United Flight Attendants To Picket 20 Airports
Source: Dow Jones
Author: Elizabeth Souder
NEW YORK -- United Airlines flight attendants are picketing on Thursday at 20 airports around the world to protest the termination of their pensions. In a press release Thursday, the union representing UAL Corp.'s (UALAQ) 20,000 flight attendants again pointed out that they may legally strike at any time because, they say, the airline violated their contract by terminating their pensions amid bankruptcy.
"Current United management has held its employees and creditors hostage in Chapter 11 for nearly 1,000 days," Greg Davidowitch, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said in a statement. "We're hitting the streets around the globe to demonstrate our resolve. We want our pensions back, and we want this management team out."
Flight attendants will picket in the following locations: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Tokyo's Narita, Newark, New York's LaGuardia, Paris, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington's Dulles and Washington's National. The union didn't say which additional airports it might picket.
United spokesman Jeff Green said he doesn't anticipate any disruption to service. In the case of a strike, he said, "We have plans both operationally and legally to ensure there's no disruption in service."
Flight attendants are demonstrating their disapproval of the airline's termination of their defined-benefit pension plan in June. United terminated all defined-benefit plans for all work groups, and has negotiated new retirement plans with every group except for flight attendants.
Green said United managers are ready to negotiate with flight attendants, who currently aren't accruing any retirement benefits. Further, Green said, United officials believe a strike would be illegal, as the airline hasn't violated the flight attendants' new contract. Flight attendants disagree, saying they never agreed to the pension termination.
