AMR can abandon pilots' union contract -judge

[BUDDHA145]

Crap!!! another 5 years in the regionals!!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[xkuzme1]

If the contracts are voided, then is abiding by the RLA in the "status quo" still a requirement?

X

 

[sniper]

I know it stinks but other carriers have been through this. With the sour economy this is no time to react without thinking the situation out very carefully. Walking out of a job means no income, health benefits, and a real tough and tight labor market out there.
I went through two chapter 11's at airways in a span of about two years. I stayed and kept my health benefits that came in very handy when my wife had thyroid surgery and I had very little out of pocket expense.
All of you at AA, don't just consider how you feel now, but how will you be faring next year and the years following that. Don't let anger overrule a well thought out decision.

Best wishes.

Greeks are usually fighters....the 300 brave spartans? what happen to you?

 

[waveflyer]

Yeah, follow cheap greek's airways example- bc there's a successful union of I ever saw one. Let yourself get f^cked six ways from Sunday by CEO after greedy CEO, then project that angst onto another pilot group you're merging with guaranteeing bottom feeder wages for the past seven years with no end in sight-

A usair pilot wants to talk to anyone about making stupid emotional decisions?? Really?
That's pretty ironic.

Here's the mesa CEO on this: "you know how I know I pay my pilots too much? They keep showing up for work."

He's at a regional but there are lessons in that.

I support APA pilots whatever they do.

All bonuses should be given back before they accept a dime in pay cuts-

 

[redflyer65]

Wave is right.

The next move should be the judge denying any bonus out of bankruptcy. Now that would get interesting.

 

[spacecadet1]

Behind an AA Mad Dog earlier today...both engines and APU running. They had to be number 20+ in line. Capt and I smiled, knowing what's going on. I've always been treated great on American flights. From an AirTran guy, keep up the good fight boys and girls, and good luck.

Heard a story about a check airman that asked a Captain why he had both engines and the APU running. Captain responded, "if I had more engines, they'd be running also".

 

[Ky.BrownBourbn]

Somewhere in PHX, Parker's having another drink!

KBB

 

[rjacobs]

Heard a story about a check airman that asked a Captain why he had both engines and the APU running. Captain responded, "if I had more engines, they'd be running also".

Awesome

 

[Texx]

Anyone venture to guess what implications this will have on AA scope?

Yep. Horton will run out and sign a large deal to lock in hundreds of larger Rjs.

 

[Kingwood]

On sale at Amazon...read it and weep boys...we are all f#ckd...Romney/Obama, doesn't matter, as good as we have it at SWA, even with all the acq/merger bitchn...we are one CEO away from this..

Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers


The story begins in 1999 after the stock-market run-up in the 1980s which left corporations with over $250 billion in excess pension fund assets, aided also by years of downsizing and 1990 and 1974 laws limiting raids on fund surpluses and requiring adequate funding. Many of the corporations hadn't contributed to their pensions in over ten years, yet had enough assets to cover all current/future retirees to age 100. Their lobbying then allowed new uses for those monies.

Bell Atlantic then used $3 billion to finance early-retirement benefits for 25,000 managers being let go, and Verizon (its eventual successor) continued the practice - the result, combined with a relatively small market decline, was the surplus fell from $24 billion in 2000 to $1.7 billion in early 2005. It then froze the pensions of its 50,000 management employees, withdrew another $5 billion, and by early 2011, when the market was higher than in 2000, the plan had a $3.4 billion deficit. Delphi, Delta, Ford, G.M., and United acted similarly; most then passed their underfunded plans off to the government's PBGC, which in turn further cut many of the employees' pensions per law.

Companies also tapped pension plans to pay retiree health benefits, previously covered on a pay-as-you-go basis. DePont was the first, folowed by Allegheny Technologies, Florida Power & Light, Prudential, U.S. Steel, and others. Again, two major firms - Allegheny Technologies and U.S. Steel, then dumped their diminished pension funds on the PBGC.

M&A activity, as well as spin-offs have enabled companies to convert surplus pension assets to cash. For example, G.E. sold an aerospace unit to Martin Marietta in 1993, along with its 30,000 employees and $1.2 billion in pension assets - about $531 million overfunded. By getting a better price because of the surplus it was able to pocket the $500 million. After doing this dozens of times, its $24 billion 1991 surplus became a shortage of $6 billion in early 2011 - despite a substantial interim market rise. DOD then sued because it had funded the G.E. workers' retirement funds and was supposed to get a refund if the unit closed (Martin Marietta subsequently closed it, and DOD labeled the transaction a 'sham'). Courts have ruled that even surplus employee contributions can be disposed of this way.

Transferring executive retirement benefit costs to employee pension funds via loopholes is another common technique. Intel saved $200 million doing this; Johnson Controls, Parker Hannifin, PMI Group, and others did so; again, some are now underfunded.

Terminating pension plans via other loopholes that involve setting up a replacement 401(k) has been used to help pay corporate creditors instead of full pensions. Think Enron, Occidental Petroleum, Wards, etc.

AT&T, A&P, Boeing, BofA, Cigna, Dana, IBM, Georgia-Pacific, Hershey, and many others have frozen benefits earned under existing plans, and replaced them with new, reduced plans going forward. Cigna was caught lying, telling employees that pensions were being 'enhanced' and not saving the firm any money - the case is still in court. IBM similarly tried to cover up the impact of its changes - dogged employees, however, proved their case and forced a partial reversal. Shultz also points out that most short-changed employees opting to take a lump-sum payout.

In 1998, over $1 billion of G.E.'s $13.8 billion in pretax profit came from pension plan manipulations (eg. changed assumptions about earnings, reducing pension and health care benefits). Executive pensions at G.E. total $6 billion, hidden in the pensions for regular workers (15% of the total). Utilities have been caught trying to justify rate increases by making unjustified assumptions about the rate of health care cost increases, etc.

Companies buy life insurance on workers because the money grows tax-free, and the benefit payout goes to the company tax-free.

Medicare's prescription drug benefit originally allowed companies to receive a subsidy of 28% of whatever was paid for each retiree (up to $1,330/year/retiree) - even if the retiree paid the entire amount. Many companies also stopped paying the benefit while collecting this subsidy. Regardless, accounting rules required booking the anticipated future subsidies as an asset, and when this practice was stopped (effective 2013) in ObamaCare, they booked large charges to reduce those assets - AT&T - $1 billion, Caterpillar - $240 million, Deere - $220 million, and Verizon - $970 million. Fox News, etc. then alleged these were 'new' costs, which of course they were not.

Bottom-Line: Politicians and CEOs claim entitlement spending in America is out of control and dragging down our economy. 'Retirement Heist' debunks that allegation; the near disappearance of defined benefit private-sector pension plans didn't HAVE to occur. Readers will be amazed at how important financial engineering of pension and health-care benefit funds are to corporate profits, and the gaming that goes on, at employee expense.