So Who's Responsible for the United Mess?

Great Debates
1

A recent thread explored the situation with United Airline’s pension problems.

I have a friend who’s always complaining about corporate greed in America, and how the US government/people fail to rein in corporate malfeasance. His favorite example is United Airlines, and how their rich, overcompensated senior execs are screwing over the “little guy.”

Does anyone know the real story, or where I can read about it? Did the execs at United run the airline into the ground, or did competition and and deregulation doom them, or is it some of each?

If UAL has to ditch the pension responsibility to stay afloat, isn’t it better than having the airline go kaboom with all the job loss? I’ve been with a company that went through bankruptcy, and my feeling is that keeping a company alive is better than screwing everyone. In my case, the managers who ruined the company were shown the door. The new managers seemed a lot more trustworthy. The company failed anyway, but at least the new managers kept us afloat for another year.

If the current situation is just an inability to fight off business pressures, then I sympathize with UAL execs. But if they’re draining the company while giving the employees extra burdens, then I sympathize with the employees.

2

By allowing United to ditch their pension responsibilities, they are given an unfair advantage over the other carriers who are living up to theirs. That allows United to continue to slash fares and forces other carrirs to cut theirs to compete.

They are killing healthy carriers to allow a dying one a few more months.

3

That’s exactly it. The economics of air travel now appear to indicate that the market is overserved. One or more of the traditional big carriers is going away…the only question is how and when.