Its application for federal loan guarantees rejected in part for not including significant enough cuts in labor costs, United Airlines? CEO Jack Creighton yesterday announced that it will reapply on September 16---and delivered an ultimatum to employees unions to agree to concessions by that date or face the possibility of company bankruptcy. Creighton?s message to members of the Communications Workers of America, International Association of Machinists and flight attendants? union came on the same day that US Airways asked a bankruptcy court to void contracts with its CWA and IAM represented workers who have not approved similar requests for concessions. While US Airways? actions lend weight to his statements, in United?s workers Creighton does not face pushovers (see WIT for June 14, 2002)---Creighton became CEO after UAL workers forced out his predecessor James Goodwin for leaking bankruptcy threats last year to obtain concessions in the wake of September 11 (see WIT?s for Oct. 25, and Oct. 29, 2002).
See JOHN SCHMELTZER, Chicago Tribune, August 26, 2002