Petition - HL 248 (2)

I will share that many many comments were received concerning the shared news of Ed Bastian taking over for Richard as the new CEO.  I shared some some of those comments via an email but be assured that there were many more received in the same vein. 

Since the management change announcement there has been some rumblings about the petition and the efforts made on non-qualified monies lost (in addition to those of the DP3 working on the qualified monies lost), about re-opening the effort.   Well, I might say that lone wolf letters such as the one from David below may have an impact, but IF another effort is made to share the Delta pilot retirement plight with Ed, it will be best accomplished if done collectively. 

From: David Cann <frampton77@aol.com>
Date: February 12, 2016 3:35:09 PM EST
To: "edward.bastian@Delta.com" <edward.bastian@Delta.com>
Subject: 2500 Delta Pilots

Sir.

Congratulations on your promotion.

Would you have achieved your noteworthy standing if it had not been for the efforts of all the Delta employees?

I am one of about 2500 retired Delta pilots who, after 32 years of service, have been singled out for special acknowledgment.

That's right, I receive no retirement.   $00.00.    After 32 years.

All Northwest, Pan Am, Western, Northeast, and all Delta employees got FULL retirement.

What did we 2500 Delta pilots do to deserve this continuing theft?

Does anyone at Delta care?

The silence roars.

You now have the power and the resources to make this right.

I just turned 70.  I still fly full time to make ends meet.  

Please let us retire and receive the benefits we worked for and were promised.

Nothing more.  Just like every other Delta employee.

If silence is consent, and you do nothing....

Will the theft continue on your watch?

Will you, like Richard Anderson, never see this letter?

David Cann. (retired?)
378217
Frampton77@aol.com

 +++++

Below, Malcom I was not aware of the petition ending effort made so for his benefit and for any of the others who may need a refresher see below:

From: Malcolm Harper

Date: 2/8/2016 10:21:40 PM

To: mark@pilotcommunication.net

Subject: Re: petition

Malcolm asks whatever happened to the petition that over 2500 of us signed regarding the group of retired Delta pilots especially harmed by the actions surrounding the bankruptcy? 

Eidtor:  Mal, I guess you must have missed a few issues of the High Life because what happened to the petition had been very carefully documented.   For your benefit and for any others who did not know what was the petition followup here is a refresher.   I sent a complete package (including the full printed petition) to every board member and company principle at their personal address.  We got "enough" traction from sending that to them that they nudged management to meet with us.  They agreed to have us see Senior VP Rob Kight on Nov. 12, 2013 and four of us went to Ft Widget to present out case.  It was amicable but dismissed out of of hand by Kight. 

Yes, with the new management changes there is some interest in pleading our case to the new guys again.  We'll see.

Mark

Hey Mark,

Yes I guess I missed all that somehow. It must have occurred during one of my p.o.'d periods. I read with disgust management's phony comments about how they owe so much to their employees.  I guess we retired pilots didn't fit into that group. Such a fine way of showing gratitude. And then ALPA accepted my dues for over 30 years only to screw us after retirement. 

Mal

Here is a little more refresher summation from Rob followed by one from me regarding our effort to represent the Delta pilots on lost non-qualified benefits at Ft Widget. 

Hello Willie,

Rob Moser here.

Mark Sztanyo forwarded your email to me and I will respond to your questions.

I was the originator of the petition that I and 3300+ other

individuals signed and delivered individually to all of the Board of

Directors and the CEO, Richard Anderson.

After a delayed response, where we were requesting an audience with

Richard, we were "invited " to meet with Rob Kight, senior vice

president of pensions, etc, at Delta. There were four of us in

attendance, Alan Price, Scott Murray, Mark Sztanyo, and myself. We

came armed with all of the necessary financial information to show

that the percentage of our pensions that were not being paid was well

above what CEO Grinstein said we would forfeit, and certainly,

percentage-wise, far more than the retired ground employees who

suffered very minor, if any, reductions in their pensions.

