CHAOS™ Strikes: 12,000 Petitions Delivered to UAL BOD Member
Flight Attendants Storm Hall at Kellogg Business School as Dean Jain's MBA Class Starts
AFA’s CHAOS campaign hit campus today when a contingent of Flight Attendants in neon green CHAOS T-shirts “stormed a class room” to deliver 12,000 petition signatures to United Board member Dipak Jain, just before a scheduled lecture at Northwestern University.
AFA’s petitions, signed by thousands of current and retired Flight Attendants over the past three weeks, called on UAL executives to “give back the money made on the backs of employees.” The petition drive was launched after it was revealed that the airline’s top managers received huge bonuses on top of their lucrative salaries, all at a time when they have asked the average employee to make life-changing sacrifices in pay, benefits and pensions.
Professor Jain is the Dean of Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business. His lecture was to be in a large lecture hall with theater seating. At the last minute, we learned that a guest lecturer was scheduled to address Professor Jain’s class. Dr. Jain was no where to be seen when we entered the lecture hall.
Flight Attendants, clad in CHAOS T-shirts entered the hall through the back doors (which were at the top of the lecture hall) when the class was scheduled to start. We proceeded down the aisles and stationed one person at the top and bottom of each aisle to effectively establish our presence or 'control' over the lecture hall. Our spokesperson and MEC CHAOS Strike Co-Coordinator, Sara Nelson Dela Cruz, headed for the stage with MEC CHAOS Strike Co-Coordinator Jeff Heisey and MEC Membership Engagement Chairperson-elect Rodney Wojcik as escorts, one on each side. As they approached the stage she started announcing in a robust stage voice, 'may I have your attention' just as the guest lecturer was starting to pass out his materials.
A TV cameraman from the local ABC affiliate shot footage from the aisle as the whole place went dead silent with the announcement, "may I have your attention.” The guest lecturer backed away from center stage with jaw suspended in a look of shock and confusion.
We proceeded with our prepared statement about the greed of United executives lining their own pockets with bonuses as Flight Attendants and other employees suffer life-changing cuts and management’s attempts to destroy our pensions. Sara brandished our petitions in one hand as she spoke to the audience of stunned MBA students. When she finished talking about the greed of United executives and their enormous bonuses, she slammed the petitions down on the professor’s desk. Then we said 'since the Dean isn't here we are going to entrust our petitions with his students, and ask that you make sure he receives them with our message to the rest of United’s Board of Directors. Employees have had enough! Return the money to bankrupt United Airlines!'
A murmur spread through the hall as we left the stage.
CHAOS T-shirts then marched deliberately to the lecture hall exits. Once in the hallway, someone noticed Dean Jain arriving after all, so we confronted him in front of the reporters and late arriving students. Face to face, we told him what had just taken place and why, and asked him to recognize the hard work of front-line employees and take action against executive bonuses at United. He clenched his teeth the whole time and was at a loss for words when he tried to speak. We left without further incident, gone before campus police could even arrive.
Within ten minutes, National Public Radio was reporting that United Airlines Flight Attendants “stormed the Kellogg Business School Campus,” confronted one of United’s Board of Directors and demanded: Return the Money.
UAL Flight Attendants Step Up CHAOS™
From: Crain's Chicago Business
Author: Kate Ryan
United Airlines flight attendants barged into a class at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management on Wednesday, bearing a petition to hand to the school’s Dean Dipak Jain, a member of United’s board of directors.
Ten flight attendants wearing neon green T-shirts ran down the aisles as the class was beginning, but were surprised to find a guest speaker at the front of the room instead of the usual instructor, Mr. Jain. The flight attendants presented the speaker with a petition signed by 12,000 current and former United flight attendants and employees, protesting the company’s management of executive pay and worker pension plans.
“United employees are outraged and aren’t going to take it anymore,” says Sara Nelson Dela Cruz, strike coordinator for the flight attendants association. The interruption was part of a campaign code-named CHAOS, for Create Havoc Around Our System, that involves limited job actions, such as one-day strikes or single-city strikes, intended to slow down United’s operations without bringing the carrier to complete standstill.
The Assn. of Flight Attendants last Friday threatened a trademarked strike tactic at United if pension obligations are turned over to the federal government. A week earlier, the airline announced a tentative settlement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to shift $6.6 billion in pension obligations to the government. The deal, subject to bankruptcy-court approval at a hearing May 10, would likely result in substantially reduced pension payouts to workers.
Ms. Dela Cruz said the group of flight attendants encountered Dean Jain in the hallway after interrupting his class, but he did not speak to them. A spokesman for Northwestern said he was unaware of the incident.
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