Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I was kind of junior for the 96 contract but I missed the senior pilots carving out benefits part. Can you tell us more about that? I recall only one thing that could be considered a benefit. 505 pilots were allowed to retire early. They got 5 points that could be applied to age or length of service. The program however was designed to put our furloughed pilots back to work which it did so I would not call it a senior only benefit. Those who took the ER got the benefit they had earned in working for Delta plus the points which in most cases was a small increase. The majority of pilots who took the program already had 25 years of service and were older then 55 so most could not use all 5 points. What were all the other benefits that enriched the senior pilots and urinated on everyone else? I assume from your tone there must have been a bunch so just name the top 3!
Sailing,
My recollection is a bit different than yours regarding the Bill Brown era.
(This is all from memory, so I could be somewhat in error.)
Back in 1972 (or so) Dalpa negotiated a "Minimum Benefit Guarantee" as part of the retirement benefit calculation. This was tied to the performance of the S&P 500. It really wasn't much of an issue for 20 years or so, but back in the mid-nineties the S&P 500 index was booming.
Delta was (understandably) concerned about the effect of this clause on how much they were going to have to pay out in retirement benefits for the pilots eligible for the Minimum Benefit Guarantee.
IIRC part of the '96 contract was a freezing of the Minimum Benefit Guarantee. The company did offer an early retirement program, and you are correct about the added five years.
However the reality was that many pilots simply didn't retire early. Due to manning requirements and training limitations there were quite a number of pilots who took the so called early retirement who literally retired on their normal retirement date.
So they got the incentives, but didn't leave early. To me that had zero benefit for the junior pilots at the time, and I think that's why the perception exists that the senior pilots were rewarded.
Again, this is all from memory (disclaimer).