Source: Crain's Chicago Business
Author: Kate Ryan

May 05, 2005

United Airlines flight attendants barged into a class at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management on Wednesday, bearing a petition to hand to the school’s Dean Dipak Jain, a member of United’s board of directors.

Ten flight attendants wearing neon green T-shirts ran down the aisles as the class was beginning, but were surprised to find a guest speaker at the front of the room instead of the usual instructor, Mr. Jain. The flight attendants presented the speaker with a petition signed by 12,000 current and former United flight attendants and employees, protesting the company’s management of executive pay and worker pension plans.

“United employees are outraged and aren’t going to take it anymore,” says Sara Nelson Dela Cruz, strike coordinator for the flight attendants association.

The interruption was part of a campaign code-named CHAOS, for Create Havoc Around Our System, that involves limited job actions, such as one-day strikes or single-city strikes, intended to slow down United’s operations without bringing the carrier to complete standstill.

The Assn. of Flight Attendants last Friday threatened a trademarked strike tactic at United if pension obligations are turned over to the federal government. A week earlier, the airline announced a tentative settlement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to shift $6.6 billion in pension obligations to the government.

The deal, subject to bankruptcy-court approval at a hearing May 10, would likely result in substantially reduced pension payouts to workers.

Ms. Dela Cruz said the group of flight attendants encountered Dean Jain in the hallway after interrupting his class, but he did not speak to them.

A spokesman for Northwestern said he was unaware of the incident.