Originally Posted by
Wasatch Phantom
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).
Wasatch, your memory is exactly as mine is, so you must be right.
Seriously, I was relatively junior, and strongly opposed to this because the effect was exactly as you describe. Due to training restrictions, many of the 500 (increased to 505 to cover certain individuals!) ended up retiring on their normal retirement, so no movement for the young guys. Yet, it was this promised movement that got us to sign off on a 2% paycut and 4 years with zero raises. Yes, there was profit sharing, and as it turned out that paid out (6% annually as I recall), but that means you got one 6% raise, then 3 years of the same pay.
Woo hoo.