How petty can it get at United?

Pilots, Management Clash over Water R ights

By Julie Johnsson
Crain's Business Chicago


As if massive layoffs, wage concessions and the prospect of losing billions of dollars in pension benefits were not quite enough, United Airlines is now reminding pilots to take it easy on the bottled water.

A dryly worded Feb. 23 memo told pilots to ask flight attendants for a glass of water instead of taking bottled water into the cockpit, except on international flights (excluding Canada), trips to Hawaii and domestic flights exceeding 2,100 miles.

United says other employees complained that pilots were nabbing water bottles from drink carts, leaving passengers high and dry. "In many instances, we've run short of bottled water on shorter flights," adds a United spokesman.

Dubbed the "water letter," the memo reiterates a seldom-enforced policy in place for years before United's bankruptcy. Its timing, more than its content, angered pilots. "It didn't change anything, just emphasized something that made everybody mad," says one pilot who asked not to be named.

Bladder-Busting Liter Bottles

The spat centers on bladder-busting liter bottles, more water than a pilot would typically need on a short trip. For more than five years, the airline's policy has been to stock bottles in the cockpit only on trips longer than four hours.

Pilots can take any unfinished portion off the aircraft, but not any unopened bottles, Captain Mark Sebby, United's manager for line operations, wrote in the memo.

On shorter trips, pilots must summon flight attendants to provide them with a glass of water. Nowadays, that's cumbersome while airborne, requiring two flight attendants to secure the cockpit safety door.

So why not just provide more water for pilots? "To board additional bottles on every flight would be a fairly significant expense," the United spokesman says.

At least one council of the union representing pilots based in Chicago urged members to file safety reports for dehydration.

"It certainly shows the real difficult problems that are at United," says labor expert Joshua Javits, former chairman of the National Mediation Board. "There's an enormous amount of discouragement, and morale issues."

Not to mention thirsty pilots.

For a discussion of this memo see: The Hangar