The Big One!
Retired Pilots Network
Our MOST Important Letter to Date!
Please Circulate This Letter with the Attachments
(When this email is Open, click Forward, then address To:, then click Send)
November 28, 2005
To all my Fellow Retirees, Active and Retired Airline Employees and Friends,
On November 18 I sent out an Update Letter explaining that the week after Thanksgiving we would be mounting a massive campaign to target the entire House of Representatives. That time has come.
Before you flip out on me and call me nuts, let me tell you I have developed a system that will allow you to fax the entire 435 member House of Representatives faster and easier than sending a fax to your own Congressman the old fashioned way.
Interested? Read on!
This is THE most important communication campaign we have launched in the past year. Why is this so important? The House of Representatives will be voting on their version of Pension Reform Legislation the first week of December.
As you saw last week, Congress can pass anything they want, attach or amend ANY bill they want, when they want, any time they want, as evidenced by the raise the Senate gave themselves last week, which was attached to another unrelated bill.
It is up to us to show the House of Representatives that there is widespread support for legislation that will save the pensions at United Airlines. The ONLY way we can do that is for us to communicate with the individual Congressmen.
The Senate has passed their version of Pension Reform legislation without any provision to save the pensions at United Airlines. The Senate saw fit to extend the pension liabilities of OTHER airlines by allowing their debt to be amortized over 20 years, but did not include United Airlines.
This measure on the surface looks like it would be very beneficial to the employees and retirees of Delta, Northwest and American. This legislation, however, has set up the unintended consequence of putting pressure on the remaining airlines to terminate their pension plans rather than preserve them in order to become competitive with United Airlines. This competitive imbalance may in fact cause the termination of the pension plans of the remaining airlines. Therefore saving the pensions at United Airlines will make it more likely that YOUR pension plan will be saved.
THIS AFFECTS ANYONE WITH A DEFINED BENEFIT PENSION PLAN.
It is no coincidence that the same man that was the CEO of Bethlehem Steel sits on the Board of United Airlines and is now the CEO of Delphi Corporation. All three of these corporations either have, or will, terminate their Defined Benefit pension plans. This cancer will spread throughout the auto industry, into the telecommunications industry and to all others until there will be NO Defined Benefit pension plans remaining.
If you have been promised a pension this is your battle too.
We have had very little success in enlisting the help of people associated with other airlines up until now because they view this as United’s problem, not theirs. Now with Delta and Northwest in bankruptcy, do you think American will be able to compete and retain their Pension Plans? I don’t think so.
What can we do?
We must join forces. We must communicate with ALL the Congressmen and show them there is wide spread support for legislation to save Defined Benefit pensions INCLUDING UNITED AIRLINES.
How can we do this?
I have developed three levels of involvement. You can choose the level in which you want to participate. I am hoping you will do everything in your power to influence as many representatives as you possibly can and participate at Level Three. I have spent the last two weeks developing a database that can be used with a mail merge system that will allow you to fax all 435 members and the 6 Delegates with the push of a button.
I spoke to a Congressman’s staff member last week about receiving letters from non-constituents. He told me they read EVERY letter that is sent to their office. He said if they get “a lot” of letters on the same subject from different parts of the country they recognize it is a Hot Issue. We need several hundred letters going to each Congressman’s office!
Level One:
This is absolutely MANDATORY. Every person receiving this letter MUST contact their own Congressman. Please compose your own original letter using the Talking Points and Sample Letter below.
To do this properly:
This is the lowest recommended level of participation.
You can find your Congressman’s contact information at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Level Two:
This level of involvement includes Level One AND contacting the Leadership of the House of Representatives. These Congressmen are key players in both the Republican and Democrat parties and nothing will take place to benefit us or the Defined Benefit system without their support.
There are 10 Leaders of the House and we MUST obtain their support.
This level of participation is HIGHLY recommended.
