Another caller to the same radio program who stated he was a retired United manager stated a few interesting things.
He said that 7 years ago when the company offered an ESOP to the employees that the employees knew they would not get raises for 5 or 6 years. ESOP stands for Employee Stock Option Plan. Employees want this because unlike wages the stock is not taxed while it hopefully is increasing in price. When they quit or retire they can sell their stock and be taxed at capital gains of 18% max. So they were able to buy stock around $60 or $70 which split 4 for 1 and rose again to $60. Everyone was happy. Then 2 years ago the pilots got a 30% wage increase. The price of the stock started to decline. Im not stating that the pilot raise was the fault of the stock decline , Im just saying that it happened at approximately the same time. Now wages became important again!!
[ 14 February 2002: Message edited by: polzin ]</p>