Delta to dump pension plans (pilots will be raped first)

[Bozita]

BTW, do the US Bankruptcy Courts have rape rooms? ... Like the ones that Saddam used?

When laws permit this form of legal thievery, it's getting close to pitchforks and torches time. Real close.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/16/news/companies/delta_pensions/

Delta to dump pension plans

Letter from Delta CEO says that bankrupt airline will terminate pilots' pension plan Monday, effective Sept. 2; federal pension agency could take biggest hit ever if other Delta plans follow suit.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney senior writer

June 16, 2006: 5:59 PM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Delta Air Lines will move to terminate its pilot pension plans Monday, attempting to shift responsibility for the future benefits to the federal agency that guarantees such payments.

The decision, which was not unexpected, was announced in a letter from Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein to Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., Friday. Delta intends the termination of the plan to take effect Sept. 2.

Isakson has been backing legislation supported by Delta that would have helped it keep its pension plans operating. CNNMoney.com obtained a copy of the letter.

"I want to be sure you are aware of a necessary but difficult step Delta must take, why that step is essential to the long-term survival of our company," said Grinstein's letter.

more...

[electron_blue]

1. What does this mean? That pilots lose all the money they put into it

already, or that another agency is responsible for handling it? I can't tell.

[MercutioATC]

3. Delta pilots (and a LOT of others) had a defined benefit plan.

They'd work for X number of years and they'd be guaranteed $X per month in retirement benefits.

That's gone now...even for pilots that have already retired.

Imagine this: You're 65 years old. You flew planes for 35 years and you decided to retire 10 years ago. By contract, your monthly retirement benefit from the airline will be $6000. You've based your retirement plans on this income. Now, your retirement benefits have stopped. No checks to pay bills with any more. At some point, the government will bail out your pension plan, but will pay you less than HALF of what you were getting.

That's what's happening.

[havocmom]

8. And taxpayers end up with the bill for paying pensions

which will be much less than the retirees earned.

One more brand of corporate welfare- they get to blow off their payment obligations and the taxpayer pays instead.

And one more brand of employee fucking... the retirees get less (from taxpayer funded pension guarantee agency) than they were supposed to get

Think about all the other big corporations teetering on the brink and abandoning their financial obligations. The agency which guarantees pensions is overextended

[MercutioATC]

12. Which is why we must legislate full funding of pensions.

I'm promised that if I work at Company X for 30 years, I'll get a pension of $30k per year. Company X does nothing to fund this plan. In 30 years, Company X declares that they can't meet its pension obligation, turns its plan over to the government, and screws its workers.

We need to legislate that all defined benefit pensions be fully funded.

[peacebird]

2. Has the CEO taken a massive cut in salary and benefits PERMANENTLY to help

Delta stay afloat? Or is the CEO still making many millions while gutting the pension plans and expecting the taxpayers (who DON'T make millions for the most part...) to keep up the payments owed in the pension plan?

:grr:

[HereSince1628]

4. PROFITS! Reduce costs, ignore/change regulations, outsource

externalize. EXTERNALIZE? HMMMMMMMMMMMMM?!!!!!!!! There is a federal program that will pay the pensions if we will just accept the embarrassment of making them them fail! Yep! Cry the Board. YEP!

Oh, God. There should have been a clause forcing them into bankruptcy for doing that.

[BlueIris]

5. Nice thread title, one I'm sure is not at all offensive to SA survivors.

I'm not using the goddamned sarcasm smiley for this post.

[VelmaD]

6. I agree...

while I feel bad for the pilots involved and think what's being done to them is vile...to compare it to rape belittles what SA survivors go through.

Note that it also violates the forum rules since it is not part of the headline of the article.

[elehhhhna]

7. PBGC Announces Maximum Insurance Benefit for 2006: $47,600.

PBGC Announces Maximum Insurance Benefit for 2006

WASHINGTON — The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) today announced that the maximum insurance benefit for participants in underfunded pension plans terminating in 2006 is $47,659 per year for those who retire at age 65. The amount is higher for those who retire later and lower for those who retire earlier or elect survivor benefits (see table below). If a pension plan terminates in 2006 but a participant does not begin collecting benefits until a future year, the 2006 maximum insurance limits still apply.
edit to add the max for those who retire at 60, which pilots must do: $ 30,978.36


http://www.pbgc.gov/media/news-archive/2005/pr06-09.html

[FreakinDJ]

9. Reminds me of S&L bail outs

all these companies purposefully under funding their pension programs and then dumpi9ng them on the tax payer to bail out their obligations

Seems like corporate America has sung this tune before

[Joe Bacon]

10. Love those GOP "Y.O.Y.O." economics...

Y.O.Y.O. = You're On Your Own

UNLESS You are a millionaire who bribed the Whorehouse of Representatives and the SINate to give you special tax breaks and subsidies!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

11. Why are corporations permitted to do this?

I'm so disheartened by this country. It's so corrupt and sick.

[jody]

13. What will taxpayers do when they have to pay for a foreign company's

bankrupt U.S. plants, e.g. Toyota, Honda, Hyundai?

Recently Bush signed a new law making it very difficult for taxpayers to declare bankruptcy.

[Moderator]

14. Locking

Feel free to repost this with the correct headline in keeping with LBN rules and without the rape imagery.