Friendly Skies, Indeed

Shareholders in the brand, spanking-new, post-bankruptcy United Airlines on Thursday gathered at the company's first annual meeting since emerging from a painfully long reorganization following $10 billion in losses.

It was not quite the lovefest that chairman and C.E.O. Glenn Tilton had planned. Hundreds of pilots, flight attendants and other United employees showed up, picket signs in hand, to blast Tilton and his executive colleagues.

Their complaint? Painfully familiar: After forcing employees to swallow substantial pay cuts in bankruptcy proceedings, United dished out tens of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives. Tilton alone pocketed cash, stock and other compensation worth almost $40 million last year.

"Management Feeds from the Trough, Labor Gets the Scraps," read one sign carried by a United employee outside the meeting, in Chicago's Field Museum.

Employees at American Airlines and Northwest Airlines are also hopping mad about what they consider unequal sacrifices at their companies, too.

Could be a long, hot, unfriendly summer for vacationers this year.

by Mark Stein