You gotta love people like eolesen who love to use the term "pension obligations," conspicuously making it sound like a burden.. For them, it's an "obligation", but for a privileged executive it's his/her "market demanded compensation package"
No, even the rich bastard management plan is an "obligation" of the company.
I use the term "obligation" a lot - it simply means that which is required of you from a legal and/or moral perspective. Like the pensions.
I've posted before that I wanted airlines to liquidate and shut down if they couldn't meet their "obligations." As expected, many of the perpetually disgruntled whined about my harsh viewpoint. No management should have ever been able to terminate their pension obligations and screw their retired (and current) pilots the way US, UA and DL did.
Is there a word meaning the same thing as "obligation" that doesn't carry so much emotional baggage for you? I certainly don't want to offend any delicate sensibilities when describing contractual obligations like pensions.
Hate Arpey and his cronies for everything under the sun. Hate him for the sun coming up and going down if you wish.
But he did show a lot more commitment to the employee pensions than management at any other legacy airline, causing AA to contribute more than $2 billion to the plans the last few years while the other airlines gave their employees the middle finger.
I realize that AA's failure (refusal, delay, whatever) to file Ch 11 makes many of you furious - probably because many of you repeated yourselves over and over again in 2003 and 2004 and 2005 and 2006 etc. that AA would soon file Ch 11 and terminate the pensions even after imposing the huge concessions - and Arpey's persistence in funding the pensions anyway and refusing to file for bankruptcy protection means you were WRONG. Everyone hates to be wrong, but you guys elevate that hatred to an art form.
AA will likely file sometime in the future, meaning you guys will finally be right (just a few years early in your prediction).
I also realize that AA would be the land of milk and honey and represented employees would annoint Arpey's feet if only he'd canceled his (and other managers') variable compensation payouts in 2006, 2007 and this year. Shame on him for taking what his contract promised him if AMR outperformed the other airlines' stock values over the relevant timeframe. May he rot in hell for taking the other half of his compensation package for successfully avoiding bankruptcy for several years beyond the filings of US, UA, US, DL and NW.
The offer still stands. Form an independent union of AA AMTs and I'll send you $100 to help the effort.
