Flight Attendants Union Wants Strike Vote

PITTSBURGH – The president of the United States’ largest flight attendants union urged authorization of a nationwide strike and criticized the airline industry for using the bankruptcy process to obliterate collective bargaining rights.

Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 46,000 members, said Tuesday that efforts at airlines like UAL Corp.’s United and US Airways Group Inc. to use the bankruptcy process to cancel union contracts and impose deep pay cuts are threatening flight attendants’ careers across the nation.

She also noted that the bankruptcy process is being used to terminate pension plans and eliminate health coverage for retirees.

“Our entire industry is in turmoil and the careers of our flight attendants all hang in the balance,” Friend said at the opening of a union board of directors conference in Pittsburgh. “Almost everywhere we look, flight attendants are being forced to work longer hours with reduced rest time, and all for ever-decreasing wages. This must stop.”

The board of directors is expected to act on a resolution authorizing a strike later Tuesday.

Friend said that seven carriers with AFA representation are in bankruptcy, with others on the brink.