House leadership can be found at this link:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/leadership.cgi?site=ctc
House Leadership:
|
Title |
Member Name |
DC Phone |
DC FAX |
|
Speaker |
202-225-2976 |
202-225-0697 |
|
|
Majority Leader |
202-225-6536 |
202-225-5604 |
|
|
Majority Whip |
202-225-2815 |
202-225-0011 |
|
|
Deputy Majority Whip |
202-225-2501 |
202-225-2504 |
|
|
Assistant Majority Whip |
202-225-6611 |
202-225-3029 |
|
|
Assistant Majority Whip |
202-225-4835 |
202-225-0837 |
|
|
Assistant Majority Whip |
202-225-5361 |
202-225-9460 |
|
|
Minority Leader |
202-225-4965 |
202-225-8259 |
|
|
Minority Whip |
202-225-4131 |
202-225-4300 |
|
|
Chairman House Democratic Caucus |
202-225-7919 |
202-226-0792 |
Level Three:
This is actually the EASIEST as well as the MOST EFFECTIVE Level because your computer will do all the work for you.
This level is for you animals out there that really want to be heard!
This level is for those of you that are mad as hell and don’t want to take it any more!
This level is for those that feel that they have been so unfairly treated that they want the world to know about it and want to see change!
Level Three requires you to do the mandatory Level One participation, also the highly recommended Level Two participation PLUS CONTACT EVERY MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
For the animals out there, that truly want to do their BEST to influence the House to vote in our favor, I have developed a Microsoft Mail Merge to Fax system that will make Level Three EASIER for you to do than Level Two. There are 435 members of the House of Representatives and EACH one of them is critical to our cause. Would you do this if you could contact EVERY Congressman with the push of one button?
PLEASE join my wife and me in contacting each member. This is a massive project, but the chance of saving our pensions makes this a worthy endeavor. I already have commitments from about 2 dozen list members that have sent me notes saying “Jim, count me in, I will do whatever it takes!”
As a test, I sent all the files necessary to Mrs. Peggie Seanor in Colorado on Thursday night last week. She now has successfully sent every member of the House a fax with this system. In fact, by Sunday night she had faxed 2,671 faxes with this system and had 1,000 pending in her fax Outbox. Peggie plans to have her computer sending letters all week non-stop, sending letters for her friends and family.
Before I go any further, let me tell you about Peggie Seanor. Her husband Terry, a retired United Pilot, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1996. Terry is in a care home for he now needs constant care. Peggie will be losing Terry’s pension if we do not influence Congress to change things. She will then lose the home Terry provided for her. She must continue to pay for Terry’s care which is very expensive. To replace Terry’s pension Peggie is now going to school full time to become a Registered Nurse. Peggie is on our mailing list and has written EVERY letter that has been requested of her in our Request Letters. Peggie is not an advanced computer user, but worked with only my written instructions and has been able to fax every member of the House with the push of one button. Her computer faxes as she does her homework and catches up on emails and even while she sleeps.
Peggie wrote to me saying:
Jim:
Your instructions are flawless and work like a charm. If I can do this, than anyone can. I am extremely impressed. I cannot wait to see the finished product. - Peggie
If Peggie has the time and motivation to do this, you should too!
In order to do this mail merge you must have Windows 2000 or XP, Microsoft Word 2000 or newer and Excel which both come with Microsoft Office. You must also purchase the program Fax4Word off the internet for $39.95. These programs together will allow you to mail merge to fax without printing, signing or manually faxing your letters. It takes 1 minute to fax each letter without further input.
Keep in mind that faxes are an old technology and must go through the phone lines; they do not go through your high speed connection. You can fax the members of the House while you sleep or while you use your computer to do other tasks. If you have more than one phone line or a cell phone this system once operating then can free you up to make your phone calls to the 11 most important Congressmen mentioned in Level One and Level Two.
You only need the above programs and your fax modem, which is pretty much standard equipment installed on newer computers, connected to your phone line.
If you don’t have unlimited Long Distance service most companies will let you subscribe one month at a time. I changed my normal fax line over to Unlimited Long Distance and it only cost me $5.00 per month and you can change back at any time.
You can download a trial version of this Fax4Word to make sure it will work on your computer for free, but you will be limited to 5 faxes at a time and will not be able to take advantage of my database.
