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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) said that it is taking over the pensions of nearly 1,300 current and future retirees of Peter Brant's SP Newsprint Co., which is working to sell its assets in chapter 11, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. The PBGC estimates the SP Newsprint pension plans are 49 percent funded, with $74.4 million in assets to cover $150.7 million in benefits. The agency said it expects to cover $73 million of the $76.3 million shortfall.

American Airlines is going back to court to throw out its contract with union pilots after making changes to satisfy the bankruptcy judge, the Associated Press reported on Friday. If it wins in court, American could cut annual spending on pilots by more than $300 million and do more revenue-sharing deals with other airlines. American parent AMR Corp. filed a motion in U.S. bankruptcy court in New York on Friday, two days after a judge denied American's first attempt to cancel the pilots' contract. The judge rejected the company's demand for unlimited power to furlough pilots and make so-called code-sharing deals. AMR now proposes to limit possible furloughs to about 1,750 or less than one-fourth of its pilots, a ceiling set in the pilots' current contract. The company also seeks to greatly expand code-sharing but not on all routes.

Firefighters in San Bernardino, Calif., asked the judge overseeing the city's bankruptcy for more time to decide whether they will fight the decision by elected officials to seek court protection from creditors, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Should the union, one of the city's most powerful, challenge the bankruptcy decision, the case could last months longer. The San Bernardino City Professional Firefighters Local 891 said in court papers filed yesterday that it opposes the city's request to force creditors to decide quickly whether to try to block the case by challenging the city’s eligibility to reorganize under chapter 9 bankruptcy.

AMR Corp's creditors' committee yesterday urged pilots' and flight attendants' unions to promptly reach consensual contracts with the bankrupt parent of American Airlines, saying that those employees would do far better in agreed deals than if the court abrogated contracts, Reuters reported yesterday. The creditors' committee said that American cannot afford to sweeten its latest contract offers. Any additional concessions would endanger a successful Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization for the airline and it would oppose them. The committee spoke out a day after a Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane denied a request by American to abandon collective bargaining agreements with its pilots' union.

Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane yesterday denied a request by American Airlines parent AMR Corp. to abandon collective bargaining agreements with its pilots' union, Reuters reported. Judge Lane turned down American's motion in part because it would give the carrier unrestricted ability to temporarily lay off pilots and engage in code-sharing. Judge Lane said that AMR failed to show that such "unfettered discretion" was necessary for its own operations or that it was common in competitors. AMR said that it would alter its motion and resubmit the request to terminate its agreements with the Allied Pilots Association by Friday.

A long-running dispute over pensions at United Airlines will end with small raises for some retirees, the Associated Press reported yesterday. United retirees have long claimed that the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. under-valued the $7.3 billion in assets it got from United when it walked away from its pension plans. The agency now says that it under-valued the pension assets by less than 1 percent, or $58 million. The PBGC, which took over United's pensions in 2005 during its bankruptcy, said yesterday that 8,247 United retirees — about 18 percent of pensioners — will get small raises of 1 percent or less.

Lawsuits by U.S. workers contesting wages and hours, including demands for overtime pay, reached a 20-year high this year as unemployment remained above 8 percent, Bloomberg News reported today. There were 7,064 federal wage-and-hour cases filed during the 12 months ending March 31, a number that has grown almost every year since 2000, when the total was 1,854, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The recession and the unemployment rate contributed to the rise, said Richard Alfred, chairman of the national wage and hour litigation practice at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, who represents companies in lawsuits brought by groups of workers. Ambiguities in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes standards for overtime pay, also contribute to the volume of cases, the lawyers said. The law, enacted in 1938 and amended in 2004, defines which workers are entitled to extra pay for working more than 40 hours a week.

Pilots at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines rejected a tentative contract from the carrier by a wide margin yesterday, leaving a major issue unresolved with the bankrupt airline's most powerful employee group, Reuters reported yesterday. Pilots could face stricter terms should the judge overseeing American's bankruptcy case now allow the carrier to end its current contract with the pilots union. The Allied Pilots Association said 61 percent of pilots that voted, or 4,600, rejected the tentative contract while 2,935 pilots voted in favor. The agreement, which included pay increases and the offer of a 13.5 percent equity stake in the New American, represented the carrier's best and last offer to pilots after years of unsuccessful talks.

The United Mine Workers (UMW) is concerned about a coal company's bankruptcy reorganization plan and its impact on its members, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. The UMW's concern involves Patriot Coal Corp., which filed for chapter 11 protection on July 16 in New York as it deals with reduced demand for coal and rising costs. In its bankruptcy filings, Patriot complained of "legacy costs" such as health-care benefits and pension payments. UMW lawyers are seeking to have the reorganization case moved from New York to southern West Virginia, where they say such issues can be more properly handled.

Leaders of American Airlines' flight attendants' union will let its members vote on the company's latest contract offer, possibly heading off a threat by the carrier to abandon current labor deals and impose stricter terms unilaterally, Reuters reported on Friday. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants' eight-member executive committee voted unanimously late on Thursday to send the plan to members for a vote. American's parent, AMR Corp, declared bankruptcy in November, citing untenable labor costs, and had been mired in unsuccessful negotiations for concessions from its three primary unions. Earlier this year, AMR asked a bankruptcy court for permission to scrap its labor contracts and impose stricter, interim terms unilaterally as long-term negotiations carried on. However, Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane has not yet had to rule on that request, and may not have to issue a ruling at all if the company can reach consensual deals with its labor factions.