Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, the Update Message is being published on Sunday November 27, 2005 this week.  Your leadership hopes that your holiday was enjoyable. 

The Grand Lodge has announced the 2006 Scholarship Competition and brochures and applications are available from you Local Lodge.  The competition is open to all IAM members and their dependents.  Please contact your Local Lodge for information.  All applications must be postmarked no later than February 24, 2006.

The trans-Atlantic expansion by some U.S. carriers could bring fares down and lower profits on the flights. A new open-skies agreement may also expand the market and make the flights less profitable.

Pilots for Northwest Airlines have approved a temporary contract that will save the airline $215 million a year. The bankrupt airline and the pilots union will continue negotiating a permanent contract. With the interim agreement, the union will avoid a court-imposed contract. This week, Northwest will ask the bankruptcy court for permission to cut pay rates for ground workers.

Airline bankruptcies help push the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s deficit up to $22.8 billion in 2005. In recent years many large companies have transferred their pension obligations to the agency. United Airlines and US Airways transferred a combined $9.6 billion to the PBGC earlier this year.

A federal judge declined to step down from Delta Air Lines' bankruptcy case. Delta's pilots union requested U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Prudence Carter Beatty recuse herself because of comments that indicated she believes pilots are overpaid. The judge said she has no bias against the pilots. Delta wants to terminate the pilots' current contract and lower pay by 20%.