, Ga. - Striking Machinists knew the drill in the wee hours yesterday morning as they set up picket lines outside the Lockheed Martin plant. They cheerfully set up tents in predetermined locations and began marching back and forth in front of employee entrances, just as they did three years ago during their previous strike. The picket lines will stay around the clock. But the political and economic climate in the defense industry has changed greatly since their last work stoppage, and factors far beyond Marietta could alter the outcome of this strike in ways that few strikers seem to realize.

US Airways said yesterday that it has failed to squeeze millions of dollars' worth of concessions from its pilots and other workers aimed at staving off a second bankruptcy filing that ultimately could cost thousands of workers their jobs and travelers their convenience. The Arlington, Va.-based airline still ranks among the nation's largest, but in recent years it and other major carriers have had to weather a fear of flying after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a recession and the pervasiveness of cheap seats offered by low-fare airlines in a growing number of cities.

Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich walked through a grease-stained Baltimore dredge maker yesterday to hear first hand about one of the oddities of the U.S. workplace -- high-paying jobs going begging because of a dearth of skilled workers."