What's so odd about that? It's actually good business sense! UPS is getting crew members at a discount! Look at it this way. A Captain hired in 1988 (21 years of service) is eligible for $3,000*21 = $63,000 years in retirement. If he keeps working UPS does not pay him his retirement while he is working.

Pay rate for a 15 year Captain effective the first pay period after January 1, 2010 is $244.28. Somebody feel free to check my math, but the concept remains the same.

So if a Captain keeps working past age 60 UPS pays him (75 + 5.5 sick)*13 = 1,046.5 hours a year which equals $255,639 minus $63,000 = $192,639. Or look at it this way, the effective hourly rate of an over age 60 Captain is $184.08 which is only $12.48 more than a 15 year First Officer!

Now add the likelihood of dying younger if you work past age 60, and thus even less retirement pay out, UPS is laughing all the way to the bank on this deal.

The only downside is that working past 20 years of service results in 5 weeks of vacation. But the easy fix to mitigate that is RDG lines with no vacation conflict so UPS can get away with even less pilots!

I wonder why Andy Murphy did not address increased vacations coming up as well as how much open time is picked up company wide? Must not meet the agenda of the current union leadership? In a week we will know if we have a fighting chance in the next round of contract negotiations.