Posted on: Saturday, May 7, 2005

United says it will fire strikers

By Mark Skertic
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — United Airlines said yesterday it would fire any flight attendants who take part in a threatened strike, firing an early salvo as the carrier and its unions prepare for their battle in bankruptcy court next week.

A strike would "force the company to take steps to preserve the airline," United said in a letter sent to the attorney for the Association of Flight Attendants.

The airline appeals to flight attendants in the letter, noting that a strike "would destroy the benefits of all of our hard work, alienate customers and threaten the entire enterprise."

The letter is the first public acknowledgement by Elk Grove Township, Ill.-based United that a strike could severely damage its efforts to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A union spokeswoman called United's threats "laughable."

"It's ... just more of the same from United," said Sara Nelson Dela Cruz.

United is scheduled to go before a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Chicago next week to seek to invalidate the contracts of three of its largest unions. The airline has said it can no longer afford the contracts, and it wants to invoke new pay and benefit terms.

The carrier has said that the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline workers, would prevent union employees from striking if their contacts are terminated. The unions counter that if their contracts are thrown out, the law won't apply because they cannot be forced to work under terms to which they never agreed.

The flight attendants' union has been the most vocal, threatening to hold strikes that could interrupt service at isolated airports, along certain routes or throughout the system.