PSA Unsure on Effect of TWA’s Move on USAir

SAN DIEGO — Pacific Southwest Airlines is uncertain what effect TWA’s proposed acquisition of USAir Group will have on USAir’s $400-million bid for PSA, company officials acknowledged Wednesday.

The boards of PSA and PS Group, the airline’s parent company, have recommended that shareholders approve USAir’s PSA bid during special shareholder meetings on March 17. Those meetings will not be postponed because of TWA’s move to acquire USAir, spokeswoman Margie Craig said Wednesday.

However, Teamsters Union leaders argued that TWA’s bid for USAir is proof that the union should retain contract language that would protect employee jobs and income and strengthen the union’s representational rights in the event of a merger. USAir has linked its acquisition to PSA management’s getting that merger and acquisition language changed.

PSA’s 600 pilots and a dozen flight controllers have agreed to modify their labor contracts, but the airline has not concluded contract negotiations with the Teamsters, who represent 3,000 flight attendants, ground personnel, mechanics and station and reservations agents.

Telling Members

Teamsters leaders have been telling their members that another airline was waiting in the wings to acquire USAir because “ . . . in and of themselves (a combined USAir and PSA) would not be able to compete with the likes of American and United and (Texas Air Corp. Chairman Frank) Lorenzo,” Teamsters Local 2707 Secretary-Treasurer Marvin L. Griswold said Wednesday.

TWA’s bid for USAir proves that “the (merger and acquisition) language we have

in our existing contact is pretty important to the people we represent,” Griswold said. Without the contract guarantees, PSA’s Teamsters members could be left “high and dry” without job or income protection if USAir is acquired by or merged with another airline, he added.

“We don’t know what (TWA’s offer) means,” Pacific Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Margie Craig said Wednesday afternoon. “We haven’t had a chance to evaluate it, so we don’t know the implications.”