Originally Posted by
tsquare
Another interesting sidenote was that the judge said that AMR decided to freeze, rather than terminate the pension plans, which will result in significant cost to the company. Additionally, he also said that the matter of pensions are not before the court. Draw your own conclusions about that. This ruling, and the one to come are only concerned with the pilots' contract, not the retirement plan.
AMR wanted that outcome for the pesnions. Initially, AMR stated the intention to terminate, but then the PBGC put leins on many South American assets (that are not protected in BK) and that leverage forced them to retreat to a freeze. The PBGC is something like 40-50 billion under water as it is and adding another 8 billion from AMR is a back-breaker, so Gothy did what he had to do.
"Leverage".........what a concept, eh ?
At any rate, once this BK is over and the PBGC doesn't have the ability to put leins on assets (loss of leverage) or have judges to influence, I'd expect AMR to terminate in the future as it saves money. That would fit perfectly with their M.O., IMO. BTW, when that happens, guess whose paychecks will likely be the place to find $$$ to make that up for the PBGC ?
Yep, the taxpayers (look for more $$$ skimmed from your paychecks in the future).