Since declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002 the airline has imposed huge cuts in pay, benefits, and conditions of work. Mechanics and baggage handlers have taken pay cuts of 9.8 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively. These temporary changes in the contract will expire May 31.

A bankruptcy court hearing is set for May 11 in Chicago, where United will try to get court agreement to tear up union contracts and impose deeper more permanent cuts in pay and other concessions.

The company is also seeking court approval for its agreement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), a government agency that ensures some employee benefits, for the PBGC to take over its pension plans. In July 2004 United ceased paying money into the pension plans as required by union contract.

Pilots, flight attendants, and other workers at United have already given up over $2.5 billion in concessions. Like many of the picketers, Mike Guerrieri, a mechanic with 17 years at the company, feels the current attacks are the final straw. “We have to stand up against this,” he said.

Mechanics who are members of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) joined members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) on the picket line.

Baggage handlers and others represented by the IAM will be voting on the latest company offer and taking a strike vote beginning May 3, with results expected May 10, one day before the bankruptcy court hearing starts.

In January members of AMFA voted by a margin of 57 percent to reject a tentative agreement negotiated with the company. They passed a measure to authorize a strike by 85 percent.

Ben Adams, a United employee and IAM member for 34 years, was one of a number of retirees on the line. “The money which they should be putting into pensions, is our money,” he said. “They have no business taking what is ours.”

“I hope more workers stand up together,” Arturo Candejas, who has put in 30 years at the maintenance base, told the Militant. “All the airline employees need to get together because if we don’t, they’ll just continue to nail us, one at a time.”  
 
 
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