CWA’ers resolve most Bankruptcy issues with management prior to Thursday's court hearing on the Plan of Reorganization...
CWA’ers met several times during the last two weeks with management in an attempt to resolve our objections to the Bankruptcy Plan of Reorganization prior to the court hearing on Thursday, September 15.
As we reported previously, we had filed objections stating that management had changed the terms of the profit sharing plan, had refused to allow us to swap our profit sharing for stock, and did not fulfill their obligation to attempt to secure a board seat for CWA and other unions during their negotiations with investors.
We also filed objections to the Executive contracts which contain, in our opinion, excessive retention compensation and golden parachute compensation for those executives leaving the company.
We have now reached an agreement that covers all our claims, except for our objections to the Executive Compensation, which we will continue to oppose in court.
Here are the terms of the settlement:
In exchange for a board seat, we agreed to four executive meetings annually with the three top officers of the company (including Chairman and Vice Chairman) prior to each quarterly board meeting. We will use those meetings to raise the issues of concern to passenger service employees. And, following each quarterly board meeting, those executives will brief us on the issues and content of that board meeting. In addition, the CEO will meet with us following each quarter’s earnings report to discuss company issues.
We will accept the new profit sharing plan, and will not claim the right to exchange it for stock;
The Winston-Salem Res center hiring freeze will end; the company will resume hiring at that center;
There will be a phase out by attrition of queue and kiosk duties assigned to the CAR classification at all but the six focus cities;
Full-timers who have been displaced to part-time may accept an open full-time EO vacancy at their location at their regular rate of pay. The company will, in turn, have an alternate EO vacancy to fill.
Our pre-bankruptcy pending arbitration cases will not be wiped out by the bankruptcy court, and they will resume immediately following exit from bankruptcy.
Our entire CWA Passenger Service Agreement (our contract) will be officially “assumed†by the new corporation upon exit from bankruptcy.