United Airlines furloughed 111 flight attendants

June 24--United Airlines furloughed 111 flight attendants this spring after the workers refused company offers to work for the carriers' legacy Continental Airlines subsidiary, acceptance of which meant attendants relinquished seniority and face possible relocations and cuts in pay, their union said.

According to Christopher Clarke, a Chicago-based spokesman for the Association of Flight Attendants, the 111, who were laid off for an indefinite period of time, had six to eight years of seniority and were offered jobs with the former Continental Airlines flight attendant group – which has operated separately since the two carriers' 2010 merger. More than 300 took the offer, he said. Those who didn't received a small severance check.

"The majority of them are receiving less hourly pay. Some are paying more for health insurance," Clarke said.

The layoffs were systemwide and included a number of United flight attendants who were based in the New York City area, at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Some of the more than 300 who accepted the job offers have been relocated to the legacy Continental flight attendant base at Newark Liberty International Airport, said Clarke, who did not have specific relocation numbers.

Scores of other flight attendants who faced involuntary furloughs participated in voluntary leave or job-sharing programs.

The company has said the United flight attendant group was overstaffed despite more than 1,000 buyouts and voluntary leaves of absence in recent years and a six-year freeze on new hires.

The union filed a grievance to challenge the legality of the latest furloughs and has argued that the United flight attendants group is not overstaffed, and that flight attendant crews on the United side of the operation are now stretched too thin. The union argues that involuntary furloughs were prohibited under a 2012 agreement.

Negotiations on a joint contract that would integrate the three flight attendant groups – United, Continental and Continental Micronesia – have been under way for about a year and a half, and the negotiating groups recently agreed to call on the National Labor Relations Board to help facilitate the talks.

For many of the 111 who were furloughed, the shift also would have resulted in relocating to other cities, or enduring cross-country commutes.

"They couldn't guarantee that we'd be at our current bases," said one six-year United flight attendant from Chicago who didn't want to her name published out of fear of employer retribution. "I'd have to transfer to San Francisco or Newark or Denver or some other hub. I couldn't take the chance of moving my family and going to the bottom of the seniority list."

She said she is collecting unemployment but that her family's health insurance runs out at the end of June.

Seniority is important to flight attendants because it affects pay as well as who gets the most sought-after work schedules and destinations.

When United starts hiring flight attendants again, those on furlough will be the first to return, by seniority.

A United spokeswoman had incorrectly said last week that the company avoided furloughing any of the more than 680 flight attendants whose jobs were on the block this spring by offering them positions at legacy Continental.

Spokeswoman Megan McCarthy corrected the error on Monday.

"I made a mistake. I am sorry," she said. "We offered jobs to all of those flight attendants, but 111 chose not to take those positions."

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