News In Brief

Eastern Airlines averts strike

Eastern Airlines and its unionized flight attendants reached agreement on a new contract Wednesday, averting a strike that could have forced the struggling carrier to close down or face bankruptcy.

Terms of the pact were not formally announced, but the coordinator of the union's information center said the flight attendants won a 16.5 percent raise for 1983 that will be retroactive to Jan. 1, 1983 - plus a 6 percent raise for 1984. The flight attendants, who had worked without a contract for 19 months, had wanted a retroactive raise for 1982 but did not get it, he said.