Originally Posted by
DLax85
Please explain why the company isn't willing to/shouldn't consider early retirements?
Not all senior pilots have lossed a bundle in the market (...thought many have) and some have other plans for life after FEDEX. Is it the majority? No way. But there are some out there. And a offer with an expiration date, may be a once in career opportunity they can't pass up ---- yes, even in bad times.
In the past 2 weeks, I've heard at least 5 senior pilots in a variety of settings say "make us an offer and we'll consider it".
If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but why is this tool not being pursued as a long term solution that doesn't require rehire and retraining on the backend.
I'll give you the answer "O" gave us during the 727 LCA meeting last week. He prefaced it by saying that this would have been his first choice of options the help the manning. He said the people who would be targeted would not be the 60-65 guys/gals. They only have a few years left on property, so they wouldn't get it offered to them. The ones they would want to target are the 55-60 year olds. He said the problem is with the bean counters. Apparently the IRS funding rules for pension plans change once you start offering early retirements. You have to fund it at a higher rate for everyone from the most junior offered to the most senior, whether or not they take it. (I'm not sure if this is the exact rule, but the gist was that it was too expensive). So the accountants shot that down as too expensive.
Then he went into a little talk about how he was conducting his own "unofficial" poll, and he didn't think that the company would get too many takers due to senior guys taking a hit on their B-plan, lots of vacation, sick, etc. I think he was a little in the weeds on that part. I actually would like to see ALPA conduct a survey of the 55-60 year olds on the list and come right out and ask them if they were able to retire now without penalty, would they?
Someone mentioned Continental's early buy out, and "O" said the difference was that CAL didn't have an A-plan.
Carryover was brought up, and "O" said that it has been reduced to as much as possible. Someone in the audience asked about bidding quarterly to further reduce carryover. "O" said that was an interesting idea, and he doesn't know if anyone has looked at that. He said he would bring it up.
Don't shoot the messenger... I'm just a plumber...