1 - other companies that use this are completely different. Please provide one that is the same as ours, because it has been demonstrated that the companies used in the kiron sales job were totally different and not accurate for comparison. They are mostly investment components that are part of cash balance plans that allows the beneficiary to take a little more risk in part of their Plan. I would say that it bordered on malfeasance to use those examples. Where did you find the PBGC approval of our plan specifically? If you cannot produce this I would say that you are the one throwing around inaccurate information.

2 - there’s no way a new plan has access to the vehicles our current one has as listed in the 5500. we have access to a lot of institutional and private instruments because of our trusts’s size and history. Starting a new one with 5k participants will not be the same thing at all. The Alpa website seems to have removed all VB/stab plan info, so can you show me where the investment mix is in the plan’s underlying funds? If not I would say you are peddling misinformation.

2a - if you are telling me that we are in fact just going to invest in the same things as our current A plan, then you are admitting we can’t negotiate our way out of a paper bag. If our A plan is overly funded with ease by the company and it is performing exceptionally well, we should be able to negotiate improvements within the current structure with no problems. Especially with our pilots forced to stay in govt group quarantine facilities throughout the world. Our weakness in demanding pension improvements is maddening.

I disagree with your sign off because it does not sound like you are open to demanding improvements in the current plan by using all bargaining tactics allowable by law, only that you are interesting in having us be a retirement guinea pig and anyone that doesn’t follow this plan doesn’t understand economics.