Judge Eugene Wedoff today approved United's Plan of Reorganization (POR), with February 1 as the date for our airline to emerge from bankruptcy. The very last changes to the POR approved by the court were amendments to incorporate AFA's Tentative Agreement, subject to membership ratification. With approval of the POR the major remaining issues pending before the bankruptcy court have been resolved. For us, closure won’t come until every Member has registered his or her vote on the Pension Tentative Agreement.

We have been required to give enormous sacrifices while we have provided extraordinary service for the success of our airline. Through it all, we have challenged greed and inequity at every turn. Although the gross disparity of treatment between worker and executive has not been stamped out, we have dramatically impacted the extent to which management has sought to profit at our expense. Still, the way the laws and the lawmakers operate today, the disparity of treatment we have experienced is treated as though it’s normal. Yesterday, retired Flight Attendant volunteer Jerry Butz recorded another Dear AFA Industry Editorial that talks about what we need to do to change this environment. Dial option 5 at the end of this recording to hear this message and begin to think about the opportunities before us for change.

There will be some immediate change with the introduction of the new United post-bankruptcy. As part of the global settlement between management and the Unsecured Creditors Committee, of which AFA holds one of the 13 voting seats, the Creditors were able to replace 5 Members of the United Board of Directors. In addition, the two seats currently held by ALPA and the IAM will remain in place. The new Members of the Board, which AFA took part in choosing, include Richard J. Almeida, retired chairman and CEO of Heller Financial Inc.; Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute; Janet Langford Kelly, a partner at Zelle, Hofmann, Voelbel, Mason & Gette LLP; Robert D. Krebs, retired chairman of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.; and David Vitale, chief administrative officer for the Chicago Public Schools. With one seat for himself, Glenn Tilton chose the other five remaining BOD members, including James Farrell, chairman, Illinois Tools Works Inc.; Robert S. Miller Jr., chairman and CEO, Delphi Corp.; James J. O'Connor, retired chairman and CEO, Unicom Corp.; John H. Walker, president and CEO of the Boler Co.

All creditors of the bankruptcy will receive stock in the value of their claim against United, of which the Plan of Reorganization expects to be paid at 4 to 8 cents on the dollar. You may remember that our claim is valued at nearly 1 Billion dollars for the concessions during two rounds of Section 1113 proceedings. The formula of that valuation is detailed in Appendix D of the Agreement ratified last January. Last year, the United Master Executive Council established a formula to distribute stock to Flight Attendants in a fair and equitable manner, representing the level of participation in concessions experienced by each of us during United’s bankruptcy. Under the distribution formula, one-third of the stock will be distributed per capita and two-thirds will be distributed based on your earnings. Work is already underway to determine the actual individual Flight Attendant distribution of the stock. Detailed information about this process will be communicated shortly.