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President Letter: Mar 11, 2004
MEC President Letter
Letter to Retirees
March 11 , 2004
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In January of this year, United Airlines announced its intention to exploit the bankruptcy code to modify medical benefits for all United retirees. The Association of Flight Attendants notified United immediately of our intention to serve as the authorized representative of United Flight Attendant retirees and we are fully committed to representing you throughout United’s intended Section 1114 filing to change retiree medical benefits.
We have appointed three highly qualified retired Flight Attendants to serve as your representatives on the MEC Retiree Committee:
- Martha Casne retired in 2002 after 33 years of flying and she holds a Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution from the McGregor School of Antioch University, in addition to being certified in mediation, arbitration, and contract negotiations. Presently, Martha serves as an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau of Washington and Oregon .
- Charlie Costello retired on June 19, 2003 after 34 years as a Los Angeles based Flight Attendant. Her AFA experience includes, among other positions, serving as Local Council President and Chairperson of both the Grievance and Communication Committees. Charlie was also active in the labor community as an Executive Board Member of LA County Federation of Labor.
- Sue Liebling retired on June 30, 2003 after 34 years, and her AFA experience includes, among other positions, serving as Seattle Local Council President and Member of the MEC Central Schedule Committee. Sue was also active in organizing, and served on the Finance Committee for the AFA Board of Directors.
The MEC Retiree Committee is working closely with me, our financial advisors, AFA legal staff and bankruptcy attorneys retained to assist us throughout the Section 1114 process. This group of professionals met with the Company for the first time today and we officially received the Company’s proposed changes for retiree medical. As we expected, the Company’s proposal suggests that all retiree medical benefits change to the Contractual medical plan provided for United Flight Attendants who retire after July 1, 2003 – with a very slight reduction in the cost of the program. The full text of the three page Company proposal and five page narrative is provided in this mailing.
These changes would decrease your medical coverage while increasing premiums, out-of-pocket costs, as well costs for prescriptions at a time when many of you are on fixed incomes. The Company’s contemptuous plan to extract more from those of you who already contributed an entire career to United’s success as well as over 2500 of you who saved the Company millions by retiring early in the first half of 2003 and sacrificing a great portion of your pension will not go unchallenged. These changes are not needed for the Company’s emergence from bankruptcy and continued success. United is performing well, has met all of its financial goals and is scheduled to emerge from Chapter 11 later this year. Management’s plan is wrong and we are doing everything in our power to stop it.
In addition to invoking every legal means available to combat changes to retiree health care, we have initiated a massive campaign aimed to inspire the court of public opinion to pressure United to make good on its commitments to retirees. Many of you have already participated in coordinated actions to educate the public and over 1500 of you are already signed up for our Retiree E-News to get the latest information about this process and our actions to stop it. If you have not already done so, we encourage those of you with internet access to visit our website, www.unitedafa.org and view the latest information about this process and our efforts to stop it. Our campaign also includes advertising on billboards, city buses, and major newspapers around the country. We have received support from law makers as 109 Members of the House of Representatives and 19 Senators sent letters to Glenn Tilton requesting that he reconsider this action.
To get a summary of the latest news about our campaign, you may dial 1-800-DEAR-AFA to hear Tuesday and Friday evening recordings. We encourage you to dial up as Dear AFA legend and United Flight Attendant retiree Jerry Butz has come out of retirement to write and record the Tuesday Dear AFA tapes since United’s plans first became public in January of this year. Instead of your previous United file number, use the code 063932 to access the recording.
We will fight this through every means available, and stay closely in touch with you throughout the process. AFA remains committed to all of you who have helped to build the Flight Attendant profession and this airline.
In Solidarity,
Greg Davidowitch, President
United Master Executive Council