Airline Unions Offer Concessions
The five unions representing employees of financially troubled United Airlines last night sent the company a counterproposal on concessions the company says are necessary to avoid a bankruptcy filing that could result in the nullification of union contracts covering tens of thousands of employees (see WIT for Aug 27, 2002). While dismissing former United CEO John Creighton?s demands for $1.5 billion in annual concessions for six years, the unions have offered new CEO Glenn Tilton a $1 billion reduction in annual labor costs for five years in order to help the company win $1.8 billion in federal loan guarantees. Although the exact details of how the concessions would be distributed amongst the five unions have yet to be settled, union officers have said that they will draw on the first-hand knowledge of their memberships to create labor savings by increasing productivity rather than relying solely on concessions on wages and benefits.
See "Airline Unions Offer Concessions", EDWARD WONG, The New York Times, September 25, 2002