CHICAGO, April 26 (Reuters) - Flight attendants at UAL Corp.'s (UAL) United Airlines said on Friday they will not participate in talks about possible wage concessions that management wants to help turn the carrier around. United management says labor costs are too high, and it wants employees to make sacrifices to help steer the airline back to financial stability. United is just beginning to outline what kind of concessions it wants from all labor groups now that all outstanding contract talks are complete. In addition to the flight attendants' union, the pilots' union at the No. 2 U.S. airline has also said repeatedly it is not interested in concessions per se, even though it acknowledges the airline is in financial trouble. The Association of Flight Attendants, representing 26,000 workers, said labor costs are not to blame for the airline's current trouble. "We take exception to the company's characterization that our costs are the reason for United's financial woes," said AFA United Master Executive Council President Linda Farrow. UAL Chief Executive Jack Creighton, who took the helm at United last October, met with various labor leaders at United's Elk Grove Village, Illinois, headquarters Thursday to ask for "shared sacrifices." The machinists' union did not attend. Creighton was a board member of UAL but had no previous experience running an airline. He was named CEO last year, after his predecessor, James Goodwin, was ousted following a public-relations debacle. Goodwin sent a letter to employees saying the airline could perish unless losses stopped; unions demanded he resign. The machinists, in separate talks that ended on Thursday, struck a deal with management for an industry-leading contract that gives some 23,000 ramp and reservation workers a pay raise after months of federally mediated negotiations. Last month, the same union representing 13,000 mechanics also won an industry-leading pay increase after threatening to strike. UAL last week reported a $510 million loss for the first quarter, on top of a record $2.1 billion loss in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Even before the hijackings of four commercial airliners, United and other big U.S. airlines were suffering from a downturn in lucrative business travel, which has yet to rebound. The flight attendants' union, the only one of United's three largest unions that is not part of an employee stock ownership plan implemented in 1994, said its current contract provides for a yearly review of flight-attendant costs. UAL shares were up 29 cents at $14.71 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning. The shares have lost about half their value since Sept. 11. ©2002 Reuters Limited.