Fedex Pilots proposed retirement plan
 

The crew bus driver (so take it for what it's worth) said the MEC is strongly considering a new plan called a VAPP (Variable Annuity Pension Plan) where ALPA takes over the entire plan from FedEx and becomes the administrator thus relieving FedEx of the onerous pension funding requirements. The up side for us is there isn't a cap on the earnings limit for an individual (right now the cap is $265K). The down side is ALPA owns our retirement. Here's some more info on the VAPP.

https://www.soa.org/News-and-Publica...olatility.aspx

Let me do some research on how well AFL-CIO unions and their affiliates have run pension plans in the past!

If the company wants out I'd rather they just pay us our current cash value and increase our pay. Letting us figure it out in our own is far better than ALPA.

Just my .02, worth exactly what you paid for it.

:confused: How does ALPA acting as "the administrator" relieve FedEx of funding requirements? It's still FedEx money that makes the pension work - so.....wouldn't they still need to pay into the plan as normal?

We "relieved" FedEx of a BUNCH of stuff we shouldn't have with this last contract. My desire to "relieve" them of further responsibilities is minuscule at this point.

P.S. My initial gut reaction (which has a pretty good track record) is NF Way. I have ZERO or even NEGATIVE (if that's possible) trust in our MEC's ability to negotiate something like this. After the BS sell job they did on the POS 2015 contract which continues to fail us monthly and isn't even fully implemented almost 2 years after ratification, why would I have any hope for a positive outcome on this. I just ran across BS (nice initials BTW) from the famed video sales pitch series and it was all I could do to simply be civil and bite my tongue to avoid calling him out.

Question 1: Should ALPA work for retirement at age 65 take over the Pension Plan?

Question 2: Assuming Congress insists on age 65 retirement should ALPA work towards age 65 FDX wants to dump the plan anyways, should ALPA insist that they give ALPA control of the plan?

Hmmm....

1) They screwed up our dues collection and didn't even realize it.

2) I am still waiting for my 5%.

3) Give them control of my retirement? Uh, no.

This is the first I've heard of VARP...but

If ALPA where to be the administrator I don't think that implies they "own" our retirement. In fact when I read the link provided it implied that the retiree takes the risk of variable returns based on the market.

ALPA screwed up the dues collection?... I thought it was the company that takes the dues out of our checks and gets the money to ALPA.

Still waiting on your 5% retro pay?... again I think that was the company screwing us on the 757/767 passover pay... once that grievance is finalized the checks can be cut.

But these could just be alternate facts.

Never!!
 

Not ever ever ever ever.
Alpa is not to be trusted. No thanks

Why is this even a discussion? A highly profitable company like FedEx and there's discussion of relieving them if their responsibilities the retirement plan. The discussion should be how can the pilot retirement plan be tied into managements retirement plan. Anything else about different option should not even be entertained. Stop giving the company ideas for next negotiation

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 had onerous funding requirements for all the major pension plans in the US. So congress allowed the following:

Airline Relief

period beginning in 2008.

So evidently FedEx owes our pension a couple billion dollars to meet this requirement in 2018. It's cheaper for the company to hand off the plan to ALPA and then allow ALPA to administer the plan outside of the PPA 2006 funding requirements. Thus the VAPP. FedEx continues to make monthly funding payments to ALPA but avoid the 2 billion cash payment due next year.

"Stop giving the company ideas for next negotiation". Haha, you're right. I should have known the company negotiators peruse this board on a daily basis for ideas on how to run their company. "Hey Fred, we're out of negotiating ideas... I guess we'll just give ALPA everything they've asked for. Fred- "Damnit no! Check the APC board for ideas on how to run this five billion dollar company. Those dumbsheet pilots are full of good ideas"