Once you have the trial version on your computer you can upgrade to the full version for $39.95 on their website. They will then send you a Key Code Number that you type into your trial version to make it a full active version without limitations. Fax4Word has outstanding customer support and they have answered my email inquiries within an hour each time I have sent questions to them.
Fax4Word can be downloaded from this link: http://addins4office.com/Default.asp
For Complete Step-by-Step Instructions for Downloading, Installing and Using Fax4Word, see the attachment on this letter
“Instructions for Setting up Mail Merge to Fax”
This letter has several attachments:
You will need to save the second two files, Merged House Letter and US House Contact Info to a convenient place where you can access them in My Documents. I would suggest you file them in a New Folder you name Congress Mail Merge. You will have to access them during the Mail Merge process.
Complete Instructions are in the Attachment
Talking Points:
Our Number One issue is:
Save the pensions at United Airlines
EVERY letter must say that someplace in the letter in bold type
· Any legislation passed by the House must include provisions to save the pensions at United Airlines.
· The Senate has passed a 20 year amortization of pension liability for the airlines, yet that has the unintended consequence of setting up a competitive imbalance among the carriers. Other carriers will have more incentive to terminate their plans than to preserve them in order to stay competitive with United.
· United Airlines NEVER had to prove in court that they could not in fact afford to preserve the pensions at United Airlines. United just stopped making deposits into the plans and simply said in court they could not afford the pensions.
· There are alternatives to termination that have never been examined in court.
· United should be forced to prove in court they can not afford their Defined Benefit pension plans.
· The retirees of United Airlines have been denied their due process.
· It would be unfair to save the pensions at Delta and Northwest and not include the pensions at United Airlines when the only difference is the date each company filed for bankruptcy.
· United Airlines is projecting $1 billion profit the first year out of bankruptcy. United CAN afford to amortize their pension liability over 20 years.
· Saving the pensions at United Airlines would help save the PBGC which is as of September 2005 $23.3 billion under funded with the shortfall projected by the Congressional Budget Office to be $87 billion in 10 years and $119 billion in 15 years.
· Saving the pensions at United has the potential of lowering taxpayer liability and a possible taxpayer bailout like the Savings and Loan bailouts of the 1980’s.
· What United Airlines has done by terminating the pension plans is illegal outside of bankruptcy court. Termination of pension plans should be reserved for Chapter 7 Liquidation.
· It was not the intent of Congress to have the PBGC used as a business reorganization tool.
· This is no longer only an airline issue with the bankruptcy of Delphi Corporation and General Motors announcing they may have to declare bankruptcy.
· Stop the insanity; place a moratorium on pension terminations in Chapter 11 bankruptcy INCLUDING UNITED AIRLINES.
Sample Letter
Please Compose Your Letter in YOUR Own Words!
Form Letters have little or no impact!
Date
Representative _________
US House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
Fax: ______________
Save the Pensions at United Airlines
Dear Representative ______________,
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on Pension Reform legislation the first week of December.
I am writing to you to ask you to please co-sponsor and support any legislation that will save the pensions at United Airlines.
The Senate passed provisions that would extend the amortization period of pension liabilities of the airlines to 20 years. United Airlines is projecting $1 billion profit the first year emerging from bankruptcy and I believe that some of this profit should be used to fund the Defined Benefit pension plans.
United Airlines has never proven in court that they can not afford their Pension Plans; they only stopped funding them and then stated in court they could not afford them. The retirees of United have been denied their due process.
It would be unfair to change the rules for the other airlines and not include United Airlines. This would have the unintended consequence of creating a competitive imbalance and would be an incentive for the other airlines to terminate their pension plans. This would be necessary to remain competitive with United Airlines.
It was not the intent of Congress that the PBGC be used as a reorganization tool when they passed the ERISA laws in 1974. These laws were written to protect retirees from the actions of greedy corporations like United Airlines.
Please support ANY legislation that will save the pensions at United Airlines.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
City, State Zip
Phone
Thank you for your participation in this very important campaign. Please remember, it is worth your time for the pension you save may be your own.
If anyone has trouble opening the House Contact Info file (Excel file) please send me an email and I will send it to you in a printed out document.
Please work hard at this; you deserve to keep your pension.
Jim Hosking
Retired Pilots Network
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