This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@juno.com. Flight Attendants at UAL Vote to Accept Concessions December 1, 2002 By MICHELINE MAYNARD with STEVEN GREENHOUSE CHICAGO, Nov. 30 - United Airlines' flight attendants gave sweeping approval today to $412 million in contract concessions. Their move came even as the leader of the airline's mechanics pleaded with members to reconsider their rejection and save the airline from near-certain bankruptcy. The 24,000 members of the Association of Flight Attendants at United voted 87 percent in favor of the wage and benefit cuts, which like others granted by employees at the airline will be spread out over the next five and a half years. Their concessions leave only the mechanics resisting the airline's call for help to stave off the threat of a Chapter 11 filing. Randy Canale, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at United, which represents the mechanics, made his appeal in a letter sent to union members today. In it, he suggested that a new vote by the mechanics might be held soon and said that their vote last Thursday against concessions, by 57 percent to 43 percent, was misguided. Officials from the union and the company planned to meet Sunday to discuss possible actions. United's 13,000 mechanics upset the airline's plans to secure a total of $5.2 billion in concessions from its unions when they voted to reject their share of the cuts, valued at $700 million. United's leadership says the full package of wage and benefit cuts are needed to avert bankruptcy and to persuade the federal government to provide $1.8 billion in loan guarantees. The flight attendants' vote was never really in doubt. The union's leadership fell in line behind United's pilots in proposing concessions last month. But the gesture was significant because, unlike the pilots and the machinists' union, the flight attendants do not have a seat on United's board, nor do they hold shares in the airline as do the other unions. "The flight attendants have made the difficult but necessary decision to contribute our part in the financial restructuring of United Airlines," Greg Davidowitch, president of the flight attendants' union at United, said in a statement issued after the vote. In remarks aimed at the mechanics, Mr. Davidowitch added, "This deal leaves just one more labor group to participate before the recovery plan can go forward." United's pilots have already approved $2.2 billion in cuts and several other employee groups have backed their share of cuts. United, the world's second-largest airline, is pushing to line up the concessions and loan guarantees as soon as possible in order to show the federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board that it has its employees on board in its restructuring effort. United faces a Monday deadline for a crucial debt payment of $375 million backed by aircraft. Executives involved in negotiations with the airline said United was unlikely to file for bankruptcy protection this weekend, and would probably take advantage of a 10-day grace period on the payment. Officials with the machinists union were stunned by the mechanics' vote because two other divisions in the machinists union at United, part of the UAL Corporation, had approved the concessions. About 63 percent of ramp and food-service workers voted to approve the concessions, as did 79 percent of ticket agents and customer-service representatives. "The current plight of UAL is certainly not of the employees' making, but it will certainly take a collective effort from every United employee to keep this airline out of bankruptcy," wrote Mr. Canale, who leads 37,000 members at United. "It is unfortunate that some members at United still question the need for participation in a recovery program. At this stage, the alternatives are so undeniably worse, I question the motives and judgment behind such a division." One machinists official said the mechanics' vote might have been influenced by a rival union, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which asserts that mechanics are underpaid and should not grant concessions. That union is seeking to persuade United's mechanics to leave the machinists' union, having already persuaded mechanics at Northwest Airlines to quit the machinists and join the rival group. John W. Budd, an industrial relations professor at the University of Minnesota, who follows airline unions, said the mechanics' vote against concessions was as much a slap at their union as at United. "If you look at United, if you look at Northwest, the machinists union doesn't have a very good track record of staying in touch with the membership and selling the needs of the contract to the membership, which is how you get a rejection," Professor Budd said. "If the membership is already confrontational and they're feeling disconnected from the leadership and you have this other union giving them a line against concessions and pumping them up, then right down it goes." Scotty Ford, who heads the mechanics division of the union at United, declined to comment, but several mechanics said they opposed the concessions because they felt a long-standing antagonism toward management and because they were not convinced the cuts would save United from bankruptcy. They also voiced dismay with a stipulation in the concessions agreement that would have allowed United to make further cuts. But Mr. Canale's arguments persuaded one customer-service representative at Newark Liberty International Airport, who insisted on anonymity, largely because the airline has urged its employees not to discuss the situation. "We all want to see United succeed," she said. "At the same time, we don't want pay cuts to be the only way to be profitable." She said that she had worked for United for 24 years and, like most of her co-workers, had gone without salary increases in order to buy shares in the company. "We've invested a lot in the company," she said. "Our future's wrapped up in it." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/01/business/01AIR.html?ex=1039754749&ei=1&en=a6f558323e22e45b HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company