§905 Employee or Employee-shipper Ownership Plan

Summary

An association made up of national railroad unions, employee groups, and shippers may send the Commission one plan by December 1, 1979 to convert all or most of the Milwaukee Railroad into a company owned by employees or by employees and shippers. The Commission must decide within 30 days if the plan is feasible under section 554 of title 5. The plan is feasible only if it shows that public and private financing is available, is fair to the railroad’s estate, can be put into effect by April 1, 1980, can run on a self-sustaining basis, and includes a review of operations plus labor-management agreements to boost productivity while keeping service safe and adequate. If the Commission says the plan is feasible, it sends that finding to the bankruptcy court, which must hold a hearing and decide within 10 days whether the plan is fair and equitable to the estate; the Commission’s finding can be challenged only by clear and convincing evidence. If both approve, the plan must be put into action by April 1, 1980, and, except as this law allows, the Commission’s findings cannot be reviewed. The railroad’s trustee must quickly give the plan developers recent reports on the railroad’s physical condition and the traffic, revenue, marketing, and other data needed to figure acquisition costs. That information may be used only to prepare the plan and must not be shared with competitors or, unless needed for the plan, with customers.