Robbery By Bankruptcy

A Call To Action


By Jim Hightower, AlterNet
Posted on December 1, 2004, Printed on December 2, 2004
http://www.alternet.org/story/20637/

Why is it that when George W says he's going to "reform" something, I instinctively want to grab my money, my liberties, my family... and flee to the woods?

For the Bushites, the word reform means "deform," to monkeywrench the system so the rich get richer ... and the rest of us get schtooked. Still, there's one system crying out for real reform: the bankruptcy process that corporations are using to stiff their employees – letting CEOs simply walk away from binding contracts on wages, health care, and pensions.

At present, the big abusers of employees are United, U.S. Air, Delta, and other major airlines that have been poorly managed and now are being squeezed by their bankers and jet fuel suppliers. Screaming poverty, these airlines have rushed to bankruptcy court, demanding that judges allow them to abrogate legitimate contracts that they had negotiated in good faith with their pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and others.

These are loyal, longtime, hard working employees who already have made concession after concession, giving back billions of dollars that were owed to them. Yet the CEOs are demanding still more, using the federal bankruptcy law as their weapon for this mugging. This one-sided law apparently legalizes end-runs to let corporations weasel out of their obligations. What an interesting lesson for all of us who've been taught that a contract is sacrosanct, a legally-binding giving of one's word.

Here's my question: Why do the CEOs only target the workers for cost-cutting? Why not tell Exxon and the other fuel suppliers "no," we can't pay your gouging prices, so we're abrogating those commitments? Or, why not say to the super-wealthy bankers, you take some of the pain, too? Why do they only pound their workers?

This is Jim Hightower saying ... I don't know about you, but on my flights, I'd rather have a disgruntled banker or fuel supplier than an angry pilot, flight attendant or mechanic. It's time to fix the bankruptcy law that has legalized the corporate robbery of workers.

© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/20637/