United Airlines’ flight attendants say they’ll have the right to strike if their pension plan is taken over today, as expected, by the federal government’s pension insurance agency.
But union leaders declined to say whether its 16,000 members will walk out.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. earlier this month announced its intent to take over the flight attendants’ plan.
The union represents 1,750 flight attendants in Denver. United has been in bankruptcy for more than two years.
The pension agency also figures to take over the United pension plan for management, administrative and public-contact workers, which covers members of the machinists union such as reservations agents and customer-service agents, as well as flight dispatchers, meteorologists and nonunion employees.
United will end its sponsorship of the plans today, according to the pension agency. That means many United retirees will see reduced benefits later this year.
The company previously terminated the ground employees’ plan representing some machinists union workers and mechanics but has not yet terminated the pilots’ pension plan.
Terminating the flight attendants’ pension plan “would be a unilateral change to our contract” and “would trigger our right to protest with CHAOS strikes,” said Sara Nelson Dela Cruz, a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants at United.
CHAOS, or Create Havoc Around Our System, is the flight attendants union’s brand of “intermittent strikes,” which could happen as early as Friday, Dela Cruz said.
United has said a strike would be illegal.
Dela Cruz said, “We have been working very hard to avoid CHAOS strikes and come to a resolution that protects our pension rights, and we will continue to do that. But at this point, we’ll have the legal right to protest the company’s mean-spirited attack on the flight attendants and other employees in breaking their pension promise.”
She added, “We don’t announce when or where a CHAOS strike could take place.”
The flight attendants union is appealing a bankruptcy court approval of an agreement between United and the pension agency for the termination of pension plans.
It is also asking members of Congress to support bills that would block federal funding to the pension agency for termination of pension plans and put a six-month moratorium on termination of pension plans.
The agency insures a certain level of benefits, but in some cases, that level is lower than what retirees would have gotten from United.
The maximum guarantee for people who retire at age 65 and whose plans are terminated this year is about $45,600.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@ denverpost.com.
United to halt plans
Pension plans that United Airlines plans to terminate today:
Flight attendants
Participants: 28,600
Assets: $1.4 billion
Promised benefits: $3.3 billion
Management, administrative and public-contact workers
Participants: 42,700
Assets: $1.5 billion
Promised benefits: $3.8 billion
