Even though the merger of United and Continental Airlines took place in 2010, the separate Association of Flight Attendants contracts still exist. The United union represents over half of the airline?s flight attendants, almost all of whom see vast differences between the United and Continental contracts in salary and work rules. United has had difficulty changing the union contracts and so had not hired a single flight attendant since the merger, but has hired over 1,900 on the Continental side of the house. Currently, voluntary and involuntary furloughs are being used to help control costs and prevent layoffs, but the company has a long way to go to cut the $2 billion in costs it has promised its shareholders.
See "With Flight-Attendant Battle, United-Continental Merger Looks Far From Finished", Justin Bachman, Business Week, January 23, 2014