If you didn't like the Variable Benefit Plan don't worry we've got a MBCB for you brought to you buy the same people

Every word out of his mouth is a falsehood. When have you ever had to have someone convince you you were getting a good deal???

 

How sneaky and quite frankly insulting! DEFUND ALPA AND REFUND MY DUES. Let’s find a Union that actually represents their membership!

 

Did you notice that Social Security is added in the new modeler to boost your projected Income at retirement? That is not part of our FedEx retirement! Come on Cheiron, let the retirement package be evaluated on its actual merits or lack thereof.

Make sure to deselect the option to include SS in the calculation since this is not a FedEx benefit.

I also suggest excluding pilot$ to the DC plan. This shows how much money in retirement is actually FedEx contributions. Yes we all can and should save as much as possible but I want to see how much FedEx is contributing in each scenario.

 

He tried convincing me of getting a good deal several times during IND hubturns when I questioned him in person, and once on a lengthy DFW layover discussion in the hotel parking lot - to sell me the pancakes. I insisted: this is not what we asked for, we do not want it, let it go! Stop spending our dues on something the previous MEC tasked you to do, but that we do not want. Obviously, he had different plans. To do it secretly all during 2 years of negotiations.

I, like most of us, thought we have been negotiating the last 2 years for the A plan improved, and the B plan improved. Simple. Take your variable, stabilized Cheiron scheme, and invest your own personal retirement into that, and tell us how it goes NC. But do with YOUR own money, not OURS.

 

Really makes you wonder what is in it for these guys who are trying to sell us this plan so desperately. And why our reps are so eager to buy into it?

This is clearly another give to the company with little gain for the crew force. They have literally given away the store with this and scope.

 

I did notice ssi payment as well as the pilot contributions. You gotta ask why that's added in the mix if the merits of this plan stands on its own. SS will most likely be means tested in the not to distant future. So even including that in the calculations is biasing it towards the upside. MBCB aren't returning 6.5% its more like 3-5% as the are necessarily conservative and in fact can return zero, but there's no mention of the downside. In fact there never is.

Man I've been saying this all along. Every assertion I made about this before it came out has materialized. I heard things and I would never believe that they would cede their precious Variable Benefit Plan willingly.

Here's what has happened the company said you only have so much money in the pot and Pat being the ever confident lacky willing to comply said ok how can we make that work. He then went to work crafting something that the company would accept. He would worry about convincing the crew force later. After all a win is a win. Why any of you trusted this man escapes me. I could never trust someone who is so out of touch with how labor relations work. He's a slug. Publicly citing bankrupt airlines as cautionary tales about why pilots shouldn't ask for "too much". He was never going to fight for us. He was never going to encourage us to go to the mat on this. After all the leverage we have is the eventual legal right to withhold our labor.

Now once we reject this steaming pile of disrespectful @#$. Every last one of us better knuckle up and get ready for the fight of our careers. Get it right or we walk.

 

So I thought the Old Cheiron Pancake “Calculator” was full of bad assumptions. I was told back then that the calculator was wrong and the real one was better. At least the old one gave results for the worst and best and statistically probable historical market returns so you could plan for the worst, hope for the best and statistically expect something in between.

The new and improved waste of our union dues just lets you put in an ASSUMED rate of return for company and individual managed money. I can ASSUME something unrealistic to make the calculator support any point of view. We all know what happens when we assume. And as Bad Santa eloquently stated “wish in one hand and 💩 in the other kid. Tell me which one fills up first.” Assuming high rate of returns will be detrimental for all but a lucky few. There are numerous “models” out there that financial planners use to predict returns. Did we really pay for this Excel spreadsheet??