Labor & Employment Law

Flight Attendants Protest Slow Contract Talks with United

By Tula Connell

Contract negotiations are going way too slowly with United Airlines, so the Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) today is holding informational pickets at 17 different airports around the globe to protest ?the failure of United Airlines management to negotiate a new contract on time.? 

This from the Daily Labor Report (subscription required):

The AFA’s frustration with United has smoldered for five years, after flight attendants were forced to accept severe wage and benefit cuts as part of the carrier’s reorganization. United’s parent, UAL Corp., emerged from three years in bankruptcy with flight attendants providing $131 million in labor savings annually. Under the 2005 agreement, flight attendants’ hourly wages were trimmed 9.5 percent and their defined benefit pension plan was jettisoned to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. In the intervening years, flight attendants watched wave after wave of layoffs as United realigned operations in response to changing demand for air travel.

The AFA, which represents 15,000 United flight attendants, said in a statement:

Flight attendants are working at 1994 wage levels in the year 2010 and working 48 percent more compared with 2002 schedules and staffing. When United exited bankruptcy, CEO Glenn Tilton alone took a bonus that could have provided a 10 percent pay raise for all 15,000 flight attendants. AFA-CWA members are angry that management has not discussed the improvements envisioned, seeming only interested in delaying a new contract for flight attendants.

American Airlines Flight Attendants, represented by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), are strongly supporting the United flight attendants. 

Says Laura Glading, APFA president:

We share many issues and concerns with our colleagues at United in our fight for a strong contract. This is not only about improving compensation and working conditions, but raising the living standard for Flights Attendants throughout the industry.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 07, 2010 (boomark / email).