Once again the ANTI UNION PILOTS will ride the coat tails of those who are paving the way for a better future.. your welcome.. do you actually think your management is there trying to get this pushed through???


US House bill would shield workers in bankruptcies

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Workers' and retirees' wages and pension benefits would be protected in corporate bankruptcies under a bill to be introduced on Tuesday by Democratic U.S. lawmakers with support from labor unions.

House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement he will offer the bill to "make it more difficult for the companies to use bankruptcy as a way to gut workers' wages and benefits."

Conyers said he will be joined at a news conference on the bill on Tuesday by Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO labor coalition, and labor leaders for airline pilots, steelworkers, auto workers, flight attendants and machinists.

"Workers have been bearing more than their share of the pain when their companies file for bankruptcy," Trumka said.

"This legislation restores balance to the bankruptcy process, moving workers up in the line of who gets what they're owed, ensuring outrageous CEO packages don't trump things like pensions and living wages, and slamming shut corporations' back door route to gutting workers' rights," he said.

An aide to Conyers said the bill would seek to amend the U.S. bankruptcy law and declined to provide further details ahead of the news conference. (Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh)

At first I thought your title was a little harsh. Now I realize it wasn't.

yeah, wasn't trying to be harsh, just stating the facts... there are a lot of union haters out there.. i know unions aren't perfect, but they are the only thing i have between my career and a management group that would do anything to use and abuse me. In a career where we are one medical or checkride away from being on the street, having a union seems like it is the only logical option.. This is the stuff alpa is fighting for,, they saw their members get burned when all the companies filed for bankruptcy and shook down the unions.. now they know what they need to do to fix it, and that is what they are doing...

We have a saying here at pinnacle.. BACK THE PAC (i am sure everyone uses that saying)... i give 2 bucks a month, 1 dollar a paycheck to the pac. i have paid almost 48 dollars in the nearly 2 years i have been here. if this bill is passed it will be 48 dollars well spent.

i would like to invite any anti union people to explain to me how this isn't going to benefit you someday.

PAC? Haven't had that one thrown my direction yet.

It's too bad Bush will probably veto this...

Political Action Committee, union members pay to the PAC to hire lobbyists to advance union agendas in DC. It sucks that this is what it's come to, but we'll get the best laws we can afford.

can we say THAT again.

you know what, I have flown with many a captains here who didnt vote yes, and werent shy about telling me about it. I would totally respect them if they had some solid reasons, but their reasoning was so narrow. like mainly, why should i have to give up 2% of my paycheck. granted we are all friggin poor but I'm not sure that qualifies as a good reason. some of them have quoted the bossman's propaganda like word for word, you would think they as captains would know better by now than to drink that koolaid. you should sit down with them one day and have a civil debate about this whole deal.

It's too bad Bush will probably veto this...

"I would totally respect them if they had some solid reasons, but their reasoning was so narrow. like mainly, why should i have to give up 2% of my paycheck. granted we are all friggin poor but I'm not sure that qualifies as a good reason."

I would glady give up 2% of my pay to be represented by ALPA again. I left an ALPA carrier (bought by MESA) and went to a non union 737 charter operation as a Captain. Decent pay, great outlook for expansion, etc. After 2 years, it was sold to an idiot who almost put us into bankruptcy. Management is now running the company on the backs of the employees. No pay raise in 4 years, no retirement benefits, insurance coverage slowly trimmed away and 5 to 6 days off a month. Now, since none of the pilots will answer the phone on a off day, our nimrod VP is threatening to change our pay to a day rate, "They don't fly, they don't get paid".

After 25 years in this business, I'm a big believer that if you don't have a union, you will get screwed eventually. Hell, Southwest pilots are treated better by management than any other pilot group out there and they are represented by ALPA. They are not stupid, they know it could change at any time.