LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: United Airlines is advising passengers using its Denver hub to call ahead today before heading to the airport. That's because contract workers who run Denver's international baggage system walked off the job this morning in a contract dispute. For more on the situation, we're joined now by reporter Christina Yao, a reporter from CNN affiliate KCNC. Christina, take it away.</s>CHRISTINA YAO, KCNC REPORTER: Lou, about 20 of Phelps Program Management's 85 striking workers are out here. You can see them on the picket line behind me. Last night they overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer, disagreeing over wages, benefits and working conditions. But today, the disagreement is as much about the contract as it is about the location of the picket line. The union says being in this remote parking lot at the airport essentially renders a strike useless.</s>HAROLD JOHANNESEN, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MECHANICS: Union members -- if they don't see a picket line or cross a picket line, they don't have to honor it, they're not involved in it.</s>YAO: And United's Kurt Ebenhoch further says, if United's employees refuse to work when they do not have to cross a picket line, they could be disciplined.</s>KURT EBENHOCH, UNITED AIRLINES: We respect their rights to honor a lawful picket line, or a primary picket line, and they would not be disciplined in that case; however, they would also not receive pay. In the case of them crossing an unlawful or secondary picket line, that would be a case where they would be subject to disciplinary action.</s>YAO: The union says it will take its issue to court, citing another case where elevator workers successfully changed their location after they were banished to a remote spot.
United Airlines Workers' Strike Could Cause Delays, Employee Discipline