Flight attendant speaks out

“It’s been over three years since UAL corporation filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and there has been no justice for workers in bankruptcy court. It is set up to ensure the greatest profits for the corporation, and it has always been our experience that this is at the expense of the workers. While airline execs get bonuses and guaranteed pensions, they terminate our pensions and cut our wages and work rules.

There has always been more than enough money for everyone but the workers who built and run the airline. They have forced concession after concession upon us and now expect us to accept a ‘replacement plan’ of unsecured UAL stocks for our retirement. They continue to threaten to abrogate our contracts if we don’t concede to concessions because fear is their only tactic. We have also endured daily harassment on the job from supervisors and unjust firings during this time, but we will not be intimidated.

The corporate execs are not even the legal owners after a Chapter 11 filing—the largest creditors, the workers, are the legal owners! We must always remember this and fight for what is ours—not only our wages, benefits and pensions, but the entire company belongs to us, the workers. Corporations are using bankruptcy to get at our union contracts. But this is a time to not only resist endless corporate demands of worker concessions, but time for us to stand up and assert our ownership rights! Airline workers own the airlines just as public transport workers in NYC own the subway system, and those who build and maintain automobiles own the auto industry. Transportation is a public need and the workers of these industries must stand together to resist further attacks on our wages, benefits, work rules and pensions.”

—Michelle Quintus, United Airlines flight Attendant and a Council 5 Representative of the AFA-CWA.