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Scrambling to secure over $5 billion in labor cost savings over the next five-and-a-half years as a debt repayment deadline and an Air Transportation Stabilization Board loan decision loom (see WIT for Oct. 22, 2002), United Airlines announced this morning that it had negotiated a new tentative concession package with the International Association of Machinists. Last Thursday, mechanics represented by the IAM and employed by United, surprised both the union leadership and management by voting down a tentative concession agreement reached by the two sides after long and discordant negotiations. Replacing the defeated proposal of seven-percent wage cuts and the loss of vacation days and bonus pay, the new agreement must be ratified by the mechanics in order to prevent concession agreements with the pilots’ and flight attendants’ unions (see WIT for Nov. 11, 2002), and IAM represented baggage handlers and reservation agents (see WIT for Nov. 20, 2002), from expiring on December 31.