UNITED AIRLINES TO PAY L.A.'S LIVING WAGE; RIORDAN APPLAUDS `MORAL SENSE' OF AIRPORT'S BIGGEST EMPLOYER.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

Calling it a major breakthrough, Mayor Richard Riordan announced Monday that United Airlines has agreed to begin paying its Los Angeles International Airport workers the city's adopted living wage.

Officials hope the agreement with United, the largest LAX tenant with the most employees, will serve as a model to convince other airlines to follow suit and comply with the City Council-adopted ordinance covering airlines.

``United Airlines has today shown the kind of leadership that will make a difference in the lives of hard-working people,'' Riordan said. ``By supporting a living wage, United Airlines is showing that their business practices make more than business sense - they make moral sense as well.''

The living-wage ordinance requires city contractors to pay their workers a minimum of $7.39 an hour plus benefits or $8.64 an hour without benefits.

Deputy Mayor Noelia Rodriguez said the airline indicated that its new policy will begin Thursday and applies to leases negotiated on or after that day, not to existing contracts.

Madeline Janis-Aparicio of the Living Wage Coalition welcomed the agreement.

``This is very significant since United is the first and biggest airline covering the largest segment of workers,'' Janis-Aparicio said.

Janis-Aparicio, who estimated that up to 800 workers for United could benefit, said the mayor and council deserved credit for persevering in their efforts.

``The mayor didn't veto recent amendments and the council has been very active on this,'' Janis-Aparicio said. ``However, nobody thinks United is doing this on its own. They were faced with a city law and they either had to abide by it or face legal action about how low they were paying their workers.''

Riordan had been opposed to the living wage when it was first introduced and even vetoed the first measure passed by the City Council. The council later overrode his veto.

Since then, Riordan said he has been working with the airlines to try to get their agreement to comply with the measure and avoid legal action.

``We spent a lot of time reviewing the impact on our operations in L.A.,'' said Matthew Triaca, a spokesman for United Airlines. ``While we will continue to oppose these sorts of local ordinances in principle, the L.A. ordinance was a reasonable one and that is why we are abiding by it.''

He said the airline has several Los Angeles leases that are up for renegotiation, although the precise number was not available.

Daily News Staff Writer Deborah Sullivan contributed to this report.