Stability, high percentage of widebodies, ability to deviate, diverse flying- to name a few reasons... but I hear you regarding pay rates.

Business J/S has always had a higher priority than staging. If you are with in three days of a trip and are going to work, why not book business? If you do, you can't be bumped by the deadheading pilot unless it is a company emergency.

https://slate.com/business/2017/10/r...-tax-cuts.html

^^It's going to be ugly if they try to lower the 401K contribution limits, however from this article, it looks like they are trying to force it into a Roth....which I think is a much better deal anyways. But I don't trust them in future years not to decide they're going to change the rules and tax Roth withdrawals anyways.

The only gotcha is unless you are staging you are not covered by the CBA protection regarding missing a trip. I got this info from contract enforcement just a month ago and you are only covered for a trip not reserve if staging.

As long as they can hire Zoomie grads who flew B2s and U2s FDX management thinks they are offering a competitive package. I look at my passenger carrying friends junior schedules and trips and realize that their worse schedules are better than our average schedules. Our worst schedules don't exist in their bid pack.

The problem is this "train" now has momentum and is hard to stop. To stop it, the union would have to admit that they were wrong...that all of the time and money invested have not yielded a better retirement plan. Good luck getting a bunch of pilots to admit that they were wrong.

Many of the things you brought up are spot on. As I understand it, the pilot group is not the only group in the pension plan. Management is in the same (or similar) plan, correct? Why are they not scrambling to get rid of it? I guess we are "smarter" than everyone else (sarcasm).

When I came to FedEx I thought I had arrived. Never will need to dust off the resume again. Now I am not so sure. Seems like I keep getting screwed from both sides. On the one hand, I have a company that has a great business model but middle management that can't seem to make a good decision. I will just mention the entire integration of the 767 as the latest example and leave it at that. On the other hand, I have a union that sent us a contract that is already behind everyone else within 2 years of its signing and now is considering voluntarily giving away one of the only things that separates FedEx from everyone else (except UPS). I haven't been here a huge amount of time but long enough where it makes starting over difficult...and I am still tempted. If I was a newhire, I might be looking elsewhere.

The A Plan has not been improved since 1999...got it. It is dying by attrition...got it. It is too expensive to improve...got it. But $130k guaranteed for life is still a nice benefit and has a lot of bargaining power. And, it is supplemented with our B Plan that is currently negotiated to increase to 9%. The top pax airlines only offer 16%...we are more than half of that (minus the cash over the cap provision).

So, here is what you do. Every Section 6 negotiation, you increase the B Plan a little bit to offset the purchasing power the A Plan has lost since the last contract. You implement a "cash over the cap" provision (like everyone else has) so guys who hit the IRS limits don't lose money. In other words, an increased B Plan with "cash over the cap" can be used to offset the plan's decreasing value over time.

Maybe one day the A Plan will be worth so little that it will be time to freeze it but NOW IS NOT THAT TIME. $130k guaranteed is still a lot of money and will be for many years. Heck, my military pension IS adjusted yearly for inflation and is still a long way from $130k.

At the end of they day I ask a simple question...is there any other employee group in America (pilot or otherwise) that has VOLUNTARILY frozen their defined benefit plan? If so, what were the circumstances. If not...think about it!

Additionally, could it be that this agenda is being pushed by senior pilots who already have maxed out the A Plan benefit? If you have already achieved your $130k benefit, of course you don't care if the plan is frozen.

If you are a newhire, you might care but don't have any "skin in the game" yet.

It is the guys in the middle that will suffer. Is this new plan going to "buy up" these guys in the middle to account for the lost A Plan guaranteed benefit?

What? Really?
Attachment 3403

I hope the members of the MEC are prepared to be sued personally by the many us who will get screwed if this happens. ALPA has a fiduciary duty to all of the members, not just those with a maxed out high 5 and no other way to increase their already very generous retirement without ****ing everybody else over. Its Age 60 all over again, another self inflicted wound.

Unbelievable.