SURPRISE, SURPRISE? Bend Over Rover...... The St.Louis TWA Flight Attendants had the right Idea. Original Message ----- From: "Roger James" <ejames@xxxxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 12:04 PM Subject: American Airlines shielded executives pensions from bankruptcy American Airlines shielded executives pensions from bankruptcy FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) 97 One day after American Airlines employees agreed to annual cuts of $1.8 billion, the cooperative spirit turned acrimonious Thursday as union leaders expressed outrage over newly disclosed perks granted to executives. One angry union leader said if workers had known earlier about a pension trust created last year to protect executives' benefits in the event of a bankruptcy filing, they might have voted against the steep concessions intended to keep the world's largest carrier out of Chapter 11. The executive perks, which included huge bonuses for a few, were disclosed late Tuesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing was made after the scheduled end of voting on the concessions. "We are appalled and just disgusted. It's the equivalent of an obscene gesture from management," John Ward, president of the flight attendants' union, said. Flight attendants initially rejected their share of the $1.8 billion cost-cutting plan but reversed themselves Wednesday after the company extended the original deadline. James C. Little, leader of the ground workers' union, said he was considering whether to withhold signing the concessions contract that his members narrowly approved. "If members had known about these compensation agreements, there would have been a higher turnout of 'No' votes," Little said. According to the SEC filing, the company's board agreed to fund 60% of the pension trust established for 45 top executives and it approved bonuses for six top executives if they stay through January 05. The bonuses would be double each executive's pay. American spokesman Bruce Hicks said the benefits were designed to retain top talent and were similar to deals offered by other major companies. "Retention benefits are designed to keep key senior management who are constantly being wooed by other companies 97 other airlines and non-airlines," he said. Hicks said the extra pensions were similar to a supplemental plan for American's pilots, which he said would also be protected in bankruptcy. Ground workers and flight attendants, who earn far less than pilots, have no such a plan, he said. Chairman and chief executive Donald J. Carty could get a $1.6 million bonus, based on his 02 salary of $811,000. Carty told workers last month that he would take a 33% pay cut to demonstrate management's willingness to make sacrifices for the company's good. Carty did not publicly discuss the bonus he could get in 05. Few employees learned of the executive benefits until after they had approved concessions that call for pay cuts of about 16% for flight attendants and ground workers and 23% for pilots. "It's pretty blatant to us that we found out about it after they disclosed it to the SEC. ... It was done intentionally that way to wait until after the voting process," said Little, the Transport Workers Union official. "This ... leaves the issue to us whether they were actually bargaining in good faith." Hicks, the airline spokesman, said union leaders and their consultants were briefed about the executive benefits over the past several weeks 97 but under a confidentiality agreement that prohibited them from informing rank-and-file workers. Little and Ward said they were given general information about executive compensation but denied being told about the bonuses and pension funding. "The only thing we were told is that (Carty) wasn't going to receive any bonuses," *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx 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.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt ********************************************************* _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail