United's Unions Want Their Due

United Air Lines(UAUA) is finding out that bankruptcy cost-reductions don't last forever.

The airline emerged from bankruptcy three years ago and is now opening labor talks with its unions, whose contracts become amendable at the end of the year.

Unions say the time has come to be compensated for sacrifices they made in bankruptcy.

"United employees have been bailing out this airline since a decade before it entered bankruptcy; now they expect to receive some type of return on their investment," says Joe Tiberi, spokesman for the International Association of Machinists, which represents about 16,000 United workers.

For the carrier's 7,800 pilots, "the company came out of bankruptcy three years ago, but we're still living under it," says Jay Heppner, spokesman for the United chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. And 16,000 flight attendants "still need to put food on the tables and feed our families, just like everyone else in these tough economic times," says Christopher Clarke, spokesman for the United chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants.

Despite eliminating 24,000 employees, 120 aircraft and $7 billion in annual costs, including $3 billion in labor costs during 38 months in bankruptcy, United still has not found a path to sustained profitability. After earning $403 million in 2007, it lost $5.3 billion in 2008. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect a smaller loss this year.

United's situation generally mirrors the industry's. Since 2003, United, Northwest, Delta(DAL) and US Airways(LCC) have restructured in bankruptcy. Yet their fortunes remain largely dependent on exogenous events, as the first nine years of the 21st century have made clear.