Bob's Links and Rants

Welcome to my rants page! You can contact me by e-mail: bob@goodsells.net. Blog roll. Site feed.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Airline employees screwed again

From the Washington Post:
A bankruptcy judge last night approved United Airlines' request to terminate its pension plans, clearing the way for the largest corporate pension default in history and setting the stage for a possible strike by the airline's flight attendants.
Last July, Joseph Kay at the World Socialist Web Site wrote a good article about this mess. The gist of it is that, as usual, the working people are getting screwed while the rich people are getting richer. Because of United's bankruptcy, many of its long-time employees will probably end up trying to file for bankruptcy, only to find out that Congress has closed that door to sub-millionaires.

At least the Washington Post covers this story, which has a major and immediate financial impact on tens of thousands of current and former United employees, as well as some 44 million Americans currently covered by defined-benefit pension plans. Other airlines and massive corporations like General Motors may soon follow suit.

Combined with the bankruptcy bill and the assault on social security, it appears that it is now official government policy that there be millions of old people starving on the streets of America by 2020.