Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Having been through a chapter 11 and losing a pension I can assure you that is the only way to reduce or eliminate a earned and accrued benefit. Even in chapter 11 it must be shown that the pension is grossly underfunded and but for that obligation the company can not reorganize. The Delta pension could have been saved with some changes to the lump sum option but pension law prohibited it. You have been quoted the law but for some reason can't grasp it. Think about it this way. Without the law protecting a earned and accrued benefit it would lose much of its worth. Any non union company could cancel a pension at any time. A union could decide to cut benefits to older workers to increase them for younger workers ect... It would also impact the PBGC.
How much clearer can this statement be from pension law?
"Employers are generally free to change retirement plan rules for the future as long as most benefits earned up to the date the plan is changed are protected."
I think age/current time with company has a major point of view difference on this topic. The point that’s trying to be made is that if we split retirement between 2 groups, one can be pitted against the other for all future negotiations. I agree an “accrued” retirement cannot be changed. But future rules for that accruement can be.
Example: Pilot A has 6 years on property (planning on retiring with 25 years on property) and is vested at the current 130k A plan. Say TA 1 passed and he took the 169k A plan increase. Life is good for 5 years. He is now vested at 169k….for those 5 years. TA2028 now has most guys on the new and “improved” pancake plan. They decide to vote for an increase to take their retirement from 11%MBCBP to 15%. To achieve that, all they need to do is agree to change the A plan down to 100k. 50% +1 vote for it because they’re doing “what’s best for them and their family” (only idiots say that when they’re part of a union btw). . So pilot A is looking at 6 years@130k, plus 5@169 then 14@100k (as long as it’s not negotiated lower). I think we can all agree the A plan would have never been negotiated higher after the 169k proposal.
The first 11 years are accrued and protected under contract. We agree on that. What about the next 14 years? Nothing I’ve read says it’s protected if the union votes to change it.