The Jury Selects a Foreman and Begins Deliberation

The jury began deliberating yesterday. The Denver Post reported that the jury selected a United airline pilot as the foreman.  The article is here. 

I went back and looked at my notes for the first day when jurors were interviewed. One of the questions that was asked concerned the attitude of jurors towards high paid executives.  Most indicated that they had no issue with the amount of compensation.  This juror, however, said something slightly different.  He responded that he wasn't concerned “as long as they are returning equity back to shareholders and the company meeting objectives I think they should be paid well. But when the companies do poorly and they're not performing in their jobs, in think in those cases,  they are overpaid.”  In other words, there was some concern.  He stated, though, that he could set aside any such views and act in an objective manner.  For the entire examination, go here.  

This is a person who lived through the bankruptcy of United (the company emerged in 2006) and the termination of the pension plan for pilots.  Even after emerging from bankruptcy, however, tension has continued between the pilots union and management, some of it involving issues of executive compensation.  Back in December the pilots union announced that it was forming a "strike preparation committee." According to the Chicago Tribune on December 7, 2006: "While United pilots and other workers are locked into long-term contracts that forced steep pay cuts, some executives have reaped salary increases and other perks. Particularly contentious are the 40 percent pay raises granted by United's board in September to Chief Executive Glenn Tilton and Chief Operating Officer Peter McDonald."  The article went on to say:  "At United, much of the worker anger is directed at the executive compensation garnered by Tilton after the airline exited bankruptcy in February. He was granted 545,000 shares, worth about $23 million at the airline's $42.25-per-share closing price Wednesday, as well as 822,000 stock options worth about $5.7 million. Since early August, Tilton has cashed in shares and options worth $3.3 million."

So, one would have to say, an interesting person on the jury and an interesting person to be designated as foreman.