United flight attendants back 9 percent interim pay cuts
By Dave Carpenter AP Business Writer
CHICAGO (AP) – United Airlines’ flight attendants consented Wednesday to temporary 9 percent wage cuts aimed at helping United get out of bankruptcy, becoming the fourth of the carrier’s five unions to do so.
The announcement that flight attendants had ratified United’s emergency proposal leaves the Machinists’ union, whose leaders refused to put pay cuts to a vote by its 37,000 members, as the lone holdout.
United’s pilots and two small unions, representing dispatchers and meteorologists, announced Tuesday that their members had approved immediate double-digit pay reductions.
Flight attendants, like the pilots, voted overwhelmingly to accept the interim cuts. Ninety-four percent of those participating in week-long voting that ended Wednesday voted in favor of the wage-cut agreement, the union said, although turnout among United’s 24,000 flight attendants was just 62 percent.
“This cut is very painful, especially since flight attendant compensation is so minimal to begin with,” said Greg Davidowitch, president of the United branch of the Association of Flight Attendants. “Flight attendants have once again shown that we are committed to seeing our airline successfully emerge from bankruptcy.”
Flight attendants’ pay before the cuts ranged from $17,000 to $44,000 a year.
Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based United, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, says it must reduce wages by $2.4 billion a year through 2008. The carrier estimates it can save $70 million a month through the temporary wage cuts to meet its lenders’ financing requirements while negotiating longer-term reductions.
The pilots’ union announced Tuesday that pilots had approved a 29 percent pay cut; the 180 controllers and 40 meteorologists will see wages slashed by 13 percent.
The Machinists’ union, however, has objected to United’s proposal that its members take 13 percent pay cuts, saying the company has not provided sufficient evidence that double-digit reductions are needed.
United planned to file a response to the machinists in federal bankruptcy court on Wednesday. Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff then is expected to rule Thursday or Friday on whether to impose the pay reductions on the Machinists – 13,000 mechanics and 24,000 ramp, customer service and gate workers.
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