United Airlines and its flight attendants have broken off negotiations to enlist the attendants in an employee buyout of the carrier's parent company, UAL Corp., the flight attendants' union said.

The sides have met several times since UAL shareholders approved the $4.9 billion employee takeover July 12. The deal gave United's pilots, ground crews and non-union employees a 55 percent stake in UAL in exchange for wage, benefit and work-rule concessions.The flight attendants chose not to participate in the buyout due to disputes with the previous management over foreign hiring and weight requirements.

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Negotiations with the new management broke down last week over disagreement on the dollar value of the flight attendants' proposed concessions, according to a tape-recorded message to members of the United chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants.

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