Orange Anchor
New Member
Corporations don't have to do this, Unions do. Once again, thanks to the Bush administration.
Right.. the D's, every working man's friend, didn't do anything while being in the majority. Sorry this had to lapse into a Bush bash but it does add another dimension to the debate. In case you have not noticed, the Ds, now in control, have done NOTHING to stop freezing/terminating pensions not only in the airline industry but also others. The odd thing that escapes most pilots is that many make too much to be democrats and too little to be republicans. As such, neither party favors the pilots or the 'union'
This is going to piss you off but, that was such a minor matter at the time that after the vote was over I promptly forgot most of the discussion.
Not pissed. Not even really angry. Moved through the SARA and have moved onto other things but in the process and during my tenure on a few committees and seeing some things that were just not right, excuse me if I don't accept the assertion that these guys are just altruists. But I do find it interesting that you remember the vote but nothing else. i guess that happens.
I had many more important things going on at the time. Like, trying to figure out how not to declare bancrupcy or foreclose on my house, contract negotiations and defending stupid pilots locking themselves out of the cockpit and then landing single pilot (happened).
Sorry about the financial strain. That seems to come with the territory these days. I also took some major hits with the pension termination and while you are talking about taxes, when the gov looked at the pensions, they declared the money the company set aside as 'non-qualified' and when it was disbursed, the Feds took 28% off the top. The company made out. The banks made out. The gov made out... no help from the Ds on trying to get that pension money qualified and thus not subject to the tax rip.
But to continue.. I spent more than a few hours talking to friends who had things fall apart when they took huge cuts. Lost houses, families broke up, marriages failed. Not pretty by any means. As for stupid pilot things, we had our share from guys taking off without sufficient fuel to letting an FA land the airplane. ??? ( or at least sit in the seat for landing).
Hope that things have improved for you.