United pilots protest high executive salaries

May 10, 2007 (WLS) -- Hundreds of United Airlines pilots and flight attendants demonstrated outside a shareholders meeting Thursday. They are not happy that executives are getting millions in compensation after the company has slashed the pay and the pensions of its workers.

Thursday was an important milepost in United's history: its first shareholders' meeting after climbing out of bankruptcy. Its bosses say the airline is stronger, disciplined and focused on the future. But many of United's own employees say their bosses have lost sight of what made the climb from bankruptcy possible.

They say they are spittin' mad. Their pay was dramatically cut. They've lost their pensions. And now their top bosses are getting compensation packages that United employees say defy the concept of shared sacrifice.

"Of all the airlines that went into bankruptcy, no senior management team got as much out of a bankruptcy as United's people did," said Capt. Herb Hunter, United pilot/Union spokesperson.

Roughly 300 United pilots were joined by flight attendants and mechanics Thursday to picket outside the airline's annual shareholders' meeting, the first of its kind in five years. And the principle focus of their wrath is United CEO Glenn Tilton, who stands to receive a four year salary and stock option plan worth an estimated $39 million.

"We are angry with this and we are saying passengers and shareholders should be angry because they're squandering the profits of United Airlines every single day," said Sara Nelson, flight attendant/union spokesperson.

"Our guys can retire out and they'll be in poverty every day until they die," said Don Wolfel, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.

Cameras were not allowed in the shareholders meeting where some employee stockholders ripped Tilton, one saying, "We have lost all confidence in your leadership. Tilton acknowledge that the executive pay issue is "contentious," that United "understands it," is "sensitive to it," but also that it's an issue advanced by a "vocal minority."

United says Tilton did take pay cuts during bankruptcy and that his four year pay package is based on airline performance.

University of Chicago Law Professor and bankruptcy expert Douglas Baird says that while he may take issue in general with executive pay levels, what Tilton is in line to get is not out of line with what he has done with a bankrupt airline.

"This is not somebody that drove United into the ground or created the environment that the pilots are right to complain about. He came onboard the sinking ship and managed to bring it this far, and to be honest, I never thought he could," said Prof. Douglas Baird, University of Chicago Law School.

"I understand that the boss got us through, but he didn't do it by himself. It was a team effort. We were all there for shared sacrifice. Where's the shared reward? That's all we're saying," said Hunter.

All the employee union groups at United are in contracts now, and Tilton Thursday said those contracts are valid and will be enforced. As to one pilot's remark Thursday that employee morale has never been lower, Tilton acknowledged that morale is "not what we want it to be." But at the same time, "we also care about making this a sustainable enterprise."

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