DALLAS (AP) — Pilots for Southwest Airlines have approved a new 5-year labor contract that the union president said has smaller pay raises than his members wanted.

The union said Monday that the vote for ratification was about 87 percent, with about 93 percent of eligible pilots casting a ballot.

The new contract includes pay raises, increases in retirement contributions and more job protection, according to the union.

Union president Carl Kuwitzky said that while his group "never considered this a home-run contract, our members felt it contained enough positive gains in a short-term deal to constitute ratification."

The pilots narrowly rejected a company proposal in June. Kuwitzky said union negotiators went back to the table to address areas that pilots felt were lacking.

The union said the final deal provided for more scheduling flexibility and job protections if Southwest strikes so-called code-sharing partnerships with other airlines.

In code-sharing deals, an airline can sell tickets on a partner carrier and get some of the revenue. Unions fear that the deals can be used to shift work to employees at lower-paying airlines.

Kuwitzky said the union would try to improve issues of "higher priority," including pay, in future bargaining.

The Dallas-based airline and the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association have been in negotiations since the contract became open for change in September 2006.