Dear Brothers and Sisters:
As I stated in our press release, there is legitimate frustration associated with this entire bankruptcy process, which is designed to facilitate concessions and to ensure the reorganization of the debtor, rather than advance the interests of working people. That is how it has worked in every airline bankruptcy. Our goal has been to lessen the impact on our members, and these agreements have succeeded in mitigating the severity. Make no mistake, nobody is happy with a concessionary agreement, but the ratification of these agreements is better than what our members would have faced with a court-imposed solution.
After all of the discussion, debate and deliberation, the negotiating committees made the difficult but necessary decision to approve the tentative agreement, appropriately giving all our members the last word in this process. With these vote results, our members have spoken and now we move forward, but still keeping our options open.
These are unprecedented times; we are facing the uncertainty of the final outcome from bankruptcy, possible mergers, acquisition, or other corporate transactions. Meanwhile, many of our members face the reality of working for management teams who they doubt possess the expertise to create a viable business plan, much less a successful strategy to convince investors to finance their airline.
In closing, I want to express my continued appreciation and gratitude to our negotiating teams, members of our staff and all of our professional advisers for their diligence under extraordinary conditions, the long hours and their hard work. They have done an exemplary job and have represented our members admirably throughout.
Fraternally,
James C. Little
International President
Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO