MD11HOG

Question # 7 answer: "the accumulation of benefits will not vary significantly from the current plan"
So, Any improvements we get "will be based on market performance" is the way I read the answer?

FrankTheTank

What’s the definition of significantly?

707Type

I've generally been a supporter of this effort, but if their target is to have the same amount of retirement benefit as we have now (except with some inflation protection) but with all the risk transferred to us, count me out. The only reason this would be worth exploring would be to gain significant benefit in exchange for some added risk. If they've already settled on no significant improvement in benefit levels before negotiations have even begun I don't see this going well.

Miso

Unfortunately the Union is in over their heads. I trust them as individuals to fly planes safely, but not negotiate changes to my retirement...
Anything given away in negotiations never comes back in future contracts despite protestations about what the Union “thought it meant”...
How did the scheduling changes from the 2015 contract which were to be implemented long ago work out? Was there any penalty associated with the Company’s tardiness in “writing the software for those scheduling changes”?...
The answer is obviously “no,” however while I must reluctantly accept missteps then, I will not accept them when my retirement is on the line...
The pilot force does not need to be “educated” about our own retirement accounts...We have all spent a tremendous amount of time researching options to optimize funding our retirements...To suggest such is an affront to the group.
There is simply no basis based on past performance to trust the Union to negotiate issues which will affect the pilot force for decades in the future without transparency.

pwdrhound

With the past history of our MECs negotiating success, I wouldn't trust these guys to negotiate an improvement to the Scooby snacks. We've gotta be out of our minds if we allow them to pull of this scam..

FlyHIGHgoFAST

If you are a new hire or have less than 5 years on property, I would recommend reading the Q and A #3. Someone proposed a question about where people with less than 5 years stand and the answer is very concerning. This new plan is very divisive amongst the current pilot group and basically there are the have's and have nots. No unity in it whatsoever. The way this is written, pilots with less than 5 years on property are grouped into the same group as someone who has yet to be hired. I don't know about you, but many people came to work here specifically bc we still had a NONvariable defined benefit.

This VARIABLE plan will be just that, a VARIABLE benefit. Remember 4a2b? That was during a rough time in the economy. Retire with a VARIABLE benefit and let's see how much your retirement check is during that time period.

FlyHIGHgoFAST

If you are a new hire or have less than 5 years on property, I would recommend reading the Q and A #3. Someone proposed a question about where people with less than 5 years stand and the answer is very concerning. This new plan is very divisive amongst the current pilot group and basically there are the have's and have nots. No unity in it whatsoever. The way this is written, pilots with less than 5 years on property are grouped into the same group as someone who has yet to be hired. I don't know about you, but many people came to work here specifically bc we still had a NONvariable defined benefit.

This VARIABLE plan will be just that, a VARIABLE benefit. Remember 4a2b? That was during a rough time in the economy. Retire with a VARIABLE benefit and let's see how much your retirement check is during that time period.

Raptor

I saw emails for Q and As 1 and 3. Was there's a Q and A 2 email I missed?

Hacker15e

The way it has been explained more than once is that it is a variable benefit with a defined floor which it will never be less than (and which is roughly equal to the current A-plan value).

It varies in how high above that floor it will go in any given year.

pinseeker

Fixed it for you.

There is no defined floor.

Ask the MEC, or better yet, the R&I guys. They talk about a floor in the sales pitch, but when you ask them how the floor is guaranteed, they talk about FedEx having to agree to a buffer fund to account for market ups and downs. If the market takes a big drop and doesn't recover for a couple of years, there is no floor. That is what is meant by us taking on the risk.

We have a floor right now and it is $130K and the company assumes all of the risk.