With only a week remaining for US Airways to avoid another trip through bankruptcy, the pilots union prepared last night to consider a new company cost-cutting proposal designed to save the airline $295 million.

The two sides have been trading proposals round-the-clock for the last week.

The airline, which employs about 8,000 people in the Pittsburgh area, claims it needs $800 million from all of the airline's unions to avoid bankruptcy and meet several financial hurdles this month.

It hopes $295 million in new concessions with the pilots will put pressure on the flight attendants, machinists, passenger service workers and dispatchers to provide the rest.

Pilots spokesman Jack Stephan last night said talks are continuing "at a slow pace."

The latest union proposal came Friday, when negotiators from the Air Line Pilots Association offered to cut pilot pay by 20.25 percent and cut the company's contribution to pilots' retirement plan by 40 percent.

Yesterday, US Airways responded with an offer that would reduce pilots' pay by 21 percent (down from 35 percent in a previous proposal) and cut the company's contributions to the retirement plan by 50 percent (increased from 30 percent in a previous proposal).

With negotiators closer to reaching a tentative agreement, the scene shifted last night to the union's 12-member Master Executive Council, which will decide whether an agreement can be sent to all 3,000 pilots for a ratification vote.

Council members were at an Arlington, Va., hotel last night, waiting to reconvene at the call of pilots chairman Bill Pollock.

The council could decide to send an agreement out for a full vote of the union's members or send it back to the negotiating table.

The council is divided, with four union representatives from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia opposing eight others from Boston, Charlotte, New York and Washington, D.C.

The four from Pennsylvania have been most resistant to new concessions. They also control any vote taken by the union council, since they represent more than 50 percent of all US Airways pilots.

Last week, the four Pennsylvania union representatives continued to oppose the moderates on the union council, arguing that the company has been inconsistent in its requests, continually asking for more, and that a tough negotiating stance is necessary to get the best deal.

"They are land-grabbing because they think they can," said Pittsburgh union representative John Brookman on Friday.