FAs Ratify Additional Contract Cuts

US Airways flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO, have ratified a package of more contract concessions in the face of management threats to shut down and liquidate the airline. Because of the threat of liquidation and possible loss of all US Airways employees' jobs, a majority of the AFA US Airways Master Executive Council voted to recommend that flight attendants vote "FOR" the contract changes. Sixty-four percent of eligible flight attendants voted, with 55 percent voting "FOR" the new cuts.

"We've given wage, benefit and work rule cuts. We're paying significantly more for our health care, bringing home less in our paychecks and now with these latest cuts we must spend more time away from home just to earn the reduced pay we agreed to after the initial round of cuts in August 2002," said AFA US Airways MEC President Perry Hayes. "We've done more than our fair share to keep this airline running. "Dr. Bronner and his management team said these cuts are what they need to succeed," Hayes said. "It's time for management to deliver."

More than 50,000 flight attendants at 26 airlines, including 7,000 at US Airways, join together to form AFA, the world's largest flight attendant union.

FMI: www.afausairways.org, www.afanet.org