US Airways Would Restructure Pensions

A320 Driver

Veteran
Aug 24, 2002
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www.usaviation.com
Please don't stir that pot again (sigh).

A320 Driver
 
[A href=http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/030108/us_airways_pension_1.html]http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/030108/us_airways_pension_1.html[/A]
 
This must be GREAT News for all of the other employee groups! If the pilot pension issue is solved the other groups will not have to take a pay cut--since they were subsidizing the pilots' "excessive" pensions?
 
A NON-UNITED PENSION ISSUE TO IRRITATE ALL:

John Snow, who President Bush just appointed to be Treasury Secretary, is a vocal opponent of Defined Benefit Pension Plans as we have at United. Snow has vowed to help the Bush administration make it easier for companies to terminate their pension plans and convert to a cash-balance system that puts more of the burden on workers themselves. Ironically, Snow retired under CSX Railroad's Defined Benefit Pension Plan when he left that company to go to work for Bush. Snow got a 19-YEAR SERVICE CREDIT, as well as all of his stock options counted as pension-drawing income, to boost his pension payout. He now gets$2.47 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR for the rest of his life from CSX. This would be like a 41-year old Flight Attendant being allowed to retire without any penalty, and all personal assets counted as United income. Yet Mr. Snow is working to bar all of us from ever collecting our pensions. Mr. Bush and his country club cabinet are really men of the people!
 
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On 1/9/2003 8:31:06 AM A320 Driver wrote:

Please don't stir that pot again (sigh).


A320 Driver
----------------I am just trying to illustrate absurdity, with absurdity. And lord knows there are some absurd things said here.


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[img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/2.gif']
 
[P]
[BLOCKQUOTE][BR]----------------[BR]On 1/9/2003 8:19:28 AM chipmunn wrote:
[P][A href='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/"http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/030108/us_airways_pension_1.html"']http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/030108/us_airways_pension_1.html[/A][/P]----------------[/BLOCKQUOTE]
[P][/P]30 years?this is like finding out who killed kennedy...after 30 years all involved will be long gone.
 
A320driver, your comments are accurate and in 2001 pensions were fully funded. The issue is the financial markets and ERISA.

Chip
 
Everyone involved with this pension issue knows that an upturn in the economy, the stock market and a mild upward movement of interests rates will fix a large part of these pension funding problems by themselves. Their trying to buy time for these things to happen so the pension shortfall won't be so devastating. As it's been stated many times on these boards, U is one of many companies in this situation. This is my understanding of it anyway.

Autofixer...I get it now.

A320 Driver
 
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On 1/9/2003 11:15:40 AM chipmunn wrote:

A320driver, your comments are accurate and in 2001 pensions were fully funded. The issue is the financial markets and ERISA.

Chip
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Who was minding the store? I got out when the Dow hit 9700, and I'm just a dumb ramp rat.
 
[STRONG][FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3]Pension Legislation[BR][/FONT][/STRONG][FONT color=#000000][FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3][BR]ARLINGTON (theHub.com) - Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum announced he has introduced legislation that would allow US Airways to fulfill its "financial obligation to the hardworking employees by providing them the ability to restructure the funding obligations for their pension plan." The bill, which is co-sponsored by Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter and Virginia Sen. John Warner, would allow the company to stretch $3.1 billion in payments due over the next seven years to its defined benefit pension plans over 30 years. The bulk of the pension obligations cover the plan for pilots, but flight attendants and mechanics also have defined benefit plans. [STRONG]If this legislative initiative is not quickly enacted, the company may be forced to terminate the pilot pension plan (the pilot plan covers the majority of the funding obligations) and quickly replace it with another program. [/STRONG][BR][BR]Santorum's bill would give legal authority to the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to approve spreading out the pension obligation over 30 years. US Airways is seeking to resolve its pension issue and to further reduce labor costs to obtain final approval of a federally guaranteed loan, which is necessary for a successful emergence from Chapter 11. [/FONT][/FONT][BR][BR]
 
[SPAN class=BodyFont][FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3][STRONG]MEC CODE-A-PHONE UPDATE - January 9, 2003[/STRONG][BR][BR]This is Roy Freundlich with a US Airways MEC update for Thursday, January 9:[BR][BR]Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum attempted to introduce a bill by unanimous consent into the U.S. Senate this evening, which was co-sponsored by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. This senate bill sought a legislative solution to allow the Company to spread out 3.1 billion dollars in funding requirements to the US Airways employee pension plans for over 30 years, instead of seven years, which is the current term. This special legislation would have clarified the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation’s authority and required it to approve the restoration funding. The bill was not accepted because of objections by two senators. This legislation must now be introduced through other appropriate legislative channels. ALPA is continuing to work with government officials and US Airways on a legislative solution to the pension plan issue.[BR][/FONT][/SPAN]
 
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On 1/9/2003 6:13:13 PM autofixer wrote:

diogenes, You should go into market timing. You could make a fortune!
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Nah, if I was that slick I'd have bailed at 11 or 12,000.

But I can tell you I am the master mover of the market. When I get in, it goes down; when I get out, it goes up.

My wife hopes my portfolio skills never make it to bed!
 
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On 1/9/2003 8:56:48 PM chipmunn wrote:

[STRONG][FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3]Pension Legislation
[/FONT][/STRONG][FONT color=#000000][FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3]
ARLINGTON (theHub.com) - Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum announced he has introduced legislation that would allow US Airways to fulfill its "financial obligation to the hardworking employees by providing them the ability to restructure the funding obligations for their pension plan." The bill, which is co-sponsored by Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter and Virginia Sen. John Warner, would allow the company to stretch $3.1 billion in payments due over the next seven years to its defined benefit pension plans over 30 years. The bulk of the pension obligations cover the plan for pilots, but flight attendants and mechanics also have defined benefit plans. [STRONG]If this legislative initiative is not quickly enacted, the company may be forced to terminate the pilot pension plan (the pilot plan covers the majority of the funding obligations) and quickly replace it with another program. [/STRONG]

Santorum's bill would give legal authority to the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to approve spreading out the pension obligation over 30 years. US Airways is seeking to resolve its pension issue and to further reduce labor costs to obtain final approval of a federally guaranteed loan, which is necessary for a successful emergence from Chapter 11. [/FONT][/FONT]

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Ohhhhhh, all those hairy-chested, alpha male Republican types looking for a government bail-out?

What is this world coming to?