ALPA, Sister Unions Team Up with Congress to Announce Bankruptcy Reform Legislation
Capt. John Prater will join other AFL-CIO union leaders and key congressional members on September 25 to announce new legislation that would remedy the unjust bankruptcy code that helped airline managements strip workers of their hard-earned pensions, salaries, and work rules following the events of 9/11.
“Managements and judges forced us to give too much when we rallied to save our airlines and our jobs after the terrorist attacks,” says Capt. John Prater. “Now that the emergency is over, it’s time to fix the bankruptcy code and restore justice to the system and America’s workers.”
The “Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act of 2007” would close the loopholes that enabled managements to gut our contracts and would put workers and retirees on equal footing with businesses and banks when companies go bankrupt. The legislation is being introduced by U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and U.S. Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-Ill.).
Capt. Prater testified before Congress earlier this month on the need for bankruptcy reform, citing excessive CEO salaries and bonuses upon exiting bankruptcy, various egregious court cases, and the attempt to remove workers’ right to strike as glaring injustices that companies have used to strip workers of their rights.
“We’re happy to support Representative Conyers and others to restore a semblance of balance to the bankruptcy process,” said Prater. “This bill promotes economic fairness and requires shared sacrifice among all stakeholders—that’s something all workers can embrace.”
Since 2001, pilots have given more than $30 billion in concessions. Section 1113 of the bankruptcy code was originally intended to prevent employers from using the Chapter 11 process as an “escape hatch” to simply wipe away, with a bankruptcy filing, the binding, long, and hard-fought pay and working condition achievements of workers that were secured in their collective bargaining agreements.
After 9/11, however, employers and the bankruptcy courts have turned this mechanism on its head, achieving precisely the contract-destroying, anti-worker results that Congress originally sought to prevent.
Capt. John Prater will join other AFL-CIO union leaders and key congressional members on September 25 to announce new legislation that would remedy the unjust bankruptcy code that helped airline managements strip workers of their hard-earned pensions, salaries, and work rules following the events of 9/11.
“Managements and judges forced us to give too much when we rallied to save our airlines and our jobs after the terrorist attacks,” says Capt. John Prater. “Now that the emergency is over, it’s time to fix the bankruptcy code and restore justice to the system and America’s workers.”
The “Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act of 2007” would close the loopholes that enabled managements to gut our contracts and would put workers and retirees on equal footing with businesses and banks when companies go bankrupt. The legislation is being introduced by U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and U.S. Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-Ill.).
Capt. Prater testified before Congress earlier this month on the need for bankruptcy reform, citing excessive CEO salaries and bonuses upon exiting bankruptcy, various egregious court cases, and the attempt to remove workers’ right to strike as glaring injustices that companies have used to strip workers of their rights.
“We’re happy to support Representative Conyers and others to restore a semblance of balance to the bankruptcy process,” said Prater. “This bill promotes economic fairness and requires shared sacrifice among all stakeholders—that’s something all workers can embrace.”
Since 2001, pilots have given more than $30 billion in concessions. Section 1113 of the bankruptcy code was originally intended to prevent employers from using the Chapter 11 process as an “escape hatch” to simply wipe away, with a bankruptcy filing, the binding, long, and hard-fought pay and working condition achievements of workers that were secured in their collective bargaining agreements.
After 9/11, however, employers and the bankruptcy courts have turned this mechanism on its head, achieving precisely the contract-destroying, anti-worker results that Congress originally sought to prevent.
