Date: 2005-06-08
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. last night the gentlewoman from Illinois and I myself read into the RECORD statements that we have received from the employees and the retirees of United Airlines who were worried to death about the fact that their pensions are going to be severely cut as a result of Uniteds decision to terminate their employee pension plans as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. Tonight. we would like to again read many of the emails that we have received from these retirees and these employees outlining what the real human toll is of the actions of United Airlines and the inactions of this Congress to deal with this growing crisis in the American pension plans for workers. As the Members will later hear. Mr. Speaker. some of these 2.000 people who responded to the first ever congressional Ehearing by my Democratic colleagues on the Committee on Education and the Workforce. through their ingenuity. we were able to extend an opportunity to these individuals to H4278 CO be heard because there was no forum in this Congress for them to be heard. There was no forum that said that the average people who are being impacted by this policy will be heard. So we came up with the idea of having a congressional online Ehearing where the retirees and the employees of United Airlines could express directly to the Congress the concerns that these changes have made to them. I think these average Americans are beginning to notice and beginning to articulate the fact that this Congress has not dealt with these concerns. with the concerns that affect their daily lives. So. Mr. Speaker. I would like to read an email from Fred P. Euler from Santa Barbara. California. He writes to us in the email: "As a retired United Airlines pilot. I need your help to stop United Airlines from dumping our pension plan in the lap of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation and possibly the taxpayers. The Retiree. Pilot Pension Plan is adequately funded and should be paid by United Airlines. not the PBGC. The amount that the PBGC will pay out will have a devastating impact on thousands of retired pilots who devoted their careers to United Airlines and are now shocked. saddened and angry about the callous disregard displayed by United Airlines and the PBGC if it succeeds in seizing our pension plan. I am 69 years old with 32 years of service. It is estimated that my monthly loss will be about $2.000. which is over 30 percent of my pension." Jeanne Miller of Murrieta. California. writes: "I am writing this in the hope it might save the termination of United Airlines pension plans . . . I worked as a dedicated flight attendant for over 33 years. I am a single mom with one child who has graduated from college. we are both still paying tuition. and a son who is in his first year of college. I retited reluctantly in June. 2003. United offered a deal to those flight attendants willing to retire early that was hard to resist: good medical benefits and a pension that was enough to support me and my son . . . Now they are threatening to take all of that away." Under the previous plan. she "would have been able to be the caregiver for both of my parents. who are disabled and unable to live by themselves without care. "If United turns over our pension to the PBGC. it will create a tremendous hardship." John Givens of Redondo Beach. California: "I was a 361/2year employee who was forced into retirement when United closed my reservation office in Long Beach. California. My retirement was good enough that my wife. who is disabled. and I thought we could make it. We have raised seven children. two who are still in college. They work part time but will have to drop out because I will no longer be able to help them. I -will lose approximately 55 percent of my pension due to the rules." Mr. Speaker. these are emails from United retirees and United employees