Ladies and Gentlemen:

Yesterday, United Airlines filed a motion in bankruptcy court for a new Key Employee Retention Program (KERP) that would provide bonuses for middle management. As our Country celebrates our nation’s birthday, United management is celebrating by asking the bankruptcy court to grant gifts to ‘key employees.’ These gifts are being paid for with money provided by frontline employee concessions. It’s as if United decided that an appropriate way to celebrate the Fourth of July -- a day known for celebration of equality for all -- would be to take after former American CEO Don Carty’s idea that a few should prosper at the expense of many.

The need for this “KERP” is fabricated, and we are going to file an objection to this new money grab. People who are committed to United’s future success are not leaving the Company in any greater numbers than among any other employee groups. On the contrary, United’s been praised by the media and Wall Street for its ability to lure key talent from competitors and other corporations.

Flight Attendants should be outraged at the prospect of a select group of employees receiving bonuses in light of what we have been through over the past two years. When we cut our pay and work rules along with the other employees it was with the promise of a better future for all United employees. A critical component of the concessionary negotiations is a Success Sharing Program that was designed to be fair and equitable for everyone to share in the rewards of a new United Airlines. This new KERP flies in the face of that principle and can only be viewed as divisive and an abrogation of the commitment for shared sacrifice.

Senior management should remember how contentious the last KERP was. This new KERP only adds insult to that injury and will serve to further alienate Flight Attendants from the management team charged with restructuring our airline.

No one more than the dedicated, front line employees of United are key to its successful reorganization. If United believes it necessary to reward employees for their service to the Company while in bankruptcy, it should implement the Success Sharing Program a year earlier than planned for all employees and not just a privileged few.

We have worked with United management during the bankruptcy process to ensure our airline’s success, and we will continue to do so. But, we will also challenge decisions when they demonstrate the kind of poor judgment shown in the filing of this KERP motion. This type of decision takes us two steps backwards as we struggle to gain forward momentum for a successful emergence from bankruptcy.

We take serious issue with the discriminatory treatment of United’s front line workers versus those management calls “key employees.” There have been times that United has operated without a CEO, Vice Presidents and other senior executives, department managers, supervisors and the like, many times without a glitch. But try pleasing a passenger without reservation, ticket and gate agents or Flight Attendants. Try getting a plane off the ground without pilots, mechanics or the Flight Attendants that are required by law to be in the cabin for passenger safety.

United management should be ashamed of themselves for proposing this new KERP scheme. All employees were called upon to sacrifice for the future of United Airlines. To reward one group of employees at the expense of another is unacceptable. Especially after the workers have accepted over $2.5 billion in annual cuts because United said they were going to be fair in getting cuts from all employees and that it needed the concessions and money to survive. Based upon the claims made in court, Flight Attendants, who are among the employees that make the least, voted to accept cuts and invest in our airline; we didn’t vote to finance a new slush fund. Plain and simple – this new KERP is a distraction we don’t need and United management should immediately reconsider their actions.

Once we file our objection with the bankruptcy court it will be made available on our website, www.unitedafa.org .

In Solidarity,

Greg Davidowitch, President
United Master Executive Council