Texas Business Lawyer

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court – Southern District of New York entered five letters into the docket that were all written from American Airlines retirees.

The letters were all uniform explaining that they have concerns about AMR Corp’s new pension plans now that they filed for bankruptcy. Excerpts from the letters include,

“As a retiree of American Airlines, I earned my pension over the course of a XX year career, and I have counted on its financial security for my ‘Golden Years.’ If AMR is allowed to do away with the Pension Fund, there will be several more thousands of citizens depending on the U.S. Government for money it doesn’t have. Our Government is already operating under trillions of dollars of debt. This debt is adversely affecting our economy, and will be for decades to come.

AMR Executives should surrender some of their excessive pay, bonuses, and ‘golden parachutes’ in order to improve AMR’s financial future. The ‘workers’ have sacrificed many times during the Company’s history. It is time ’someone else’ does the sacrificing. American Airlines would not have been as successful were it not for the devotion and sacrifice of its workers.”

Austin business attorneys of Slater, Kennon, & Pugh Ltd. LLP are excited to announce the inaugural Austin Startup Olympics this Sunday at 2pm.

Some of Austin’s most elite startup companies will compete in the first annual Austin Startup Olympics this Sunday at uShip World Headquarters.  This will be a 10-event competition for teams to compete in games such as Flip Cup, Foosball, Beer Pong, Shuffleboard, and Darts.

Teams competing are from companies like Boundless Network, Build-a-Sign, Spredfast, Mass Relevance, Adlucent, SpareFoot, uShip, and Whale Shark Media.

The money that each company wins during the games will be donated to a charity of their choice.  Some charities chosen include Communities in Schools of Central Texas, Kure It, and the Austin Children’s Museum.

For more information, visit www.startupolympics.org

On Wednesday, Hostess Brands Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection citing debt and labor costs and a poor competitive edge.

The Irving, Texas based company famous for Twinkies made a statement discussing the cost structure as “not competitive, primarily due to legacy pension and medical benefit obligations and restrictive work rules.”

Hostess’ main concern is in regards to labor agreements, and court documents stated, “Whether the debtors can achieve long-term viability depends directly and substantially on the debtors’ ability to achieve dramatic change to their labor agreements, with a corresponding material reduction in their cost structure and legacy pension and medical obligations, and a restructuring of their capital structure” is the main reason for the filing.

If you are considering bankruptcy, contact Austin business litigation attorneys of Slater, Kennon, & Pugh by calling 512-472-2431 today.