Pilot complains of pornography in cockpit
     NEWARK, N.J. (September 12, 1997 09:21 a.m. EDT) -- She was the
 first woman at Continental Airlines to become captain of an Airbus
 A300, yet Tammy S. Blakey said she was regularly humiliated and be-
 littled by male pilots who also left pornography around the cockpit.
     "It was embarrassing. I knew those guys were looking at it,"
 Blakey testified Thursday in her lawsuit against Continental. She
 says the airline failed to keep cockpits free of offensive material
 and retaliated when she complained of sexual harassment.
     The Houston-based airline denies her allegations and says her
 complaints only began when her schedule changed and the company
 raised concerns about poor attendance.
     Blakey, 38, said she has been on unpaid "administrative leave"
 since July 1993, several months after filing her lawsuit in New
 Jersey, where Continental maintains one of its major hubs at Newark
 International Airport.
     She has had to sell some retirement assets and part of her ranch
 in Arlington, Wash., to support her 3 1/2-year-old daughter,
 she said.
     Blakey, who is seeking an unspecified amount of lost salary and
 damages, was to continue testifying Friday.
     Blakely joined Continental in 1984. She testified that she was
 mocked as soon as she became qualified to fly the 272-passenger
 A300, around 1989.
     She said the assistant chief pilot of the A300 captains took her
 to the plane's cockpit where, in the captain's seat, she found a
 10-inch-tall doll with blond hair in a ponytail, like her own.
     "I was belittled. That was uncalled for," Blakey said.
     She also told the jury that she found cockpits littered with
 pornography: glued to the bottom of drawers, pasted on the door,
 underneath the chairs, and slipped into flight manuals and main-
 tenance logbooks that were regularly consulted.
     Pilots also affixed pornography to the backs of removable wall
 panels in the cockpit that were marked with "x" to alert others
 where to look, Blakey said.
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           A Bruising Battle - British Airways Makes Peace
     London, UK Sept. 12 - British Airways and its flight attendants
 said on Friday they finally settled a wage dispute that led to a
 crippling walkout in July.
     The agreement will save the company 42 million pounds ($ 70
 million) a year - part of chief executive Bob Ayling's goal of
 cutting costs by 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) annually by 2000.
     The deal also ends a summer of feuding that resulted not only
 in the three-day strike, but also cancellation of hundreds of
 other flights after flight attendants called in sick.
     "Touch wood! we're home free," said Mike Street, the British
 Airways director of operations.
     Street called the three-day strike by flight attendants and its
 aftermath "an expensive little escapade" the airline estimates cost
 it 125 million pounds ($ 200 million).
     But achieving the costs savings in the labor contract will be
 worthwhile in the long run, he said.
     British Airways is reducing annual base pay for newly hired
 flight attendants to 8,000 pounds ($12,800), a cut of about 1,200
 pounds ($1,920). Those already on the payroll have been assured
 they will lose nothing.
     The flight attendants also will operate under new work rules
 designed to make workers more productive.
     "There's a general tightening up of the scheduling rules, where-
 by you get greater benefit," Street said.
     The two sides sought publicly to patch up differences that
 plagued the carrier for weeks after the strike ended on July 12.
 Hundreds of flight attendants stayed off the job on sick leave, and
 British Airways suffered costly disruptions to its schedule for more
 than a month, well into August.
     Ayling said in a statement the deal with union flight attendants
 "safeguards our plan for growth and new jobs and will help keep the
 airline at the forefront of what is now a ferociously competitive
 global industry."
     British Airways said it was lifting sanctions, including the
 loss of travel privileges and promotion opportunities, imposed
 against some 300 striking workers from the British Airline Stewards
 and Stewardesses Association. Their 8,500 members walked off the
 job in the dispute.
     The company kept up partial operations during the strike with
 help from 3,500 flight attendants affiliated with a breakaway union,
 Cabin Crew 89.
     The Transport and General Workers Union, an umbrella labor
 organization that represented the flight attendants during contract
 talks, also offered conciliatory statements on Friday.
     The union's general secretary, Bill Morris, said the new peace
 in the workplace shows that "the union and the company are committed
 to building a constructive long-term relationship in the spirit of
 partnership."
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