Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have just received the certified results of the Tentative Agreement ballot. Over fifty-six percent of eligible Flight Attendants who cast their ballots voted for the Tentative Agreement, which will now modify our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Over seventy percent of eligible Flight Attendants participated in the vote.

This provides United $131 million in annual sacrifices for over the next five years as part of the cost reductions required of all Unions and management to attract bankruptcy exit financing. While we have preserved an enforceable Contract with all of our work rules and healthcare benefits intact, the reduced hourly rates of pay to 1991 levels will have a harsh affect on all of us. The results of this vote indicate clearly that Flight Attendants have hit the threshold of pain and sacrifice. Our dedication to our jobs and our airline shall not waiver, but we demand current management deliver on its responsibility to exit bankruptcy in short order. There is no opportunity to return to Flight Attendants to cover for additional management failures.

Ratification of this Tentative Agreement recognizes that under the cruel realities of bankruptcy, the lesser of two evils is to ensure that we shape the concessions forced upon us rather than allow mistrusted management to seek rejection of our Contract and impose concessions in the way that they see fit. However, in no way is this ratification for additional sacrifices an endorsement of United Airlines management. We will continue to challenge and expose shortsighted decisions and executive greed at every opportunity.

Today marks an important milestone in our collective efforts to preserve our career, but our fight is far from over. We must continue to exercise our solidarity as we focus our efforts on defending our Defined Benefit Pension Plan. We demand that current management develop an exit strategy from bankruptcy that does not destroy the hard-earned pensions promised to us for retirement security – that would be one sacrifice too many. Indeed, this narrow vote is saying to management that Flight Attendants have sacrificed enough and we will not allow this management to extract any more. At the same time, management must seriously address the quality of work life issues important to us, with all the dedication and commitment that Flight Attendants have put into saving our airline. It's vital that they work closely with us, understanding our problems, if United Airlines is to emerge from bankruptcy with the kind of future we know it can have.

This vote is a reflection of our Union ’s most fundamental democratic process at work. The vote determines the future of our Contract, but it also sends a clear message to United management about the conditions under which Flight Attendants are willing, or unwilling to work. As painstaking and frustrating as this bankruptcy process is, you have determined today that these concessions will be implemented with our input and influence. You have decided our future and preserved our Contract so that we may continue to fight to preserve our pensions. Your dedication, commitment, and support of our efforts continue to be essential for our collective success.

In Solidarity,