Atlanta-based Delta said it would reduce capacity by 5.0% this year after it offered a severance package to half its workforce, or 30,000 employees.
"It was a severance package," Mr. Weeks replied.
If it in fact was a severance payment, it could represent an illegal campaign contribution by Mr. Ensign's parents because Cynthia Hampton had served as the treasurer of his political campaign.
Now the liver, as he put it, was negotiating a severance package.
Equally, it might indicate a severance between reproduction and sex, or a straight acceptance of gay sexuality.
Yesterday, Worldcom's board discussed whether it could alter a severance agreement previously signed with Bernard J. Ebbers, the company's former chief executive.
C10 Maneuvering on Coke Bias Suit A day after Coca-Cola said it would dismiss 6,000 employees, lawyers for eight workers who previously filed a lawsuit accusing Coke of racial discrimination asked a court to block any attempt by the company to make a waiver of legal action against it part of a severance package.
It has not paid them, and, to avoid paying a severance, it has not fired them.
The shareholder lawsuit calls it an "employee severance" plan and argues it would "impose tremendous costs and risk for an acquirer, throwing sand in the gears of Microsoft's plan for a smooth integration".
Arthur Andersen, which saw the verdict as "a huge victory", will forfeit the $14.5 billion it had demanded as a severance payment.
