Teamsters and Committee for Change Meet with Congressman George Miller
By: John
Fischbach, UAL mechanic,
On January 10, five members of the Committee for Change, including your Committee Chairman, Rich Petrovsky, and two International Brotherhood of Teamsters representatives, met with Congressman George Miller of the 7th Congressional District of California. Miller is Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. In our discussions with our Congressman, we raised concerns over the termination of the UAL mechanics’ defined benefit pension plan.
We discussed with Congressman Miller the way United’s management devaluated some assets of the corporation while stating the overwhelming problems with the underfunded pension plans. Our discussions explored the possibilities of developing legislation to prevent corporations from raiding or underfunding pension plans held in trust, like United Airlines had done with ours. We also discussed different ways to provide for the retirees already affected, by possibly by setting up a trust fund or annuity from profits realized by United’s sell off of the “Mileage Plus” program.
Congressman Miller stated that several investigations of United Airlines’ defunct pension plans were still under way by the committee he chairs. He also mentioned his frustration with the current administration’s unwillingness to move on that particular issue. However, there is still an effort in Congress to continue the investigation.
Kim Keller, Deputy Director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Organizing Department, and Dieter Waizenegger from the Teamsters Strategic Research and Campaigns Department, were both instrumental in giving a concise report to Congressman Miller. They presented an outstanding outline to illustrate how United Airlines was able to saddle the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation with approximately $6.6 billion dollars of debt, while apparently downplaying the value of other assets held by the company such as the “Mileage Plus” program. United Airlines’ management team gave the “Mileage Plus” program an estimated value (or what would be given to creditors if liquidated) of $4.2 million during the bankruptcy proceedings. However when United Airlines wanted to sell the program a short time later, it was valued at $5.6 billion. Congressman Miller was very impressed with the accuracy of the research by the Teamsters representatives and the presentation as a whole.
Rich Petrovsky explained that the outsourcing of maintenance on United Airlines and other aircraft raise important issues of quality control, and pointed out the lack of federal oversight and regulatory requirements of the workforce in foreign countries.
Another issue on the agenda was the proposed sell
off of the United Airlines maintenance base and the possible resulting
impact it would have on the local economy. Petrovsky told Congressman
Miller about the devastation that ensued after the closing of the
Some insight into the Outsourcing Summit Conference being hosted in February by the Teamsters was also provided. The Teamsters are partnering with other groups interested in air transportation safety such as the Business Travel Coalition, ALPA, AFA and many congressional representatives. Congressman Miller, who is a frequent flyer himself, mentioned the degrading of the fleet. He noted that he was placed in seats that did not work on several occasions. If the airline allows the items the flying traveler sees to be in poor condition, what about the things we DON’T see or know about?
Overall, we had a highly productive meeting with Congressman Miller. The Committee for Change feels the issues we discussed are critical and that it is necessary to bring up industry concerns to our supporters in Congress. We will update you through this newsletter as we continue to take on the fight against outsourcing and the loss of our pensions.