The IAM has been receiving many questions from United Flight Attendants. Below we answer some of the most frequently asked questions. 1. What type of insurance options will be available if the IAM is elected? Your medical options would not change as a result of the IAM being elected. The IAM will represent over 55,000 [...]

The CWA-AFA is proposing to bring United Flight Attendants into the Continental Airlines Retirement Plan (CARP). This is an irresponsible proposal made by a group whose inexperience has resulted in none of their members at any airline earning a pension today. And it was made without surveying or soliciting a single proposal from the people [...]

The CWA-AFA claimed they investigated the IAM National Pension Plan as an option during United’s bankruptcy, and then decided Flight Attendants should not be allowed to vote on whether to have a pension or not. "With the assistance of our actuaries and other advisors, AFA explored any and all options in a replacement plan scenario [...]

Did you know that in 2005 the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) stated that the United Airlines Flight Attendant pension plan was the only UAL pension plan sound enough to survive bankruptcy? The PBGC’s Executive Director said, “the AFA plan can and should be maintained by the company upon emergence from Chapter 11.” Yet United [...]

Machinists’ Union representatives met with acting director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Vince Snowbarger and his staff this week to discuss the impact a merger between United Airlines and Continental Airlines could have on employee pension plans.

General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr., District 141 President Rich Delaney, District 142 President Tom Higginbotham and members of the IAM’s legal and strategic resources departments described the importance of preserving our member’s defined benefit pension plans and retirement security.

The IAM believes that all employees deserve traditional defined benefit pension plans. But if the Continental-United merger is completed, the IAM has serious concerns about the ability of the Continental Airlines Retirement Plan (CARP) to survive with flight attendants continuing to accrue benefits.

While in bankruptcy, United cut a deal with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the government agency that insures defined benefit pension plans, to terminate all of United’s pension plans. As part of the arrangement, United was prohibited from establishing any new pension plans for a ten-year period, ending in 2015.