Unions push to protect workers hit by corporate bankruptcies

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4504

6 June 2010

WASHINGTON - Describing the financial devastation that hits workers after corporate bankruptcies, representatives from four unions and the AFL-CIO urged Congress to put workers first when companies take themselves into such turmoil.

But the bill, HR 4677, pushed by the federation, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the Steelworkers, the Machinists and the Airline Pilots may not get far due to a jammed congressional schedule, one of the union reps admitted afterwards.

The five told a House Judiciary subcommittee on May 25 that companies use bankruptcies to deliberately destroy union contracts, slash workers’ wages, eliminate health care benefits and dump pensions on the taxpayers via the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. “That’s another bailout,” said IAM Vice President Robert Roach.

Workers must often agree to such slashes, the five admitted, because when they’re bargaining with bankrupt firms, they’re negotiating, as one lawmaker put it, “with a gun to their heads.”

ALPA President Capt. John Prater added at least one airline, Hawaiian, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy re-organization even though the carrier was profitable. “Most managements that go into bankruptcy, especially in the airline industry, use it as a business tool to get rid of a collective bargaining agreement,” he said.

All the witnesses pointed to United Airlines, whose pilots took a 42% cut in two parts, while the broke company’s executives garnered $40 million. Union witnesses also included Steelworkers Vice President Tom Conway and AFA-CWA Northwest Rep Janette Rook.

FULL story at link.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

1. Not holding my breath in anticipation, unfortunately.

Read HR 4677: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.4677:

[SocialistLez]

2. Why would someone unrec this?

In any case, I recommended this.