American Airlines Will Fire 13,000 Workers

[The Straight Story]

American Airlines Will Fire 13,000 Workers

FORT WORTH (CN) - Two months after filing for Chapter 11, American Airlines parent AMR said Wednesday that it plans to fire 13,000 workers and terminate all four of its pension plans as part of a massive restructuring.

In a letterto employees, AMR CEO Tom Horton said change is "a necessity, not a choice," and that the company must find $3 billion in annual savings.

"As you know, Our major competitors have used the restructuring process to overhaul their companies and become more competitive in every aspect of their business," Horton wrote. "Last week, these airlines announced their financial results, which highlighted, once again, a widening profit gap. Network carriers have benefited from investing their restructuring-driven profits in products and services that have helped drive revenue growth. And low cost airlines continue to benefit from the cost efficiency that has made them a force in our industry."

AMR said in a statement that it will ask the Manhattan Bankruptcy Court for approval to terminate all four of its pension plans. If terminated, AMR said, it will contribute matching payments in a 401(k) plan. AMR said it will seek to stop subsidizing retiree medical coverage for current employees, but will offer access to these plans if employees pay for them.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/02/43570.htm

[mike_c]

1. all their assets should be seized if necessary...

...and used to meet their obligations to employees. It should be illegal for corporations to dump their promises to retirees, and to current employees. At the very least, top execs should be jailed for their failure to keep their promises to employees who worked for years with the promise of retirement, health insurance, etc as part of their compensation.

Note to all workers: corporate employer promises in the U.S. are not worth the paper they're written on.

[xchrom]

2. du rec. nt

[AZ Progressive]

3. America is not an individualist country anymore, it is a collectivist country....to the corporations

How workers including their pensions (not to mention customers as well) are continually sacrificed to the corporations and the 1% so successfully is so stunning, and is anti-individualist (and thus should anger right wingers as well). Americans are collectivist to whoever they work for.

The foolish right wingers don't realize that Corporatism is a form of Collectivism and is thus similar to the Communism that they hate so much.