United to furlough more than 400

CHICAGO, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- United Airlines announced a second round of layoffs, giving notice it intended to furlough 414 additional U.S. workers this year.

United tied the furloughs to its fleet reductions, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.

"As we reduce the size of our fleet and take actions companywide to enable United to compete in this challenging economic environment, we must take the difficult but necessary step to reduce the number of people we have to run our business," a company statement said.

A union spokeswoman, Leslie Miller of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said she believed the announced number of layoffs was inflated.

"We believe it will be less than that," Miller said. But, the business representative for the Teamsters' Local 856 in San Bruno, Calif., said the news was disappointing.

"We've had lows before when United hit bankruptcy, and we had to take concessions and layoffs. I can't say this is the worst, but it's another low," he said.