Rob Kight attended the meeting with one of his assistants. Also in

attendance was a Delta attorney who specialized in pensions, and

retirement benefits. Kight asked if we had any objection to this

attorney being present, to which we replied that it might help since

he would be able to answer some legal questions that might arise

during our discussion.

We held a "rehearsal meeting" the day prior to the meeting with Kight,

and asked very knowledgeable DP3 board trustee, to attend the rehearsal

and coach us, as necessary, on certain topics.

The meeting lasted several hours and we presented our case to Rob

Kight. His response was a canned response, which we expected, and he

said that he would take our presentation and concerns "forward" but

"because of the ruling of the bankruptcy court", he did not anticipate

any change in our status as "unsecured creditors".

The “final” response, which we received almost 3 months later, was the letter

that was published in the weekly blog from Mark Sztanyo.

Additional attempts have been made with various bankruptcy  law

groups, and other law groups to attempt to challenge Delta's win in

the bankruptcy court. The bankruptcy court issued a "plan of

reorganization" and a "discharge order" which, by law, had to be

challenged within 180 days of the court decision. Once the 180 days

expire, there is no legal challenge to the bankruptcy decision. There

were personal challenges by several pilots but they were not able to

get any traction.

No law firm that we contacted was willing to pursue Delta through any

other avenue, either out of fear of tangling with a major fortune 500

corporation, or recognizing that the bankruptcy rulings rarely have been

successfully challenged.

The USAir pilots wanted to challenge the law and were told that if

they lost, they would incur all of the associated court costs, legal

fees etc. As a result, their attempt was dropped.

Last year, in November 2013, I was introduced to a law group by my

personal attorney in Atlanta. We (Alan Price, Scott Murray,  my attorney,

and myself) met with this group for several hours to try and find some way

to either re-open the bankruptcy case or see

if there was any other avenue to try and recover the portion of our

pension that Delta "owed" us. This law firm took our plight under

review and investigated the possible avenues of recourse that we could

employ to try and right the wrong that had been done to our 3500+

former Delta pilots.

This law firm met with several bankruptcy law groups and held several

internal meetings to try and find ways to recover the moneys that we

were screwed out of by Delta management.

To quote one of the attorneys, he said,  “the sun has set on the

bankruptcy proceedings, but the sun never sets on fraud."

So, it appears the only possible recourse that we have is to FIND the fraud and

use it either in a legal setting or demonstrating through whatever

means necessary that fraud was committed in an intentional and

unethical (illegal) manner. The primary method of doing that would be

to find correspondence that would provide the "smoking gun".

We are well aware that there were financial transactions that were

quite questionable, but we have to prove that they were illegal or

fraudulent.

I have not provided the name of this law firm, at their request. This

firm is providing support to other law firms that are involved in

matters that are not supportive of Delta's legal positions, and they

have requested that they remain off the radar. I am complying with

that request.

As to your thoughts about publicizing our situation:

It would take millions of dollars to try and get our voices heard. And

Delta would counter that attempt with a barrage of information, valid

or not, showing that we had received a significant portion of our

expected retirement dollars and they had fully complied with the law.

As to placing a 1/4 page ad in the Wall Street Journal, I would put

that in the same category as one pilot walking with a picket sign on

the sidewalk of the Atlanta Airport.

Politically, there was an attempt to engage Senator Isaakson and

Senator Chambliss when the bankruptcy took place. Keep in mind that

politicians, Republican, Democrat, or whatever, only have one interest

in mind, and that is going where the money is for their re-election

campaign. If you were a politician, would you count on 3500 cheap-assed

old fart airline pilots?? or a major corporation earning billions of

dollars for your re-election piggy bank??

I understand that you are frustrated, bitter, angry, etc., by the fact

that almost 10 years have elapsed since the bankruptcy and we still

have not been treated like the professional pilots that we were for 30

plus years working for a company that we dedicated our best efforts to

provide the highest level of safety and customer service that we could

and that we did.

