February 16, 2004

Mr. Glen Tilton
C.E.O. United Airlines
World Headquarters
P.O. Box 66100
Chicago, IL 60666

Re: Proposed Cuts to UAL Retiree Medical Benefits

Dear Mr. Tilton,

I am a United Airlines flight attendant based in Los Angeles. I urge you to quickly reconsider your proposed cuts to the medical benefits for UAL retirees.

The United Airlines retirement situation is a heartbreaking one. Many retirees have good reason to be frustrated and angry with your decision to cut their benefits. They've described this feeling as a long, hard slap in the face.

But it’s much more than that.

Should you continue this course of action, you will also destroy the faith and respect of your active employees. Consider this: Taking good care of retirees is imperative because many people still believe that employers have an obligation to provide financial and medical support for retired workers that have spent an entire lifetime in their service.

Mr. Tilton, is there honestly not a single other course of action you would consider other then to cut the medical benefits of the retired UAL family members?

If you possess convincing evidence that there was absolutely no other option than to revoke the promised retiree medical benefits, then please provide this data as soon as possible. As employee #162611, myself a future retiree, I am very open and receptive to hear your rationale---particularly since Congress has provided the airline industry with financial assistance through retiree health benefit subsidies, pension contribution relief, and federally subsidized loans.

If not, then please tell me why a single UAL employee should bother to care about a company that basically ignores a lifetime of employee service and hard work? I would think they’d rather see United Airlines be flushed down the Chapter 7 toilet.

Reviewing the data, facts, and figures from your BOD and other advisors will give you one perspective. Speaking with those that deal with the issue of retirement on a more personal basis will give you quite another. Contact them if you need to understand why this is such a terrible decision for United's successful reorganization.

Mr. Tilton, please reconsider this course of action. Reverse this decision and you’ll look like a hero. You have an emerging company with a new direction about to take off. Don’t blow it. And don’t ignore the hard-working people that made United Airlines what it is today.

Sincerely,

Christopher Lee
UAL Employee, LAXSW