Business & Finance

US Airways and the union representing its pilots reached a tentative agreement Saturday on wage concessions, part of a wider restructuring as the Arlington, Va.-based carrier seeks to avoid bankruptcy. Under the deal, which the union expects to be approved in an Aug. 8 vote, pilots would accept a 26 percent pay cut and some layoffs in return for a 20 percent equity stake in the airline and pledges on a minimum fleet size and flying hours. US Airways is seeking to reduce employee costs by $950 million.

Sprint Corp. said it will cut a further 1,200 jobs, including 100 unfilled positions, from its global-markets division over the next few weeks. Westwood, Kan.-based Sprint, the nation's third-largest long-distance company, has laid off more than 10,000 of its workers since October as a cost-cutting move in the highly competitive telecommunications industry.

A lawsuit filed against WorldCom Inc. by 25 lender banks, including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, sought to recover nearly $2.5 billion in unsecured loans to the near-bankrupt telecommunications giant. WorldCom misrepresented its financial state to obtain the funds, the banks alleged, six weeks before disclosing a $3.8 billion accounting coverup. Their request for an order freezing WorldCom assets was rejected by a New York State Supreme Court justice.

Duke Energy Corp. said it was responding to subpeonas for details on its energy trading practices from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US attorney's office in Houston. The Charlotte, N.C.-based firm is one of several in the energy industry to come under federal scrutiny over "round trip" trades, in which set amounts of electricity are sold and then repurchased for the same price, pumping up trade volume.