UAL Corp, the parent company of United Airlines,
today said it is committed to reaching consensual agreement with its
retirees on shared costs for medical benefits. As part of the company`s
plan to successfully emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, United
said it needs retirees to pay for a greater portion of their medical
benefits.
“We believe it is important to maintain medical benefits for our 35,000
retirees, so we are taking the difficult but necessary step of asking
retirees to pay a greater share of the costs,” said Peter McDonald,
executive vice president - operations. “This change will bring the medical
benefits provided to current retirees more in line with those available to
future retirees and offered by other large U.S. corporations. To this end,
we will work to reach consensual agreement with our retiree
representatives on changes to retiree medical benefits that are fair and
equitable.”
United will seek to form a committee under Section 1114 of the U.S.
Bankruptcy Code to represent certain of its retired employee groups in
negotiations with the company on modifications to retiree medical
benefits. These changes would affect retired employees formerly on
United`s U.S. payroll.

United will inform the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of
Illinois and the retirees` representatives that, in the absence of
consensual agreements, United intends to file a motion under Section 1114
of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that would propose modifications
to retiree medical benefit plans. While United intends to work
collaboratively with its retirees` representatives, the filing of this
motion may be necessary as part of the 1114 process.

United and United Express operate more than 3,400 flights a day on a route
network that spans the globe. News releases and other information about
United may be found at the company`s website at http://www.united.com/ .

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