AMFA Says United CEO Undermines Negotiations by Stating Intent to Go to Trial.

CHICAGO -- In response to United Airlines CEO Glenn Tilton's message to employees yesterday that he will go to trial if the company fails to get all it wants in negotiations with mechanics, O.V. Delle-Femine, national director of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), issued the following statement:

"It was unnecessary for Mr. Tilton to threaten us before we enter extended negotiations. His rhetoric only exacerbates and inflames the tensions and distrust our members already have towards UAL management.

"By declaring that UAL will go to court if it doesn't get its way in the extended negotiating process set in motion by bankruptcy Judge Wedoff, Mr.Tilton is also undermining this process from the start. He is signaling that UAL does not intend to engage seriously in the give-and-take of negotiations, because he has a different end-game strategy in mind: the court system.

"Our UAL members and their families are being forced to get by on substantially reduced pay and benefits for the next four months, because UAL convinced Judge Wedoff that another four months of negotiations would produce a consensual agreement. Now that UAL got the extra four months, along with the temporary pay-and-benefits cut, the company is backtracking on its belief in the negotiating process.

"We urge UAL to take the negotiating process as seriously as we do, and to stop pointing to alternative strategies."

On January 31, UAL Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff granted the company emergency relief under section 1113e that includes a temporary 9.8 percent pay cut and reduced sick leave benefits for AMFA members. The ruling is limited to a four-month period, February 1 through May 31, 2005, and gave AMFA and United this additional time to try to reach a consensual contract agreement.