United Leaves Bankruptcy After 3 Years

[SharonAnn]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060201/ap_on_bi_ge/united_bankruptcy;_ylt=AqE.uruHILhWPv7VEyqiTZas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3bGI2aDNqBHNlYwM3NDk-

CHICAGO - United Airlines embarked Wednesday on what it called "a new beginning," soaring free of bankruptcy for the first time since 2002 but no longer able to turn to a court for assistance as it faces industry conditions that may be harsher than those when it entered 38 months ago.

...

"The empty suits at UAL world headquarters are dropping their bags of money only long enough to pat themselves on the back for a job well done," said Randy Canale, president of District 141 of the Machinists' union and a UAL board member. "The fact is that United survived in spite of its current leadership, not because of it."

A leader of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association was even more blunt in urging a new management team be appointed.

"We challenge UAL to take the same carnivorous attitude used to beat concessions from the union work groups, and apply it towards its management team," said AMFA Local 9 president Joseph Prisco, whose unit represents more than half of United mechanics.

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Ben Stein had a great article about this in the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/business/yourmoney/29every.html

When You Fly in First Class, It's Easy to Forget the Dots
by BEN STEIN, January 29, 2006

... The bankruptcy court, instead of ordering Mr. Tilton's arrest, instead cut the management share to about 8 percent, so he will get more than $40 million, more or less. That is more than Lee R. Raymond, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, one of the most successful companies of all time, was paid in 2004 (not counting Mr. Raymond's 28 million shares of restricted stock).

So here it is in a nutshell: employees are goaded into investing a big chunk of their wages and benefits in UAL stock. They lose that. Then they lose big parts of their pay and pensions. They become peons of UAL. Management gets $480 million, more or less. "Creative destruction?" Or looting?

Wait, Mr. Tilton and Mr. Bankruptcy Judge. The employees were the owners of UAL. They were the trustors, and Mr. Tilton and his pals were trustees for them. How were the trustors wiped out while the trustees, the fiduciaries, became fantastically rich? Is this the way capitalism is supposed to work? Trustors save up, and their agents just take their savings away from them?

If the company is worth so much that management has hundreds of millions coming to them, shouldn't the employee-owners get a taste? Does capitalism mean anything if the owners of the capital can be wiped out while their agents grow wealthy? Is this a way to encourage savings and the ownership society? Or is this a matter of to him who hath shall be given?

[rsmith6621]

1. Yep.....UAL Has figured Out..................

That it cant RAPE its employees anymore of their livelyhood or pocketbook.....They acheived under BK what they wanted to.....BIGGER PAYCHECKS FOR THE 400 VPs they have.....

I lost my job with UAL as a result of this BK.

Congratulations UAL.....:sarcasm:

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

4. You didn't happen to work at Indianapolis?

if you did I feel your pain, closing the Maintenance Center here in Indy was the dirtiest trick to pull on the city, their workers, and community. They took off breaking their lease after the City help build the place, left 2500 Mechanics unemployed, scammed potential A&P Mechanics going to college to someday work at United here with their supposed expansions which none ever started (I fall into this group)and to top that off ran and stole $200K worth of tools the city paid for them. There's some many foreclosed houses in my neighborhood and around the west side of Indianapolis because of this, some really good people lost their asses.

[CountAllVotes]

2. go to hell United Airlines!

I will never fly the friendly skies of United EVER again! :grr:

Screw you and you have outsourced your jobs UA and don't try to deny it!

I hope you fall into bankruptcy again and never come out of it!

Enough of bailing out these corporate PIGS! Enough! Enough!

:argh:

[Sven77]

3. eroding the pensions

these companies go bankrupt, steal the pensions.

[SoCalDem]

5. Yay....for them

:puke:

They screwed their employees, stole all those raises throughout the years (often raises were foregone in lieu of "better pension benefits down the road"),ruined a bunch of people's old age, and can still posket tons o' cash for the CEOs and the almighty stockholders..Never mind the employees

I would not like to fly on a plane manned & maintained by irate, depressed, underpaid employees:(