Just picked this up from BuyBlue:
United Airlines will emerge from bankruptcy on February 1, 2006
According to this article, there have been 166 airline bankruptcies since the deregulation of 1978. This will be only the third case where the airline emerges without going out of business.
It looks like my frequent flier miles will be safe, and that I will be able to fly United again and again - to see the flight attendants at work, and pick up the cues that will make their way into Perfect Girl.
The damage has been done though. United shrank its fleet by 20%, cut its workforce by half, and even for the remaining workers, pension benefits are gone. Sarah won't be coming out of this unscathed either; she has lost both her job and her pension plan because of the bankruptcy. And the fact that the executives are still pocketing huge amounts of bonuses for themselves is obscene. A once-fine airline has been raped and gutted by a band of greedy executives, and I want to make sure that Sarah makes a few choice comments on this. (And with a good job at San Francisco's new Gay Center, Sarah won't feel much of a need to return to flight attendant duty, even though all laid-off flight attendants have been called back.)
At least it is nice to know that the unions will be more politically active, and that they were backed by Congressman George Miller (who used to represent me) and Senator Barbara Boxer (who still represents me).
More detail at San Francisco Chronicle
No comments:
Post a Comment