Bastards stole my daddy's money

[BirdWoman 0]

This is a rather serious post so serious replies/PM's are appreciated.

I was wondering if there are any lawyers out here who can give me some advice for my dad. My dad retired from United Airlines in 2002 after 33 years with the company (he was a captain). Today he got a letter from the pension people saying that they did some calculations and they recalculated his pension. They now figure that he should be getting a pretty significant amount LESS per month. They also told him that because this is what he SHOULD have been getting paid all along, they are also going to take an additional X% out to "repay" what he got overpaid for the last six years.

All that being said, he is looking at a pretty significant loss in his pension because THEY fucked up in the first place, but it took them 6 years to figure it out. This has happened to other pilots as well. To make matters worse, my Mom is getting a cut of his pension from the divorce.

So here is my question. Is there anything legally that my dad can do to in order to not get bent over backwards? To give you an idea of how much money he would be loosing, I will probably be making more flying tandem video on the weekends then he will be getting after 33 years with United.

Please help me help my dad not loose his money.

"I don't know where it is that I'm going, but wherever it is there I'll be!" --quoted by me

[Andy9o8 2]

Your instinct to seek legal help immediately is correct. But seeking it over the Internet like this is not the right way, either for your Dad to get advice, or for a lawyer to give it. Your Dad needs to get himself into a lawyer's office Monday morning, let the lawyer interview him at length, in real time, hopefully with related documentation on hand, and then give him his/her analysis, options and recommendations accordingly. There really is no substitute for that.

[quade 4]

What does ALPA say about this?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[birdlike 0]

Quote

What does ALPA say about this?

Hopefully, he's a member!

There are lots of pilots who are not AOPA members, I'm sure, just as there are lots of gun owners who are not NRA members... and they all end up regretting it eventually when they could have used the organizations' help.

Spirits fly on dangerous missions
Imaginations on fire

[billeisele 130]

interesting situation

"Please help me help my dad not loose his money."

not what you wanted to hear but - how can they steal something that wasn't his to start with?

i agree that they should have given him reliable info about his pension so he could plan his retirement, so maybe taking back the overpayment is a rotten thing to do, but I beleive that pension fund managers probably have a legal responsibility to the "fund"

seems like there would be some time limit on how far back they can go to collect the overpayment

let us know how this turns out

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

[timmyfitz 0]

Quote

Quote

What does ALPA say about this?

Hopefully, he's a member!

There are lots of pilots who are not AOPA members, I'm sure, just as there are lots of gun owners who are not NRA members... and they all end up regretting it eventually when they could have used the organizations' help.

ALPA= Air line Pilots Association. Different than AOPA.

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

Quote

What does ALPA say about this?

Hopefully, he's a member!

There are lots of pilots who are not AOPA members, I'm sure, just as there are lots of gun owners who are not NRA members... and they all end up regretting it eventually when they could have used the organizations' help.

ALPA is the pilot's union and if he was UA as a Capt. I'd bet he's a member...At one time ALPA was Untied Airlines for the most part.

I'm sure the OP's dad has contacted them already and the news wasn't good...a few years back UA re-did the retirement as did most of the majors in order to stay in bidness.

An attny may be able to assist with the 'pay back' thing but the overall amount in the retirement had most likely decreased, depending on WHEN he retired.

I have a friend that's a 28 year UA driver, also a Capt. that saw his retirement decreased by 3/4's, he's still flying and has a few more years but was certainly in shock when he saw the figures.

The moral of the story is, when yer makin' six figures... diversify...these days, nothing is for sure~!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[BirdWoman 0]

He retired in Feb 2002. I know that his pension was cut after the bankruptcy, but now they're saying that they recalculated it AGAIN and want more money back. I have a friend who is pretty high up on the Denver UA council who will help get us in touch with the proper union member to work with. What I'm wondering is, is there anything from a legal stand point about this?

"I don't know where it is that I'm going, but wherever it is there I'll be!" --quoted by me

[JohnRich 4]

I would think that all the retired pilot's who are in this same predicament would join together to pool their money and hire one law firm to file a joint lawsuit on behalf of all of them. That would reduce the legal costs to each individual member, and magnify the power they can bring to bear against the airline.

[JSBIRD 1]

This kind of thing will continue until someone has had enough, and culls a few fund managers or CFO's who feel they will get away with it...and can screw the little guy. (Who built the company)

I won't miss those thieving bastards, and look forward to photos of them in cuffs, or with their melons split open, in all the papers and on net sites.
BASE359

"Now I've settled down,
in a quiet little town,
and forgot about everything"