Reaction to this week’s bankruptcy Court ruling has been pouring in from Flight Attendants around the system. “We’re devastated.” “We’re heart broken.” “We’ve been betrayed.” And “We are furious.” Glenn Tilton and Jake Brace entered into a back room deal with the PBGC to terminate our pension plan. All it took was $1.5 billion dollars from United to get the PBGC to reverse itself and agree to an involuntary termination of our pension plan. This week they received the court’s blessing and subverted our right to defend our pension plan through the bankruptcy process and under the requirements of federal pension law.

What should not be lost or overlooked in the court’s ruling on our pension is the fact that we won the withdrawal of the Company’s Section 1113 motion that was filed in connection with the termination of our pension plan. This action by the court prevents the Company from making good on its earlier threat to impose additional cuts to our contract if the 1113 motion was granted on the pension issue. The primary effect of the court’s ruling was to approve the settlement agreement for the PBGC to get paid to act on the termination of our pension plan.

AFA’s legal team is reviewing the Court’s ruling approving the PBGC settlement agreement for an appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned previous decisions rendered by Judge Wedoff.

Your United Master Executive Council leadership met in special session on Tuesday and Wednesday. The MEC unanimously passed a resolution renewing our resolve to replace management and our support for our fellow front-line United workers. While in session the Master Executive Council, along with a large contingent of AFA members attended the court hearing on Tuesday and put a human face on the devastation that would be caused by the termination of our pension plan.

Following the court’s ruling on Tuesday, dozens of Flight Attendants confronted Chief Financial Officer Jake Brace as he was telling the media his view of the court’s ruling. As he departed the courthouse, Flight Attendants with picket signs and CHAOS™ t-shirts marched behind Mr. Brace chanting ‘This management’s got to go!’

With this "latest stroke of genius" - destroying the pension plans of thousands of employees - this management continues to prove they are incapable of running the airline. A service business simply cannot be run successfully if you are at war with your front line employees. This labor relations meltdown is another example of the incompetence of Glenn Tilton and his executive team.

In light of the leadership vacuum at United, our immediate goals have become ever more clear:

• Replace current management with new leadership.
• Protect our retirement security.
• Successfully emerge from bankruptcy.

We call on the UAL Board of Directors to act quickly to replace Glenn Tilton and his executives before they destroy our airline.

We are not on strike at this time. CHAOS informational activities, designed to convey our message and our anger to the UAL Board of Directors as well as to our passengers, are escalating. As an example, at a recent CHAOS event at Northwestern University AFA members delivered 12,000 signatures demanding that current senior management “Return the Money” to the bankrupt airline. This event was conducted in the classroom of Dipak Jain, a member of the UAL Board of Directors.

We can turn up the heat to force the Board of Directors to act, and we can turn down the heat to avoid the risk of “another Eastern.” We won’t allow United to become another Eastern, and we don’t have to because with CHAOS, we have a weapon of surgical precision. While United management has a lot in common with Frank Lorenzo and the people who ran Eastern into the ground, CHAOS is a much more flexible tool than the all-out strike that crippled Eastern. Our focus must be on strategic actions that will achieve our goals. With that focus, and the commitment of 15,000 Flight Attendants to this cause, we will prevail.

We have pledged support and solidarity with our Union brothers and sisters at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) as they defend their Contracts. The IAM is currently arguing against the abrogation of their Contracts in the Section 1113 court hearings scheduled to run through Thursday of next week. Judge Wedoff would render a decision within 30 days.

The IAM announced the results of their strike vote yesterday with a 94% vote in favor of authorizing a strike in the event the Company rejects their Contracts after a bankruptcy court ruling. If we were to declare a sympathy strike, this would only be done under the provisions of the AFA Policy Manual.

Front-line employees have a common interest in defending our Contracts and our airline from a management that refuses to recognize the value of dedicated, hard-working career employees. We will stand in solidarity to ensure the success of our airline and the protection of our careers.

In Solidarity,

Greg Davidowitch, President
United Master Executive Council