Colt is dying a slow and very public death. Once a major firearms manufacturer, the storied gunamker lost their government manufacturing contracts to FN and others, gradually ran out of cash and filed for Chapter 11 protection in June. Now the end is near, and the very same people responsible for the terrible decisions that drove Colt to bankruptcy are asking a judge to secure their multi-million dollar golden parachutes. At the same time they are trying to weasel out of a provision that would keep them paying their union employees until the end of their contract. From The Courant . . .
Colt Holding Company is asking a bankruptcy judge to approve golden parachutes that could be as high as a full year’s salary for nine top executives.
[…]
Colt’s request, totaling millions of dollars, comes as the company is trying to wipe out $350 million in debt that it owes to creditors, chiefly bondholders.
The company is also trying to break a provision in the union contract that guarantees the rank-and-file production workers — about 500 members of the United Auto Workers union — can keep their current compensation through the end of their contract in March 2019.
[…]
If all nine received the top of the bonus range, it would total $2.53 million.
Whatever happens to Colt in its current form, someone will probably take control of the brand and seek to reinvigorate it. Fans of the legendary Python shouldn’t hold their breath; the skills and tooling needed to make the revolver a reality once again are long gone. Current Colt employees, however, should hold theirs. The new owners will most likely hire back at least some of the workers. One would hope.