We, your fellow pilots, share your anger and frustration. I work as a

flight instructor in Korea, working for about the same monthly amount

that I should be receiving as my EARNED, DEFERRED income, referred to as

a "pension."

When I talk to people who ask me if I am a "retired" airline pilot, my

response is "no, I am a FORMER airline pilot who worked for Delta for

35 years but had to resign so as to receive a partial pension payment,

because of a management team that stole part of my pension from the

company treasury and laughed all the way to the bank" (Leo Mullin,

Michelle Burns and their executive gang of thieves)

Angry?? Damn right I'm angry, but the bankruptcy courts in the USA are

not there to protect the employees, they are there to protect the

corporations from harm.

I don't know if this answers your questions, but rest assured that I,

and many other pilots, have given it our best efforts during the past

3 years. If I knew the key to correcting this terrible situation, I

would surely turn it.

On October 1st, a good friend of mine, a former United pilot, took his

life because he was out of money, very depressed, and unable to

reconcile his situation with any hope for the future.

Most would not have worried about their retirement dollars while they were a

young, hard working pilot working for the best managed airline in the

airline industry? With that thought in mind, I don’t really think that

any ads in the WSJ will have any effect on a 30 year old

reading it?  My children, who are in their mid 20's, are VERY tuned in

to the realities of providing for their own retirement, but the only

reason that they are tuned in is because they have watched their dad

live through the debacle of the Delta bankruptcy and the after effects

of that disaster.

I would like to help you with closure, but reality is reality. Every

pilot is different. There are those who closed this chapter of their

lives the day after the bankruptcy ruling; there are others who wake

up every morning pissed off at DINO, Delta in Name Only.

There are days when I never think about what should have

been...........there are other days, however,  when I read the Atlanta Journal and see

the insane profits that Delta is making and realize that a significant

portion of that profit was built on the backs of pilots who got

screwed by Delta as well as ALPA. Those are tough days and I would

give 24/7/365 to try and turn back the clock and do things

differently.  But I now choosing not to live in the rear view mirror of life

and accept that which I cannot change.

I and many of my fellow Delta pilots certainly tried.

Kind Regards

Rob Moser

++++

Maybe My Last Hoorah?   (On this issue)

Many of you know that the petition and follow on effort to gain and conduct a meeting with the company’s senior management over the loss of retired Delta pilots terminated “non-qualified” benefits, occupied many hours of work.  My personal work along-side Rob Moser, Scott Murray, Alan Price and a private valuable “circle” of advisors was extensive.  Quite frankly, because of my early retirement situation at age 52, I really wasn’t working for major improvement in my own situation but rather for other retired pilots. 

From the outset we had a number of overarching guidelines that we lived within.  We tried our very best to take the “high road” and approach the ‘good’ men at Delta as good men making a request for review of our situation to see if our claims are true.  As you know, suing is difficult and threats and name-calling may temporarily make us feel better but likely shorten the meeting considerably.  As you also know we were indeed successful in winning a meeting and of course the result while maybe predictable was very disappointing and we failed miserably to move the company.  Meeting with one of the chief architects of the nasty regarding our pension terminations, on Nov. 12, 2013 with Mr. Kight, we couldn’t gain any agreement that a “nasty” was even done.  Concerning our claim of disproportionate, inequitable and unfair treatment the company simply refused to agree.  Most all of you expected this result.  But we tried.  And my work load to pull this off was high.  Now in the aftermath there is one thing remaining that I wish to help make happen.  I want our story to get out!  Therefore, we need to get in the media with our published story. 

This may be my last hoorah with this effort, but I have assembled a media ready article and am starting to make it available to the press.   Here is the link to my latest draft of “Is Your Retirement Safe?”:

Maybe you have connections to publishers and maybe you can help us get this story published. If you do the draft is also available as a Word document. 

                                          IS YOUR RETIREMENT SAFE?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzB_SBDmSd9ARUN2eXlOU2plUzQ/edit?usp=sharing

Mark

 


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