PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – The union representing pilots at New Hampshire-based Pan American airlines said Pan Am has laid off 30 union pilots and apparently reassigned their work to a non-union affiliate, Boston-Maine Airways.

The union said the move violates a federal court order and has asked a judge to hold the company in contempt. A hearing is scheduled on Friday.

“They laid off all the Pan Am pilots last week. … They’ve shut down the unionized operation,” said Marcus Migliore, lawyer for the Air Line Pilots Association International, said from his Washington, D.C., office. “The last Pan Am flight with our union pilots flew (Sunday).”

Pan Am Vice President John Nadolny declined to comment to the Portsmouth Herald.

Last month, a judge ordered Pan Am not to transfer operations to Boston-Maine, saying the company plans were a direct attempt to destroy the union.

The union is asking the court to hold in contempt Guilford Transportation, Pan Am and Boston-Maine, for continuing charter-airplane operations in spite of the court order issued last month, in which U.S. Judge Jospeh DiClerico halted the airline’s attempt to transfer its passenger service to a subsidiary, calling the move “a direct attempt to destroy a union.”

DiClerico had ordered that pay and working conditions for pilots and crews of the Portsmouth-baesd airline be restored to what they were earlier this year. He barred Pan Am from having its nonunonized subsidiary, Boston-Maine Airways, fly Boeing 727s or other large jets on routes that have been flown by Pan Am. And he barred Pan Am from transferring any of its planes to Boston-Maine. An employee who answered the telephone at the Pan Am offices at Pease on Monday identified the company as “Boston and Maine.” A second worker who subsequently answered the call identified the company as “Guilford Transportation,” Pan Am’s parent company.

The union filed its lawsuit in September against Guilford, Pan American Airways and Boston-Maine Airways, asking the defendants to stop Boston-Maine or any other “alter-ego operation” from flying B-727s or other large jets in an attempt to transfer the work of unionized Pan Am flight crews to other, nonunion employees.

In issuing the order, DiClerico agreed with a court magistrates earlier finding the transfer of B-727 flight operations from Pan Am to Boston-Maine constituted “a direct attempt to destroy a union,” the legal papers say.

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Information from: Portsmouth Herald, http://www.seacoastonline.com

AP-ES-11-02-04 1130EST