United They Fall

[DaveNSoKona]

United Airlines, not known for evenhanded business practices, link (http://www.untied.com) has announced that they have got court approval to dump its four pension plans. News (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=747461) Flight attendants say this will cut their pentions in half.

If anyone needed proof that the recent bankruptcy bill was only for the credit card companies need look at what’s happening at United Airlines.

[Miulang]

Now that the courts have established that precedent, I would say it's highly likely that everyone's pensions might be in jeopardy somewhere down the road. I'm contemplating taking early retirement from my company next year, so maybe I should; then at least I'll have collected some of my pension and I'd still be young enough to start on another "career".

Miulang

[Linkmeister]

Now that the courts have established that precedent, I would say it's highly likely that everyone's pensions might be in jeopardy somewhere down the road. I'm contemplating taking early retirement from my company next year, so maybe I should; then at least I'll have collected some of my pension and I'd still be young enough to start on another "career".

Miulang

If you've got the option, take it in a lump sum and immediately roll it over. (Gratuitous free financial advice should be taken at face value.) ;)

[DaveNSoKona]

Here is an article about HR3108 which seems ominous considering the actions now being taken by UAL Link (http://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/em924.cfm)

I don't think UAL is setting a president the Steel companies of the '70 & '80s gutted their pension plans I believe, but that may have been a different situation. HR3108 does exempt Airlines and Steel companies from some of the rules

I, for one, think the system is broken when Kmart (stock symbol KM) became worthless after the chapter 11 in 2002. Cheating investors out of millions of dollars (no, I didn't own any).

The new incarnations of Kmart (stock symbol KMRT) and it's newest incarnation (stock symbol SHLD after the Sears buyout) is trading at $142.68 today.

What kind of capitalism do we have here where a company can emerge from bankruptcy and a few years later buy out one of its largest competitors?

[Miulang]

Let's just say they're getting help from a pro-business White House, and it won't get better. Now that businesses know they have favorable laws, they will take all they can, while they can.

Was just at the local employment office (we don't have an unemployment office anymore) where one of the counselors said the job centers in this state will probably get closed down in Sept. because the US budget for FY2006 is cutting money for unemployment and training services nationwide. That means all the displaced workers will have difficulty finding new jobs. So much for the booming economy.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Well, it didn't take long for United's competitors (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/May/12/bz/bz10p.html) to decide they wanted the same sweet deal that United got from bankruptcy court.

American, Northwest, Continental and Delta want Congress to allow them to stretch out the payments that would allow for full funding of pensions. The only people who will be hurt by this ploy are the loyal employees of the airline companies. This strategy will do nada to make airfares any cheaper and will probably make the airlines more inefficient because human nature says that if you're not happy at your job, you're probably not going to work at full capacity.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Want benefits like health care insurance? You're more likely to have this perk if you belong to a union (http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/051305LC.shtml) than not. As more and more people leave union jobs, the numbers of uninsured workers increases, which puts a huge strain on each state's Medicaid budget. If you think this doesn't impact you, think again. You're helping to pay for someone's healthcare who can't afford the health insurance themselves.

Miulang