MaydayMark

In United's "big" contract they could retire at 55 with NO PENALTY. I really liked the concept ... I wonder what the retirement numbers looked like after that? It won't help me but is it something we should be negotiating for?

FamilyATM

I am not so sure that Flyinhigh is correct. Section 415.9(a) is about commercial pilots:

9) Special rule for commercial airline pilots.
(A) In general. Except as provided in subparagraph (B), in the case of any participant who is a commercial airline pilot, if, as of the time of the participant's retirement, regulations prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration require an individual to separate from service as a commercial airline pilot after attaining any age occurring on or after age 60 and before age 62, paragraph (2)(C) shall be applied by substituting such age for age 62.

And if we were not covered by a collective bargining agreement those limits would apply. But we do fall under a collectively bargained plan so I believe Section 415.7 would apply:

(7) Benefits under certain collectively bargained plans. For a year, the limitation referred to in paragraph (1)(B) shall not apply to benefits with respect to a participant under a defined benefit plan (other than a multiemployer plan)—
(A) which is maintained for such year pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement between employee representatives and one or more employers,
(B) which, at all times during such year, has at least 100 participants,
(C) under which benefits are determined solely by reference to length of service, the particular years during which service was rendered, age at retirement, and date of retirement,
(D) which provides that an employee who has at least 4 years of service has a nonforfeitable right to 100 percent of his accrued benefit derived from employer contributions, and
(E) which requires, as a condition of participation in the plan, that an employee complete a period of not more than 60 consecutive days of service with the employer or employers maintaining the plan.

I'm just a line dog and have not stayed at a Holiday Inn Express on this trip but I do have non-pilot unionized friends that are able to retire at sixty with no penalty. This is a great question to ask the R&I guys at the next union meeting.

Didn't like the tone of this thread when it started but as we have drifted I have found it quite informative. Cheers, the ATM

AFW_MD11

excellent point

16 October is the next one in MEM - tell all your friends & neighbors

Full pull

Negotiating a no penalty early retirement, 3%/yr., between 55 and 60 would be a benefit to everybody. I don't think it would cost much in negotiating capital vs. the reward to the whole pilot group. The reward being there is a large number of pilots with 25 years of service and under 60 years of age who would retire. This could be a quality of life improvement, seniority progression, for the rest of the pilot force.

MaydayMark

Although I agree with you ... I'm much more worried that Management will attempt to make 65 the "normal" retirement age. If they could save 5 years of every pilot's retirement pay, or looked at slightly differently ...

If we have to pay Capt. XYZ $XXX,XXX dollars to sit at home, watch soap operas and eat bon-bons ... we'd only have to pay him a small amount extra to fly (read: be productive) for 5 more years! With any "luck", he might be dead at the end of the 5 years and we wouldn't have to pay ANY retirement at all. I can see the "High Five" hand slapping and Management bonuses now

Flyinhigh

There is a whole laundry list of individuals that are covered under the "early"retirement section. This includes military. Federal and State Workers, Law Enforcement, etc. I was just too lazy to print the whole section since the section that applied addressed commercial pilots. I totally missed the section on contractually binding agreements. If you have ever looked at any sections of Federal Regulations your head normally is bouncing off your desk after about 10 or 15 minutes.

4A2B

you are correct that it would not cost much, why ? Because no one would use it yet if we bargained a no penalty 55, the Company would be forced to cost it out as if every single pilot could/would take it and accordingly comes off the bottom line of the total CBA dollars. Sounds like a terrible waste of negotiating capital to me to bargain something that does not produce desired results or actually pay (GPE, anchor zone, trip rig change......)

Full pull

It would be interesting to see how the company would cost it out, valued it.

MEMA300

Fedex won't ever let us retire with full pension before 60.

Even during 4.a.2.b. when we were fat pilots and it made sense to trim the fat they offered no incentive. For regular employees yes but a group that has had the gumption to collectively bargain, they won't. EVER.

4A2B

probably like 125% of the pilots would take it at 55