> Kevin Delaney's book, STRATEGIC BANKRUPTCY (California Press, 1992),
>examines the corporate use of Ch 11 bankruptcy in breaking union contracts
>(Continental Airlines) and evading financial claims from lawsuits such as
>Manville (asbestos). It was Frank Lorenzo that utilized his Harvard
>B-school weekend training to creatively exploit Ch 11 bankruptcy for
>abrogating the Continental union contracts. Also, Delaney shows that these
>corporate bankruptcies were timed when their assets and liquidity did not
>demonstrate financial hardship.
>
>bob manning
>Univ of Houston
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
This is extremely important. I have been too busy to pull together my
article on airline deregulation, but will get to it in a week or so. But it
must be understood that nearly all of the cutting edge ruling class tricks
against labor and consumers was tested in the airline industry first. Not
only creative bankruptcy, but two-tier wage scales for union and non-union
employees, leveraged buyouts and all the rest. Not only do you get the
bosses at their sharpest, you get the trade union movement at its most
pitiful worst. With pilots crossing mechanic's picket lines, etc. One of
the things that amazes me is how inadequate the response of labor has been.
Wages were routinely cut by 50 percent. If you had told me in 1970 that
major industrial unions would have those kinds of cuts rammed down their
throats, I would have responded that revolution would be on the agenda. How
wrong I was.
Louis Proyect
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