FDX- Council 7 Message 10/6/14
 

Q: What do PBS and an "A" Plan Freeze have in Common?
A: Management Wants Both!

As you must certainly recall, management recently tried to explain that PBS (italicized) was good for you. (italicized) Just trust us, they said, you're gonna love it! Rumors of signing bonuses tied to PBS abounded, and you rightly laughed them off because you understood that whatever amount you might get up front, that and more would be extracted from your hides later.

In short, you fully understood that management didn't propose PBS because it was good for you. Rather, you were aware that they desperately wanted it because it was good for them.

Now, in a way similar to their having floated those PBS trial balloons into our work environment some time back, they apparently have done the same with regard to their latest retirement proposal. More specifically, the word is out that the seek to freeze your "A" plan. (italicized)Don't worry, they say, we will sweeten the "B" plan. (italicized) This is gonna be good for you!

Naturally enough, the two of us have begun to receive questions on the topic. You, our constituents, should know where we stand with regard to freezing your "A" plan. The subject is a bit esoteric and we will delve into the intricacies later, but for now we will cut to the chase...

No.

We won't accept any type of freeze to our "A" plan. Not for senior pilots. Not for junior pilots. Not for pilots in between, and not even for pilots yet to be hired. Period. We know that like PBS, whatever bait management might dangle now will come out of your hides later.

DR
Block 1 Representative
LEC 7 Chairman

SD
Block 8 Representative
LEC 7 Secretary Treasurer


my addition to the message;
The Block 4 Representative
LEC 7 Vice Chairman's name is absent from this message.

Normally when I come to this forum, I do so as "comic relief" for whatever the the topic is but today is different.

I have been informed by a very knowledgable and reliable source that it was "our" Negotiating Chairman who proposed the freezing of our "A" plan while increasing the "B" plan to the Company's side of the table.

I'm sure that he would not have done so on his own accord and that at least two thirds of our MEC Officers had to have had backed this, along with some of the Block Representatives.

Not two weeks ago, we had about 19% of our brothers and sisters show up in Memphis, Los Angeles and Anchorage, most on their days off, to show their support for this pilot group and MEC!

I think our MEC needs to re-think this.

This (freezing of the "A" plan) will not effect those with over 25 years of service and if you're a new hire, it might even be a good thing but for the vast majority of us in the middle, it will be a huge loss!

I highly suggest that if you are in Representative Blocks; 4,5,6,11,14 and 100 you contact your Representative and ask where he stands on this issue.

Sincerely,
Robert Cecchi

Let me see if I got this straight. Fedex wants labor concessions, pbs and frozen pension, just like most of the bankrupt pax carriers got, without going into bankruptcy. But at the same time they want to spend $2 billion buying back their own stock. Does that mean fedex wants us to fund their stock buy back. Sign me up for some more of that!
If it's our own negotiating committee proposing the frozen A plan, it sounds like Stockholm syndrome.

Moving from an A plan to a B plan isn't necessarily concessionary. It depends on the details.

An A plan has a cash value, including the risk, and a B fund has a cash value, including the risk. These can be calculated and compared.

As FBH points out, your individual situation may be very different in terms of time accrued towards the current A fund plan vs. time available to build value in some hypothetical improved B fund. Your taste for being personally responsible for the investment risk of a B fund vs. the company being responsible may be different than the next person's.

Don't write it off in some knee-jerk reaction. Let's see the details with some objective and clear analysis.

All that said, a change of this magnitude would require significant improvements to the expected value in retirement.

JP, is that you? :D

In the past Fedex floated a rebalance option. Problem was experts said it was about 25 cents on the dollar. It was not considered. The company is continuing to negotiate in bad faith. How we react to that is entirely up to each of us.

You guys shouldn't entertain any freeze. It's in the best interest of the company, not your crew force. Every time you negotiate they will take something away until it is all but gone and the guys behind will have to renegotiate to get them back. Rule number one, anything a company wants is never good for its crew force. Trust me

Brilliant!!:rolleyes:

I'm not suggesting that 25¢ on the dollar is acceptable, but even that is far more valuable to the surviving dependents of a guy who drops dead before he retires.

An A plan is a promise. A B plan is money.

Think seriously about the tradeoffs.