CHICAGO (AFP) - The judge overseeing United Airlines' bankruptcy case struck a controversial pension-related brief from the record, in the latest development in the row over United's underfunded pension plans.
Judge Eugene Wedoff granted a motion from two of the airlines' unions, and their federal allies to delete the 91-page document, and warned the carrier that its filings must be to the point and in line with court rules.
In the brief filed Thursday, United set out the consequences for its workforce as it sees them, if, as it has threatened, it ditches the employee pension plans altogether.
The Chicago-based carrier argued that reports exaggerated the extent to which the four funds are underfunded, and are actually on the order of 2.7 billion dollars, instead of the 8.3 billion dollars by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
The airline also argued that the implications for the workforce are not as dire as reported. It said retired flight attendants should get all their benefits on average, but acknowledged those still working will likely only recieve 66 percent of what they were expecting.
The predictions did not cut any ice with United's unions. In a statement issued Friday, the Association of Flight Attendants called the brief "unsubstantiated."
"It is clear that the 91-page brief, which was also circulated among members of the media, had been a long time in the making and was aimed at influencing the court, media and employees by attempting to minimize the understood impact of terminating employee pension plans and dumping the corporation's responsibility on the government," said the AFA's United Master Executive Council President Greg Davidowitch.
United has already declared a moratorium on payments to the four funds that cover 62,000 employees and thousands more retirees, and has said repeatedly that it cannot keep up with its obligations and secure the loans it needs to exit court-supervised bankruptcy protection.