US Airways pilots to protest end of pension plan By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY Scores of uniformed US Airways pilots are expected to attend a U.S.=20 Bankruptcy Court hearing Friday to protest the termination of their pension= =20 plan. With US Airways' reorganization plan =97 and more than $1 billion in= =20 post-bankruptcy financing =97 on the line, the company is on a collision=20 course with some of its best-paid and most-senior employees.Veteran pilots,= =20 many in their 50s, have organized protest groups, and one has created a Web= =20 site (pilot pensiondefense.org) and hired a lawyer to fight for millions of= =20 dollars in retirement income. The pilots' union is also opposing the plan's= =20 termination. "It's a travesty what's occurring here," says Linda Vaughn,=20 who helped her husband form one protest group. Her husband, Jerry, is a US= =20 Airways captain with 23 years at the company. His pay has dropped from=20 $190,000 a year to $145,000 and is scheduled to drop further. If the=20 pension plan is terminated, his pension will be worth a quarter of what he= =20 expected, she says. The pilots want the court to require US Airways to find an alternative=20 reorganization plan that would preserve the pension plan. Terminating the plan allows US Airways to resolve an estimated $2 billion=20 shortfall in the plan and meet conditions for a government-backed loan and= =20 other financing needed after it emerges from Chapter 11 protection. That's= =20 expected to happen next month."Our company was written off as dead a year=20 ago but now is on the verge of completing a successful restructuring,"=20 spokesman David Castelveter says.US Airways has unsuccessfully sought=20 congressional action to get more time to make up the shortfall, but=20 Congress has balked at special help for one airline.Pilots near retirement= =20 are being hurt unfairly, says James Brengle, a lawyer for the pilots. "Now= =20 they find themselves in a position that they'll have to pinch pennies in=20 the same way they did as newlyweds." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.trotters.net TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************