Severance and Retention aside, if you can assume those that won't get furloughed will still have a job, your point has merit.
But this company has a half billion in debt, 50 million in cash, will most likely lose its biggest customer in 6 months, and still has big pension obligations. It's got bankruptcy written all over it. The stock market has already concluded that; it's selling for 20 cents a share. Most likely we're ALL out of jobs, not just the ones getting furloughed.
It's just not declaring bankruptcy right now, because DHL is still paying the bills, and so we're operating at a profit. But as soon as DHL quits paying the bills, Joe will file BK. Even if he tries to keep ABX flying through BK (and why? he's got Cappy and ATI with cheaper labor, even with the new contract the union’s talking about) those that will still have a job will most certainly have lost their pension.
The severance and retention package is intended to compensate for all of those hardships, not just the ones getting furloughed before the rest of us lose.
[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']
Isn't that pretty much what the union has proposed?