Machinists

CHICAGO - United Airlines and the International Association of Machinists turned the focus of contract negotiations to pension benefits yesterday as they sought to avoid a strike. "That's the big issue," said Joe Tiberi, a spokesman for the IAM, which represents 20,000 bag handlers, reservations agents and other employees. United and the Machinists, the biggest union at the airline, continued talks yesterday, he said. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff plans to rule Tuesday on whether UAL Corp.

Donald J. Koch Sr., a retired CSX railroad machinist and former president of his union, died of complications of Alzheimer's disease April 29 at Stella Maris Hospice. The lifelong South Baltimore resident was 79. Born in Baltimore and raised on Hanover Street, he attended St. Mary Star of the Sea parochial school. He began work as a machinist's helper for the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at the Curtis Bay coal piers, where he was to remain all of his working life. His job with the railroad was interrupted by Navy service during World War II. He was assigned as a machinist aboard the landing craft repair ship USS Egeria in the South Pacific.

The Rev. Elmer S. Bradley Sr., a Baptist minister and retired machinist, died of heart failure Sunday at his home in Rogersville, Tenn. The former Lansdowne resident was 79. Mr. Bradley was born and raised in Greenville, Tenn., and during World War II served as a combat infantryman in Gen. George S. Patton's 3rd Army, attaining the rank of sergeant. After the war, Mr. Bradley moved to Ellicott City and took a job as a machinist at Bartgis Bros. Co. of Ilchester, now Simkin Industries, manufacturers of paper products.

MARIETTA, Ga. - Striking Lockheed Martin Machinists voted overwhelmingly yesterday to return to work, a week after launching a walkout that jeopardized future aircraft production at the Bethesda-based company's Marietta plant. "The picket lines are coming down immediately," said Cornell "Slim" Stevens, president of International Association of Machinists Local 709, which represents 2,800 workers in Marietta. "We're going back to work at midnight." By a vote of 1,532 to 537, Local 709 ratified a contract that raises wages 10 percent over three years and gives $1,500 signing bonuses to blue-collar workers.

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.

Thomas Lee Coard, a retired machinist and actor, died from stroke complications Sunday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Parkton resident was 64. Mr. Coard was born in Baltimore and raised in the Howard Park neighborhood. He was a 1958 graduate of Forest Park High School. After serving briefly as an Air Force photographer, he attended what is now Towson University. He was employed as a research machinist for 25 years at the university. He worked in the science and mathematics departments and helped students fabricate parts used to build telescopes.

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.

Richard Leonard Malone, a retired tavern owner and telephone parts machinist, has died of complications of diabetes and a stroke. He was 87. Mr. Malone, a longtime Ashburton resident who later moved to Ellicott City, died Thursday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Mr. Malone earned a teaching degree from St. Paul's Normal School in his hometown of Lawrenceville, Va. He taught elementary school in Virginia before moving to Baltimore's Druid Hill Avenue in the 1940s. He became a machinist in the wire shop of the old Western Electric Co.'s Point Breeze works from 1943 to 1978, when he retired.

PHILADELPHIA - US Airways Group Inc. failed yesterday to win immediate cost-cutting contracts from two major unions, despite the threat of court-imposed cuts tomorrow. After a day of acrimonious debate in Pittsburgh, leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association reportedly will vote to send a tentative agreement to its 3,200 members for ratification, but not until after the company's court deadline. At the same time, the union that represents 9,450 mechanics, fleet service workers and baggage handlers rebuffed the company's demands for 23 percent interim wage cuts as "unjustifiable," with a spokesman saying, "We'll make our case in court."