Originally Posted by
mempurpleflyer
The problem is this "train" now has momentum and is hard to stop. To stop it, the union would have to admit that they were wrong...that all of the time and money invested have not yielded a better retirement plan. Good luck getting a bunch of pilots to admit that they were wrong.
Many of the things you brought up are spot on. As I understand it, the pilot group is not the only group in the pension plan. Management is in the same (or similar) plan, correct? Why are they not scrambling to get rid of it? I guess we are "smarter" than everyone else (sarcasm).
When I came to FedEx I thought I had arrived. Never will need to dust off the resume again. Now I am not so sure. Seems like I keep getting screwed from both sides. On the one hand, I have a company that has a great business model but middle management that can't seem to make a good decision. I will just mention the entire integration of the 767 as the latest example and leave it at that. On the other hand, I have a union that sent us a contract that is already behind everyone else within 2 years of its signing and now is considering voluntarily giving away one of the only things that separates FedEx from everyone else (except UPS). I haven't been here a huge amount of time but long enough where it makes starting over difficult...and I am still tempted. If I was a newhire, I might be looking elsewhere.
The A Plan has not been improved since 1999...got it. It is dying by attrition...got it. It is too expensive to improve...got it. But $130k guaranteed for life is still a nice benefit and has a lot of bargaining power. And, it is supplemented with our B Plan that is currently negotiated to increase to 9%. The top pax airlines only offer 16%...we are more than half of that (minus the cash over the cap provision).
So, here is what you do. Every Section 6 negotiation, you increase the B Plan a little bit to offset the purchasing power the A Plan has lost since the last contract. You implement a "cash over the cap" provision (like everyone else has) so guys who hit the IRS limits don't lose money. In other words, an increased B Plan with "cash over the cap" can be used to offset the plan's decreasing value over time.
Maybe one day the A Plan will be worth so little that it will be time to freeze it but NOW IS NOT THAT TIME. $130k guaranteed is still a lot of money and will be for many years. Heck, my military pension IS adjusted yearly for inflation and is still a long way from $130k.
At the end of they day I ask a simple question...is there any other employee group in America (pilot or otherwise) that has VOLUNTARILY frozen their defined benefit plan? If so, what were the circumstances. If not...think about it!
Thank you for saying this far more eloquently then I ever could. This whole thing is unfathomable to me.