Legislative Action Request:

[UAL_TECH]

LEGISLATIVE ACTION REQUEST: ON-LINE PENSION HEARING - SEND YOUR CONCERNS REGARDING PENSION TERMINATIONS

Good afternoon everyone:

YOUR PROMPT ATTENTION TO THIS REQUEST IS NEEDED - FOR "ONLINE PENSION
HEARING":

Congressman George Miller (D-CA) is sponsoring an "online hearing" (the first of its kind) this week starting today at (Monday, May 23rd through Friday, May 27th) for current employees and retirees of UAL to relay their concerns on the terminations pension plans at UAL, and potential pension terminations.

This will be a week-long nation-wide hearing on the pension dump - the biggest and most dangerous set of terminations in history.

It is the hope that these statements will draw further attention from members of Congress, the public, and the press to the real-life impact of these terminations and the sheer scale assault on the workers' retirement security.


HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

We are urging the membership and retirees at UAL to submit their own witness statements via email or fax, IN YOUR OWN WORDS (500 words or less) to
include:

* the statement should explain a bit about you (the witness);
* where you live and or work;
* what your job at your company has been;
* how long you have worked at your company (please specify your employer/carrier);
* how the termination (or potential termination) of the pension plan personally will impact your lives, retirement security, and family.

These statements must be as PERSONALIZED as possible. GENERIC FORM LETTERS WILL NOT SUFFICE FOR A HEARING OF THIS SORT.

WE NEED TO HEAR YOUR STATEMENTS!!!! SO GET YOUR PEN AND WRITE - OR GET THE KEYBOARD OUT AND TYPE!!!!

Where to send these statements:

VIA Email to: [email protected] - and we will forward the written statements to Congress. OR - VIA Fax to: (202) 822-8887

If you have any questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Best regards,
Maryanne



Maryanne DeMarco
AMFA Legislative Liaison
1725 I Street, NW
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 822-8700
(202) 822-8887 (fax)

UT

 

[UAL_TECH]

Statements of United Airlines Employees and Retirees
(112 statements as of 5/26/2005)

In 1967 I joined United Airlines and retired in 2002 at age 55 years. Throughout my career with UAL I was repeated reminded, in voice and printed word, that when I retired I would receive a pension, free health care, free life insurance, free travel. All that is now gone although I worked over 35 years for this company. Due to the nature of my job and the years of shift work, I decided to accept a lower pension and retire early at 55. Now that the PBGC is taking over the ground employee plan my benefit will be reduced even to a lower level. United Airlines has attempted to fool it's employees, the general public, and, yes, even Congress by stating that current retires will not be affected. Wrong! Because I am "only" 57 years old now and because an increase in pension benefits was negotiated less than 5 years ago, my benefit under PBGC will be reduced approximately 47%. I moved from New York to Colorado with this company and retired to Arizona because of the lower housing prices. A forty-seven percent pension reduction will force me and my wife to sell our home and find even lower costs elsewhere! I am not old enough for Medicare but no longer receive free medical coverage through the United plans. We have been told that Lake Chapala, Mexico has a large American population and the costs are low. Imagine, after serving my country in the US Navy and giving over 35 years to United Airlines, I'm actually considering leaving the United States of America because it'll be too expensive for me and my wife to live here. Bob Dylan was right: "The times they are a'changin' ". Thank you.

I was forced by FAA rules to retire four and a half years ago from United Airlines, at age 60. I was hired in 1969. During the thirty-one plus years I served United and the traveling public as an airline pilot, I flew almost all the aircraft owned by United to airports in most of the fifty states, across the Pacific to Asia, Australia and New Zealand and across the Atlantic to Europe.

I invested in United as a participant in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), which was established by most of the employees in 1994 to keep United safe from the corporate raiders of the time. The 5,000 shares of UAL stock I earned were to be a major part of my family's retirement assets. This stock ended up worthless as UAL's bankruptcy became certain.

And now we face a PBGC takeover of the Pilots Pension Plan, which would further hurt an existence already badly damaged by loss of the ESOP stock. PBGC pension payments would be only half of my current UAL pension. The PBGC penalizes us for retiring "early" at age 60, when this retirement age is mandated by the FAA. It would also discard the pension improvements earned in 2000.

I am prevented by the FAA from flying for an airline, so working is not a viable option since my profession was aviation. My wife and I must now consider selling the home in which we wanted to spend our retirement years to move into one more affordable, likely in some other less expensive and less desirable location. The comfortable retirement we have earned and hoped for, living in the Bay Area, enjoying travel, dining out and other entertainment, would be destroyed.

My pension is deferred income, contracted for by my hard work for more than thirty years. Now this contract is to be broken. Friends in Europe and in other English-speaking countries are dumbfounded when they hear that in America companies can stop paying pensions and the government will not step in to force them to live up to their promises or to guarantee these pensions, not just a portion of them. Such an outcome is unheard of and would be impossible in these other countries where workers are valued more highly than in our great land of freedom and opportunity.

Captain XXXXXXXX, Ret.

DIRECTIONS TO SUBMIT TESTIMONY
All United Airlines employees and retirees are invited to submit statements on how the potential termination of their pension plan personally would impact their lives and families. Appropriate statements regarding this personal impact may be posted on this online hearing page and shared with Members of Congress. To have your statement considered for inclusion in this historic hearing, please send your statement (500 words or less) via e-mail to [email protected]. Please include your full name, address, and phone number (only names and hometowns will be posted). Statements will be accepted throughout the weeklong hearing, from Monday, May 23, through Friday, May 27.

B) UT

 

[SmoothRide]

I visited the Congressman Miller's website yesterday and his office has decided to continue to solicit further comments/testimony from affected UAL employees and family until JUNE 3 due to large number of submissions (1000 plus).

It seems to be making an impact as I believe there are now over 80 cosponsors for HR 2327. Whether you are cynical or not, if you have feelings about this travesty, I think it is important (and probably good therapy too, btw) to make your feelings known and part of the Congressional Record. I sent my comment today.