Some of the 20,000 workers dropped from United Airlines payroll in the last eighteen months are to be helped to find new employment by the airline which is opening job centers in Chicago and San Francisco.
United is teaming up with a Swiss employment agency to open the first center at its Chicago headquarters on March 17 and a second, at San Francisco Airport, on March 31.
Former United employees elsewhere also will be able to get help via the job search and placement services of the Adecco employment agency’s offices both in the US and overseas.
“Our goal is to be supportive and to provide valuable resources to United employees who have been affected by work-force reductions or who have retired since September 2001,” said Sara Fields, United senior vice president.
On Monday the airline, which is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is expected to seek permission to change contract conditions with three of its unions which have, so far, failed to reach agreement on cost cuts.
The carrier may ask the bankruptcy court to allow it to tear up existing agreements and impose new conditions.