United wins pilots lawsuit; may make holiday trips smoother

— -- United Airlines Tuesday won a major court battle against its pilots union that could ensure a smoother holiday travel season for its passengers.

U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lefkow ruled that the union engaged in an illegal campaign to pressure United into reopening and sweetening the pilots' labor contract, and she ordered the union to stop.

She granted United's plea for an injunction barring the union from encouraging pilots to falsely call in sick, refusing to fly planes with maintenance issues that could safely be fixed later and taking too much time to do preflight checks in the cockpit.

United asserted that the slowdown, led by union Chairman Steve Wallach and several other high-level union officials, resulted in countless flight delays and cancellations. During one week in July, United says, it was forced to cancel more than 300 flights, inconveniencing 36,000 customers.

During that time — the peak summer travel season — ALPA issued a letter to pilots that the court said encouraged pilots to call in sick without justification. The letter, quoted in Lefkow's ruling, said, "Only 'you' can determine your fitness to fly. If you are sick or should not otherwise be flying, then you must call in sick."

Without further comment, ALPA issued a brief statement saying its members "will comply fully with the court's order."

United pilots have sought to reverse wage cuts and other concessions in the contract United negotiated during its bankruptcy reorganization from late 2002 through early 2006.

The contract comes up for renegotiation next year.

United's customers have not had an easy year.

Department of Transportation records show that among major U.S. carriers, United ranked the worst in customer complaints January through September. In September, the latest month for which DOT has issued data, United ranked second-worst in on-time performance industrywide, behind US Airways.