CHICAGO United flight attendants attack plan to give bonuses

The airline wants to raise pay for technical workers to keep them from leaving.
CHICAGO (AP) -- United Airlines' flight attendants union assailed Monday the carrier's plan to give 20 percent bonuses to as many as 600 professional and technical employees, just two months after pay cuts took effect for most workers.
United proposed the bonus-pay plan in a federal bankruptcy court filing Thursday, saying it needs to stop the exodus of its information services and computer programming employees to rival airlines and other employers.
The airline wants to give those workers a two-installment payment equal to 20 percent of their annual salary after the company's reorganization plan is approved. United hopes the cash will fend off what it calls a serious "brain drain" of information services employees considered key to its Chapter 11 reorganization.
"They have highly marketable technical skills, and we feel it's essential to our restructuring to retain them," spokesman Jeff Green said.
Objection
But the Association of Flight Attendants called the need for bonuses for the midlevel management employees "fabricated" and said it would file an objection to the plan, which is to be considered at a July 18 bankruptcy court hearing.
Green said the information services division lost more employees in the first quarter alone than in all of last year, with three to five workers a week continuing to depart the unit of 1,100 employees. Those who left reported getting salary increases of about 20 percent elsewhere, he said.