Originally Posted by IAV84DAL

Gentlemen,


Thank you in advance for you time. As we near the mid February date of disbursal for 2014 profit sharing each of us is made more aware of the role it plays in our total compensation. The percentage of total profit sharing payout for myself equates to nearly 2 months pay. Extracting this significant benefit during such a profitable period for our industry will be an unenviable task. I am aware that efforts to achieve significant pay and contractual improvements may involve some kind of reduction to or even the elimination of profit sharing. I approve of that negotiated outcome, let me tell you why.


I've never been a fan of profit sharing. My skillset is in time and risk management. An efficiency expert if you will. My compensation should never have been tied to management's ability to coerce a profit from the operation. The idea was ill advised in concept and even worse in practice because the formula for disbursement is based solely on W2. The profit generating productivity of a pilot working 80 hours for straight pay is discounted in comparison to a pilot working equal or less hours flying green slips.


I personally find the eventual sunset on Profit Sharing a breath of fresh air. Relief at long last from an obscene plot that remunerated a select few Super Premium or Green Slip opportunists while the majority of your constituents stand outside looking in. So hats off to you in your efforts to dismantle the Frankenstein we should never have birthed.


Of course its never as easy as just shutting it down because its the right thing to do. No, there will be plenty of push back from the usual suspects who view any form of profit sharing reduction as a concession and from those select few who profit the most from its inequitable application. But in the event that you are successful in this endeavor we should at least visit an alternative that might act as panacea to the idea of eliminating profit sharing altogether.


I propose the purchase of an Annuity/Retirement product for every pilot at the airline starting on his date of hire. The company would make an annual payment of $5,000 per pilot employee toward that annuity irrespective of position flown, hours worked or corporate profitability. This per capita model would offer an equitable and substantial supplemental retirement plan which would offset in large part the cost for the membership retiring the profit sharing model and make room for contractual improvements including raises in rates of pay.


I cannot stress enough the importance of crafting a per capita model. The emphasis here must be on decoupling profit sharing from W2 and replacing that model with one that fairly distributes a contractual benefit for all. Any effort to construct a model that disproportionally rewards position, equipment, longevity or W2 perpetuates a shameless scheme already in place which since we've all acquiesced to might be left well enough alone.


Best of Luck,

TJG