TWA Flight Attendants’ Union Rejects Offer; Talks Break Off

NEW YORK —  The union representing striking Trans World Airlines flight attendants rejected the company’s latest contract offer Saturday and refused a demand that the offer be submitted to the union membership.

TWA issued a statement saying the company was disappointed in the union’s decision and said it held out little hope for an early settlement of the three-week-old strike involving 5,800 flight attendants.

Meanwhile, TWA Chairman Carl C. Icahn sent a letter to newly hired replacements promising that they would not be furloughed to make way for returning strikers.

“This is a personal commitment from me that you can absolutely count on,” Icahn said.

The company had given the leadership of the International Federation of Flight Attendants a deadline of 1 p.m. Saturday to decide whether the offer would be put to a vote of the membership.

The two sides met for about 30 minutes Saturday afternoon and adjourned with no further discussions scheduled.

The flight attendants have been on strike since March 7, when the company proposed a 22% pay cut and work rules that add at least a dozen hours of work a month without additional pay.

The company’s latest offer stuck to the original pay and schedule demands but reinstated an earlier profit-sharing proposal that was withdrawn when the strike began.

It also included a buy-out proposal for those flight attendants who either choose not to come back or are not allowed back.

Karen Lantz, a spokeswoman for the flight attendants’ union, said the offer was virtually the same as the proposal that triggered the strike.