UAL won their case in the bankruptcy court to terminate all four of their employee pension plans. PBGC took over the plans. They also changed what type of pension plans for existing/current employees would be after the BK. In getting rid of the pension debt, they also gave PBGC a stake in the company to sweeten the deal. UAL had already stopped contributing to two of the pension plans as it was and that was on top of the two pay cuts and other benefit cuts that all the employees had already endured plus all the furloughs during the bankruptcy. They just stopped paying the benefits and called it a "suspension". Suspension my ass. They then came up with the idea to change the plan into an employee participation plan for those still employed there. Those who were already retired....bend over. They were going to offer us "convertible notes" which never happened and there was no way for that to happen in the first place (smoke and mirrors) and we eventually lost our appeal n the BK court and if you look at any of the bankruptcy payments/settlements....paltry does not begin to describe them.
The pilots alone lost a good third to alone half of their pension payments (depending on how long you had been employed). Same for the other employee groups. That also included the benefits paid to their spouses if they were deceased or became deceased at some point. Remember too, that this was all after we had already lost our asses on the worthless stock that UAL had shoved us into, in exchange for cutting our pay and benefits with that employee owners stake bull crap, before the BK. We got literally pennies on the dollar for the stock when we cashed it in. It wasn't worth the price of a roll of toilet paper. Those who waited to sell it after the BK was filed, couldn't sell or even give it away. Then they had the nerve to offer us yet more stock options during the BK. lol Meanwhile, Tilton never lost a dime and was paid millions for his retirement. The only thing that helped to take away the sting, was the class action lawsuit that the senior pilots filed and won down the road, against ALPA.
You wanna hear the worst? The pilots, mechanics, ground employees and FAs got together and collected/raised monies for the families of the crews who were murdered on 9/11 so that they could survive/manage since UAL didn't give a f..k about them.
