Originally Posted by FoxHunter

The YOS(25 Max) x 2%=50% of your High 5 has existed since just after Flying Tiger pilots arrived on the property in August 1989. Prior to that I recall it was YOS(25 Max) x 1.6%=40% of your High 5 plus a COLA of up to 5% a year for inflation. The change from 1.6% to 2.0% eliminated the COLA.

The $260,000 earnings cap came with the first and only FPA contract. I believe it came about because the IRS had a limit of a $130,000 for a defined benefit in a Qualified Pension Plan. Since our max benefit was 50% of FAE the $260,000 assured the benefit would never exceed the IRS limit. The IRS limit is adjusted for inflation, but the contract is not. By the time ALPA arrived the second time and signed their first contract in 2006 the IRS defined benefit limit rose to $175,000 so our earnings cap should have risen to $350,000. Now the IRS defined benefit has risen to $210,000 so the cap should rise to $420,000. Now the sad fact is ALPA has failed to secure the basic benefit that the Fedex Pilots Association secured in 1998 in a parking lot in 1998.


FYI the pension plan was at Federal Express long before the pilots unionized. Almost ALL FedEx employees were covered by the same plan including pilots. The corporation changed the plan for all non pilots around 2007 but the pilots avoided it because we had a union contract. Looks to me that the union has no will to protect the pilot pension.