So why isn't it on the Supreme Courts docket? Why just drop it? Is that what we should expect with the "fighting Machinists". Oh yes, thats right, they are only willing to fight other Unions.
--The Supreme Court does not hear every case that petitions to do so. They select their cases and therefore the ability to heard in the Supreme Court is not in the hands of the petitioner. That would make your inference of the case not going to that level because it is not being fought for, erroneous.
Besides there are two ways this can be addressed, one is to have it go to the Supreme Court, and the other is to put the AFL-CIO and our COPE dollars to work and have the politicians clarify the intent of the RLA and correct the Courts erroneous assumption. I've seen articles from legal journals criticizing the decision but have not seen one defending it. So why isn't labor pushing against this?
--There have been several unions and other creditors that have fought this, and they've lost their cases. There have been over 160 airline BK cases with the AMR case being the last. You make it seem these issues have been visited before. The only observation one can make from your comments is that you haven't take the time to learn the history of this issue and would rather make up arguments that don't have merit or have been proven to not have merit. The answer is simple, your theories are wrong, have been for years.
Actually you may be right, "Did nothing" was not correct, "Doing anything about it now" would be correct. IIRC the IAM did take part in a move by several Pilots groups to try and correct this a few years back, surprised you didn't bring that up, or maybe you were unaware of it, but then simply dropped it. The pilots groups are ready and willing to try again under a more realistic argument but they get no support from the AFL-CIO or any of the AFL-CIO affiliated unions, even ALPA. Basically the IAM went through the motions and presented a flawed argument. Then having failed, simply dropped it. This way they can say they tried. Instead of asking for
equal protection under the law they asked for
special protections. I suspect that the smaller Pilots Unions allowed the IAM to push them towards this flawed argument. The IAM doing so in a deliberate attempt to sabotage it to try and get airline workers behind a move for broader bankruptcy reform. Do I have proof? No, just a suspicion. The Pilots had Capt. Sully testify, had they made the right argument, and AFL-CIO support they may have gotten somewhere.
--Uh-huh. The AFL-CIO, the IAM and all other unions in the country have not been able to make the argument Bob believes is a winner. So they are ALL wrong, while one guy in New York has all the answers? That the premise to this story. EVERYONE is wrong, except Bob. You'd make a fortune as a legal adviser to the poor dumb unions all across the country.
Go ahead keep repeating what your masters tell you. Bankruptcy is about your ability to service debt, not the amount of debt. If the amount of debt becomes so large that you cant service it then you are bankrupt but just having more debt than assets doesn't make you bankrupt if you have the cash flow to service the debt. If I'm earning $100k a year and have $1million in debt that doesn't automatically make me bankrupt, in fact depending on the terms of the debt as an individual I probably would not qualify for bankruptcy, but if I'm making $50k a year and owe $20,000 due immediately I may be able to qualify for bankruptcy if the creditor demands payment. So its not the amount of debt, its the ability to service the debt.
http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/bankruptcy/do-i-have-enough-debt-to-file-for-bankruptcy.html
Now go ahead both you an NYEr and start back peddling. Start saying that the amount is a factor, which I dont deny, but AA had no cash flow problems and the $5 billion in the bank ensured that they wouldn't. They had no creditors pounding on their door demanding payments now, nor where they at risk of violating any covenants, in fact they had just secured loans to cover the largest aircraft order in history.
--I readily admit your simple explanations are effective for those that just want to be told what to think or are looking for an excuse to be upset. However, your attempt to continuously oversimplify the process is very scary since going with your alternative is very dangerous and harmful for Labor. That $5B in the bank is not free and clear money, much of that was from debt taken on their airplanes, engines and landing slots. If they were to run down all that cash, then file for BK, as is your preference, then those planes, engines and landing slots could be lost. They would file BK, they'd need DIP financing by which those Lenders would dictate you us what our contract would be until a new one is negotiated or imposed.
By repeating the $5B in cash (it was actually $4.1B), it appeases your base but it also pushes away more and more people that are starting to see the rhetoric for what it is...rhetoric.
So you and NYer can go ahead and support the company's fraud, their theft of our pensions, retiree medical and workrules under false pretenses as they post billions in profits but do at least come clean and admit that neither of you are truly a friend of labor like you try and sell yourselves as. You may be too stupid to realize what you are doing by NYer knows exactly what he is doing. Not sure which is worse.
--You can call me all the names you want, big deal. This much is true, I will continue to be on these pages exposing your false prophecies as they each crumble under the light of the reality we live in. You want to portray things in a manner that makes the most disgruntled, misinformed members come to your side and stroke your ego, so be it, but there will be a counter balance all along that path. Let the members decide which way they want to go.
Maybe I'm not a lawyer but at least I know the difference between "Your" and "you're" and where did I say that they couldn't file because they had $5billion?