United Airlines'' employees sue stock plan
By BENNIE M. CURRIE
The Associated Press
2/28/03 10:53 PM
CHICAGO (AP) -- A group of United Airlines employees sued the bankrupt carrier''s employee stock ownership plan Friday, claiming investment managers cost them billions by holding onto plummeting company stock.
The federal lawsuit seeks to recover losses for thousands of employees who were either participants or beneficiaries of the UAL ESOP as of July 19, 2001. The complaint alleges the plan''s all-employee committee was not objective in its decision to keep the plan exclusively invested in United parent UAL Corp. stock as it went into decline.
UAL stock declined sharply since January 2001 as the airline faltered. The company filed for bankruptcy court protection Dec. 9.
The employee stock ownership plan, created in 1994 and now with 75,000 members, held about 55 percent of the company''s shares until last September. At that point, State Street Bank & Trust Co. became its new trustee and began selling off shares.
United spokesman Joe Hopkins declined to comment.
