These statements are all true, with a couple of caveats:

(1) These types of pension arrangements are generally bound by employment contracts, and if you look at the terms, they tend to be less generous in this very challenged sector than others. You can make your arguments about the fairness of rich penion benefits for senior corporate execs in general, but the fact is that this industry needs to be competitive with others with which it competes for executive talent - and in fact right now, it tends to be on the low end.

(2) Unlike the other qualified pension plans, such executive plans are generally unfunded. So the general employees might face a reduction in benefits if CO filed for bankruptcy and left behind their current underfunded plan. But since the exec plan is not funded, they would have nothing to fall back on in the event of bankruptcy, and would have to stand in line with all of the other creditors of the company.