Crews Protest United/Aer Lingus Joint Venture Inaugural Flight at Dulles

CHICAGO, March 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- United Airlines Flight Attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA-CWA), will picket at Washington Dulles International Airport in protest of a joint venture between United Airlines and Aer Lingus that outsources flight attendant jobs.  The inaugural flight from Washington Dulles to Madrid, marketed by United and transporting United passengers, will take off from Dulles Sunday, March 28th on an Aer Lingus plane.

"United Airlines current management is exploiting the Open Skies agreement with the European Union for profit at the expense of our jobs," said Greg Davidowitch, president of AFA-CWA at United Airlines. "While thousands of United Airlines flight attendants and pilots are still on furlough management is siphoning off even more of our jobs to a foreign airline.  That is just plain wrong."

While some flight attendants will picket, others will leaflet United passengers calling attention to the injustice and new threat to middle class jobs.  The leaflet also asks passengers to call on their member of Congress to co-sponsor the Aviation Jobs Outsourcing Prevention Act, H.R. 4788.  The legislation would require, when airlines enter into revenue-sharing agreements, the amount of revenue the airline receives is proportionate to the amount of flying the U.S. airline actually provides its workers.

Picketing and leafleting at Washington Dulles International Airport:

• 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. in front of United check-in
• Local Contact: Andreas Curlee at 571-209-7943

"United management proudly proclaims the joint venture will create 125 jobs.  They neglect to mention that those jobs and work could have been done by existing employees – or those who are waiting to be called back to work," Davidowitch stated.

More than 55,000 flight attendants, including the 16,000 flight attendants at United, join together to form AFA, the world's largest flight attendant union. AFA is part of the 700,000 member strong Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.unitedafa.org.

SOURCE Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO

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http://www.unitedafa.org/