Delta Airlines and its pilots hit a deadline March 1 without a comprehensive agreement on long-term pay and benefit cuts. Now, according to prior agreement, the airline's bankruptcy motion to reject the pilot's contract will move to a three-member neutral panel for a possible binding decision.

Negotiations are expected to continue throughout the 45-day arbitration period. But if the panel allows Delta to reject the contract, the Air Line Pilots Association, representing Delta's pilots, said it could strike. The call went out March 1 for a membership vote to authorize a strike. Voting will be open from March 6 to April 4. The arbitration process is due to finish on April 15. negotiations.

Delta wants to cut more than $300 million in pay and benefits and to stop funding the employee pension plans as part of its plan to emerge from bankruptcy. The union has offered to cut $115 million. At the end of 2004, the pilots agreed to a cut of $1 billion a year in pay and benefits, including a 32.5 percent cut in salaries.

Thomas L. Gallagher