Attendants lose
bid to keep
jobs in Hawaii

More than 300 United positions
will be relocated to the mainland
after the union rejects
a contract change

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

More than 300 Hawaii-based flight attendants at United Airlines will have their jobs relocated to the mainland after their union voted down a contract change that would have kept them here, a union representative said.

"Unfortunately we fell 140 votes short," said Maureen Reinecke, a spokeswoman for the United unit of the Association of Flight Attendants. Just under 11,000 of the union's 23,000 members at United voted, she said. The votes were counted Tuesday and the result was announced yesterday afternoon.

The flight attendants will have to report to new departure points on the mainland on Oct. 31, Reinecke said.

United told its 750 Hawaii-based flight attendants in early August that nearly half of them would not be needed at the Hawaii base after Oct. 1 because of a reduction in the airline's Japan-Hawaii service.

In subsequent discussions with the union, several proposals were explored. One of United's suggestions was that the Hawaii flight attendants could work a Honolulu-Tokyo-Seattle-Tokyo-Honolulu route of six days at a time.

On Aug. 18, the two sides announced they had reached a deal to have the Hawaii flights attendants accept a cut in the cost-of-living allowance and work round trips in the Hawaii-West Coast service. That would mean more hours in the air but no overnight stay on the West Coast.

United, the major holding of UAL Corp., said the cut in accommodation costs and other expenses would save it enough money to be able to keep every Hawaii employee on the job.

Because it meant a change in the union contract, however, the union put it to a vote of its entire United membership.

Reinecke said the Hawaii flight attendants campaigned vigorously for the change, which would allow them all to stay in the islands and work the Hawaii-West Coast service.

"There was real strong grass- roots activity," she said. T-shirts, buttons and pamphlets were made asking the rest of the employees to help "Save the Pineapple 300," Reinecke said.

As they traveled the country, the Hawaii flight attendants delivered their message to fellow workers in other cities, making a pitch for the new contract language, she said.

Reinecke said that it might be possible for some of the attendants to stay in Hawaii and commute to work but it is not really feasible. They would have to fly to their jobs on a stand-by basis and lately United's planes have been pretty much full so there likely would not be any space available, she said.

Joe Hopkins, a spokesman for United, said the airline now will work through the system detailed in its contract with the union. Those flight attendants who are selected as "surplus" in Hawaii will apply for vacancies in other parts of United's system in the United States and Japan.

"We hope to make all the decisions and have it done by the end of October," Hopkins said. Moving the people and their belongings, which will be done at company expense, could take longer, he said.

"We feel that we tried hard to construct a creative and fair compromise to allow the attendants to stay in Hawaii. The AFA chose to submit it to the membership. Our view is that it's really unfortunate, but the membership has spoken," Hopkins said.