Originally Posted by
kwri10s
I mean a bump and flush bid should be part of the negotiations. The company does not care. They see this as we all see this. It will instill much more "I'm getting mine" then they've ever seen. Now instead of being guaranteed a 50% of high 5 whenever you get those 5, everyone will have to max up every month. IF you don't maximize then you will loose retirement money as your percentage of the total will be less. So your buddy will be taking some of your retirement money.
The 2% floor is not the minimum an individual pilot can return, it's the minimum return rate for the whole bucket (fund). Since every pilot will only be getting "their percentage" of the total, if you work less than the average pilot you will receive less than average. So if the average pilot works more and you only work BLG you will be receiving less pancakes than what you had projected in your forecasting model. It won't matter if you return 2% if your pancake is only 85% of a average share. You already lost 15% and you will not make that up.
I understand why a senior FO who chose not to upgrade would want a realignment bid if this goes through. I don’t think everybody in our union will agree though. A junior captain who might lose his seat will not support that. An unaffected senior captain might not care either way. WB FOs who might become NB FOs won’t support a realignment bid because senior FOs have buyers remorse. The senior FO had a chance to upgrade and chose to not upgrade. Their seniority was honored and will be honored on any future bids. We don’t do a realignment bid with every new contract. Each contract has had a B fund increase which means a captain will get more contributed to his DC plan but we didn’t bump and flush then so why now? This is a valid argument.
Your point is not wrong either. This redefines our A fund. The union swears that they don’t see folks needing to upgrade at 100% to do better with VB compared to our existing plan and they all BELIEVE bidding behavior won’t change as senior FOs can max out the 415c income limits which apply to VB. I don’t necessarily agree. But every union person I’ve talked to swears bidding behavior won’t change in the long run???
What I do know is that either senior FOs who chose to delay upgrade or junior captains who get excessed or WB FOs who end up on the 757 will be very angry and they will all be justified in that anger. Our union will turn into a circular firing squad as we enter contract negotiations. Support for or against a realignment bid will be a function of its impact on the individual and certainly won’t be unanimous. Absence or presence of a realignment provision as part of a VB transition might be enough to keep it from being voted in. 🤞Either way the impact on unity must be considered when evaluating VB.
Big changes tend to have big winners and big losers. Incremental changes tend to be less divisive. I hope neither senior FOs or junior captains end up ****ed because we will all lose.