Originally Posted by Tuck

"A complaint filed in U.S. District Court says the pension plan was almost fully funded in 2000. But the plan lost about $2.1 billion over the next two years and the airline sought bankruptcy protection.

A bankruptcy court later terminated the plan.

Union officials say the massive losses were unusually high and claim they have uncovered "questionable circumstances" showing the assets may have been improperly invested."

USAir lost theirs in bankruptcy - obviously we have to be concerned about that. DL makes some great comments. It's crucial that the union stays on top of the pension funding which USAir obviously didn't - I suspect a lot didn't back then but are today.

Look I'll take a well funded DB plan over a generous DC plan any day. You just can't make the DC plan as valuable - there's no question on this. Talk to some of your SWA friends that over the years have averaged about 15%+ into their 401Ks and see if they'll have anywhere near the $130k/year pay out that our DB plan offers - guys are getting this today. I think you'll be surprised.

Do you have any idea how much money was lost in 401ks over this last recession by individuals? So don't tell me no one has ever lost money since it's their own. It's much harder for individuals (even after the excessive recession losses) to make similar gains in their funds than huge DB plans can. Any reading will show this. Huge funds like CALPERS even with their awful losses still end up with >8% of the lifetime. Very few DC plans have done the same. Yeah, yeah I know, all you FDX pilots are masters at investing and are making way more - then you don't have to worry about it.

Our DB plan has incredible value and it's worth the work it will take to keep it in place.