TonyC

That issue was addressed, and fixed, in the 2006 CBA, but only for the age/seniority band of pilots who were expected to reach the regulated age (60) before the next CBA would be negotiated. A VEBA for those pilots provided money to offset the higher costs of health care insurance, thus removing that obstacle to retirement at age 60.

The fact that the "next band" of pilots was not provided access to a way to face that obstacle in the 2011 CBA is one of the major reasons I opposed it. We left those pilots behind, along with every pilot who has retired since then, and now we have the Negotiating Committee and members of the MEC scratching their heads wondering why more pilots don't retire at age 60.






.

TonyC

In 1993 the REGULATED age was 60, but there was no requirement to retire at Age 60. There still is no requirement to retire at age 60, or even 65. It's the REGULATED age, and you cannot occupy a front seat in Part 121 operations beyond the Regulated Age.

In 1993 we had 3-seat airplanes, and a pilot could become a Flight Engineer and continue to work until he could no longer pass a Medical Examination or a checkride. We had Flight Engineers working into their 80's. It was a choice to retire at Age 60 or train to become a Flight Engineer. Fast forward to today and we don't have any 3-seaters, so that option is gone. Still, it's not the age that forces the retirement, it's the lack of Flight Engineer jobs. Other airlines have 'em, but we don't.



I'll bet they haven't attended a retirement seminar.






.

TonyC

You're right. We don't need a union and all the dues that it costs us -- we just need to individually set aside money for our own retirement. We don't need ANY retirement plan from FedEx. While we're at it, we should be responsible for our own health care costs, too. It's not fair for a pilot with a spouse and one child, all who are healthy and never get sick, to have to pay the same premiums into a group health care plan as a pilot with a sick wife and 7 sick kids. That pilot should think ahead before having those little curtain climbers and set aside the money to take proper care of them.







I honestly didn't think you could be more stupid, but you surprised me.






.

MEMA300

Got two uncles living on retirement pensions. Both worked in public realm and both of their pensions pay substantially more than ours….we gave up an A-plan with a COLA in 1999. Maybe there is a reason the guys with the MBAs and finance degrees agreed to that 20 plus years ago.

TonyC

I'm on the road without my paper copy of the FCH, so I'm going on memory cells here.

The only retirement plan that pilots had before the first CBA was the same retirement plan that all other FedEx employees had. In fact, one of the selling points of having a pilots' union was the ability to set up a retirement plan different from other employees. As I recall, the benefit was based on a High 3, and I seem to recall that those 3 years had to be consecutive. I don't think there was an FAE Cap. There was only the IRS limit, which was $130,000 then.


It has often been observed by those familiar with the events of late 1997 that our first CBA was not so much negotiated with FedEx as it was received as dictation from FedEx. Naturally, a great deal of that language was not original.

Inflation is not part of our "A" Plan formula, so it does not affect the funding of the retirement account outside of what it might do to the stock market. In fact, if inflation makes the stock market go up, bringing the value of the retirement fund up with it, that's to the advantage of the party funding the retirement, because the Retirement Benefit won't go up. Its value will be diminished by inflation, but the number of dollars will not.

Note, though, that any future improvements to Retirement Benefits will not impose an immediate liability on The Company for the full cost of the retirement for all pilots for the anticipated duration of their retirement. Only those incremental increases for the current year and the current pilots will be create immediate liabilities. Those increased liabilities will pale in comparison -- and I would prefer to use other wording if I had words at hand to adequately express the vast magnitudes of differences here -- they will pale in comparison to the vast savings that have been realized by FedEx by failing to raise the FAE cap to match pay raises and the IRS Defined Benefit Dollar Limit for the last 23 years.



You are absolutely correct.






.

TonyC

There is no new thing under the sun.

There have been plenty of things done poorly, and a handful of things done well, in previous CBA negotiations. We would be fools to not learn from both.


Actually, that pilot had a MUCH BETTER benefit than we have today. That pilot had a 50% replacement value from his Defined Benefit alone. What we have today is less than 40%.


It's not my top priority, either. The diminishing value of our "A" Plan Retirement Benefit wasn't a top priority in 2006. Today, it is. It's understandable that fewer people have post-retirement health care insurance costs on their radar today, but I can assure you, it is NOT insignificant. Ask some people who have taken advantage of the ALPA Retirement Seminars what they think about it. It affects ALL pilots, either directly or indirectly. For every pilot who retires before Age 65, it means a significant budget item. For every pilot who stays until Age 65, it means seniority stagnation for every pilot on the seniority list below him.






.

BillyGilmore14

So did this die or is the pension for new hires dead?

https://401kspecialistmag.com/fedex-...er-401k-match/

FedEx Pilot

That doesn’t and didn’t apply to the pilot group. Our pension is a negotiated contractual benefit that can only be taken away or stopped via an agreement between the company and ALPA.

Noworkallplay

Or bankruptcy courts through distress termination. Ask our brethren at the legacies. Some willfully gave it and others the courts took it.