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February 07, 2004

More Using 911 to Bust Unions

I've emphasized in past posts how Bush used the post-911 bailout money to airlines to demand union-busting concessions from the airline unions as a condition of giving the loans, wonderful leverage for companies attacking their workers.

But having extracted two rounds of concessions already, US Airways is still using the Bush money to force lower wages on employees:

Officials at US Airways, which is struggling to meet the conditions of federal loans that lifted it out of bankruptcy last year, began making the case for more wage and benefit cuts yesterday to skeptical union leaders who have already publicly declared that "the concessions stand is closed."

US Airways' unions have consistently said they would not grant a third set of contract concessions, on top of two sets of wage and benefit cuts the airline sought as part of its restructuring...

US Airways faces a strict set of covenants that it must meet in June to remain in compliance with $900 million in federal loans awarded by the Air Transportation Stabilization Board, which Congress created after the September 2001 attacks to administer a $15 billion bailout package.

Posted by Nathan at February 7, 2004 08:13 AM

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