HONOLULU —Genelle Jucutan-Puga, a United Airlines flight attendant from Oahu, sounded serious as she yelled, “What do we want? Contract! If we don’t get it — shut it down.” HONOLULU —Genelle Jucutan-Puga, a United Airlines flight attendant from Oahu, sounded serious as she yelled, “What do we want? Contract! If we don’t get it — shut it down.” Jucutan-Puga and other union members picketed Wednesday at Daniel K.
Inouye International Airport as part of systemwide Day of Action picket called “Unleashing our Power” that took place at 19 airports. She and other union members showed strong approval when Kevin Batey, local executive council (LEC) president of United Airlines Council 14, announced that 91 percent of the Association of Flight Attendants’ 28,000 members had participated in a strike vote and that 99.9 percent voted to give the bargaining committee the power to call for a strike.
Jucutan-Puga, a single mother who gave up two-thirds of her pay when she left a job as a human resources manager to become a flight attendant, sees the irony of picketing after spending 10 years in a pro-company role. She loves her career change, but said “sometimes you really do have to fight for what you need from an employer.” “I’m really, really hoping that United will see that our flight attendants mean business.
We need a contract, we needed it yesterday,” Jucutan-Puga said. “(The strike vote) is more like a signal to the company that we are prepared t.