I remember when UAL had the ESOP. UAL had leased a bay in our hangar so I was assigned to work with their guy on it. I never liked the idea of forced stock options for workers. Especially options that you have to hold on to as a condition of employment. The UAL guy however was very enthusiastic, he said "I'm going to retire a millionaire". I doubted it. He told me how much his stock had gone up then I asked him 'Can you sell it?" "He said "no, not unless I quit first'. I said "If you cant sell it you dont own it," all you have is the liablity of having a portion of your pay diverted into something you have no control over.
I think the ESOP plan was the greatest scam the banks ever came up with. They forced the employees to buy the stock at inflated prices (probably selling their own and reaping huge profits) then make sure the carrier goes bankrupt, making the employee held stock worthless, then get the courts to issue new stock in exchange for thier "losses" on company held debt. So they make a huge profit selling the company to the employees, then take it back from them for free.
Right now you guys have the IBT where you want them. If they dont deliver you've already demonstrated that you will not tolerate a lack of performance, ie IAM, AMFA. Portability is a powerful weapon, it makes others accountable. If you get brought into the IBT plan it would make the IBT less accountable because now they have your pension. So if you are certain that no matter what you want to stay with the IBT, who have done a good job as far as wages at UPS and even Air Tran, then vote in favor of the plan, its probably better than you would do on your own because you join a larger pool, but if you want to keep their feet to the fire and keep them accountable then I would say vote against it.
