WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More than five years after the merger of United/Continental/Continental Micronesia, United management still fails to complete negotiations for a joint Flight Attendant contract. As holiday travel ramps up a week before Christmas, United Flight Attendants are marching at nearly 20 airports around the world to call attention to severe delays by management in contract negotiations.
The 24,000 United Airlines flight attendants are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA). The protests include Flight Attendants from all U.S. airlines, the Air Line Pilots Association, other unions and passengers.
Just last week, United executives made a Global Performance Commitment intended to improve flight completion and on-time reliability rates. The irony of this announcement, in the same month where labor relations refused to meet to conclude contract negotiations that will allow the airline to merge United's operation, is not lost on Flight Attendants and passengers.
"Management's performance commitment rings hollow as they refuse to do the substantive work that will make the real change necessary for United's operational performance," stated AFA presidents Ken Diaz (pre-merger United), Randy Hatfield (pre-merger Continental) and Kathleen Domondon (pre-merger Continental Micronesia). "Refusing to meet to finish negotiations with Flight Attendants is the opposite of making good on any reliability commitment to passengers. Flight Attendants have sacrificed and worked hard to make United a success. We call on this management to do their part and get serious at the negotiating table. Flight Attendants deserve to share in the profits we help create. We've earned it."
United Airlines continues to make record profits. The share price has increased 204 percent since Flight Attendant joint contract negotiations began. When the airline struggled, Flight Attendants were forced to make extraordinary personal sacrifice with the promise that "shared sacrifice would equal shared reward."
"It is past time for United management to complete this merger and return United to its premier status in the world. United has publicly committed to improve its operations in the New Year. If management is truly committed, they will work with us to reach a fair joint contract and end the current fractured operation," concluded Diaz, Hatfield and Domondon.
A joint contract at United will directly affect 24,000 flight attendants at United Airlines and 25,000 flight attendants at American Airlines. AFA negotiated a provision in the American contract that pay for American Flight Attendants must be increased to match the new pay rates once a United Flight Attendant tentative agreement is reached and ratified. Never before in the industry has one negotiations had a direct impact on over 50,000 airline employees.
December 17, 2015 Protest Details:
The Association of Flight Attendants is the world's largest Flight Attendant union. Focused 100 percent on Flight Attendant issues, AFA has been the leader in advancing the Flight Attendant profession for 70 years. Serving as the voice for Flight Attendants in the workplace, in the aviation industry, in the media and on Capitol Hill, AFA has transformed the Flight Attendant profession by raising wages, benefits and working conditions. Nearly 50,000 Flight Attendants come together to form AFA, part of the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America (CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.afacwa.org.
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SOURCE Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA)
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