United pilots ask judge to delay operating rules in merger

United Airlines’ pilots union asked a judge in New York to postpone the carrier’s revised operating procedures that resulted from last year’s merger of United and Continental Airlines.

The leadership of the United chapter of the Air Lines Pilots Association is concerned that current training levels and the timeline to implement different procedures for tasks such as taxiing and landing are “inadequate,” the union said in a complaint filed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

The complaint by the pilots union is one of the more visible signs of friction between labor and management since United Continental Holdings Inc. was formed last October.

“The company is implementing unrealistic deadlines and requiring only distance computer training that we believe is inadequate,” Captain Wendy Morse, chairman of the master executive council of the United chapter of ALPA, said today in an e-mailed statement.

Julie King, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based United Continental, said safety is the company’s highest priority and is monitored by the Federal Aviation Administration and that the pilots’ complaint is “groundless.”

The lawsuit is “a shameful effort to influence negotiations for a joint collective bargaining agreement, under a false guise of safety,” King said in an e-mail statement.

The company’s management has been in negotiations with the United and Continental pilot union leaders since before the merger was completed last year, and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smisek said in July that a new joint contract with the pilots may not happen this year as he originally hoped because the unions and management can’t agree on terms.

“The target remains to get a deal done as promptly as we can,” Smisek said in July. “It does take two to tango.”

Pilots are scheduled to complete the latest phase of the training program for the new procedures by September 30, with full implementation happening next year.